The “other Baffert,” Noted and Quoted, rallies to win the Chandelier Stakes at Santa Anita.
Everyone knows — or at least they should — that, when it comes to big races, sometimes the smart idea is to bet the “other Baffert.” In Saturday’s $300,000 Chandelier Stakes (GI) at Santa Anita those who follow that rule were rewarded handsomely as the “other Baffert,”Speedway Stable LLC’s Noted And Quoted, earned her first career stakes victory by a half-length over 10 rivals and rewarded her backers with payouts of $16.80, $8.40 and $5.80 when she left the gate at odds of more than 7-1.
The diminutive daughter of The Factor spent much of the summer in the shadow of her flashy stablemate, American Cleopatra, until she broke loose with an impressive 9 ¼-length maiden score at Del Mar in early August. But a dull fourth-place effort in the Del Mar Debutante (GI) last out made her a less attractive choice for the win.
Originally Baffert had decided to send the filly to next week’s Alcibiades Stakes (GI) at Keeneland, but she was training so well at Santa Anita he decided to let her run in the Chandelier instead — a move that proved to make all the difference.
“I don’t know what happened [in the Del Mar Debutante],” Baffert said. “She was training good, but not like she had been before she broke her maiden. It wasn’t awful, but her attitude wasn’t great. But when she got here [from Del Mar], she was training so well. I thought I’d send her to Kentucky, but she was really doing so well, so I decided to run her here.”
After dueling for the early lead with With Honors through fractions of:23.29, :47.10 and 1:11.81, Noted and Quoted took her advantage from that rival at the top of the stretch and under a vigorous ride from jockey Rafael Bejarano, dug in gamely to earn the victory. After posting the mile in 1:37.73, she stopped the Teletimer in 1:44.40.
“I have to give Bob a lot of credit for this,” Bejarano said. “I have ridden both fillies and I started off wanting to ride American Cleopatra because I thought [with her pedigree] she might be the better filly. But I don’t think she wants to go two turns. Baffert told me that he thought I might want to stay on Noted and Quoted, because she was going to be prepared to run the mile and a sixteenth. And he was right. American Cleopatra was right next to me but Stewart (jockey Elliott) didn’t have enough horse and mine was the better horse today.”
With Honors held on gamely to second and was worth $10.60 and $7.60 at odds of nearly 10-1. Zappercat, the lukewarm 5-2 favorite, paid $3.80. The exacta was good for $63.10 and the $.50 trifecta was worth $152.80.
Champagne Room, Lake Time, Bitzka, Nikki My Darling, American Cleopatra, Demigoddess, Datz a Violation and Mistressofthenight completed the order of finish after Princess Coco was withdrawn.
Next stop for Florida-bred Noted and Quoted, according to Baffert, will be the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (GI) in five weeks.
