4th-Santa Anita, $68,000, Msw, 12-26, 3yo/up, 6 1/2f, 1:16.11, ft, 1/2 length.
SHAAZ (c, 3, Uncle Mo–Miss Ocean City, by Mineshaft), the better fancied of a pair of debuting 3-year-olds for trainer Bob Baffert, overcame his inexperience and overhauled his barnmate Hopkins (Quality Road) in the dying strides to graduate by a half-length Sunday at Santa Anita. The $1.1-million topper from the 2020 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, Shaaz was not the quickest away and lingered in the latter third of the field as Hopkins set a fast pace over a track that had been yielding slow sectionals in the first few races. Wide on the turn, the Virginia-bred began to find his best stride three furlongs from home and took aim on Hopkins after a half in :45.01. He looked as if he might be able to run up the score in the final eighth of a mile, but he refused to swap his leads, weaving in an out under John Velazquez, before knuckling down in the final 50 yards to prove best as the 1-2 chalk. Q B One (Uncle Mo), the first foal out of multiple champion Beholder (Henny Hughes), finished a one-paced sixth. Shaaz, a $185,000 buyback at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, was knocked down to Donato Lanni, agent for Petersen, for the sales-topping price at Midlantic in 2020 after breezing an eighth of a mile in :10 flat. Lanni paid a sales-topping $1.8 million for Gamine (Into Mischief) at FTMMAY in 2019. Shaaz is a half-brother to Azar (Scat Daddy), GSW, $356,558, and a yearling colt by Quality Road. His dam was most recently covered by Uncle Mo's champion son Nyquist. Sales history: $185,000 RNA Ylg '19 FTSAUG; $1,100,000 2yo '20 EASMAY. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0,$40,200. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.
O-Michael Lund Petersen; B-William M Backer Revocable Trust (VA); T-Bob Baffert.
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