Take a look at Nevada Beach’s past performances, jockey, trainer, morning-line odds and full analysis heading into the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
This late-blooming sophomore is a bit of an enigma wrapped in a riddle. With just four career starts, he will be the most lightly raced runner in this field. He’ll also be making his first start at 10 furlongs and his first at Del Mar, so he clearly has a lot more questions over his head than answers.
He does sport some solid connections in the ownership group of the Three Amigos (Pegram, Watson and Weitman) trainer Bob Baffert, who leads all conditioners in this race with four winners (2014, 2015, 2016, 2020), and all were 3-year-olds just like Nevada Beach. And compared to many of his rivals, this son of Omaha Beach was fairly inexpensive with a $260,000 price tag as a Keeneland yearling.
He wasn’t the longest shot on the board in his Goodwood Stakes (G1) win, but he was Baffert’s longest of two at odds of 8-1 and he’s guaranteed to go off at much longer odds here.
The thing is, he’s an improving type and seems to have a good tactical turn of foot he can use depending on how the pace sets up. This is the most difficult task of his short career, but the same was said about him before his last race, which he won with good authority by 1 ½ lengths with good energy.
“He is a big, long-jumping horse,” Baffert said. “Yes, he is lightly raced, but he has run against some good horses. He is going to have to break, that is always important. We know how competitive this race is.
“Do I have the best horse? Not on paper,” Baffert continued with a laugh. “This is a very competitive field. Good horses.”
On the upswing and his ability to rate off the pace is a handy asset. He earned this chance with his gutsy Goodwood win. Doesn’t need to improve much to be a factor; not the best candidate for the win, but he’s a good one to use on the bottom of all tickets.
Notes: Baffert has started more horses than any other trainer in Breeders’ Cup Classic history, with 30. Jockey Mike Smith leads all riders with 27 winners from 153 mounts and $53,514,605 in total earnings. He has four Classic winners – Arrogate (2016), Drosselmeyer (2011), Zenyatta (2009) and Skip Away (1997)
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