Trainer Bob Baffert not only won a record 18th Del Mar Futurity (G1) when Gaming crossed the wire in front, he was winning a fifth edition of the race for his longtime client and friend Mike Pegram. Four of those included partners Karl Watson and Paul Weitman.
As usual, Baffert corralled the Futurity with multiple entries, in this case a triumvirate sent away as the top three betting choices. Gaming was the longest shot of the threesome and cost the least, but on this day he proved much the best.
When the gate opened in the seven-furlong Futurity, Getaway Car took the lead, as he had in his first two races for Baffert when he won a maiden race and the Best Pal Stakes (G3) by daylight. In this instance, however, longshot Brother Tony engaged Getaway Car, and those two raced heads apart as Getaway Car ran the first quarter-mile in :21.85.
Flavien Prat, aboard Gaming, didn't rush his mount, who was nearly last of the seven early after breaking from post 2.
"He relaxed well," Prat said. "He was a bit on his toes before the race, so I kept him quiet."
Once Gaming got into a good rhythm, Prat allowed him to sneak up the rail, and they were soon running in second behind Getaway Car. That position put Gaming in a good spot to come around Getaway Car at the five-sixteenths pole. Gaming took the lead turning for home, drew clear in upper stretch, and flashed under the wire 1 3/4 lengths on top in 1:23.02. Gaming then galloped out strongly.
McKinzie Street closed well for second, finishing four lengths ahead of Citizen Bull, the third Baffert trainee, in third. They were followed by Getaway Car, R Heisman, Rank, and Brother Tony.
"Bob told me just don't rush him and he'll come with a run, and that's what he did today," Prat said.
Prat traveled to Southern California for the Futurity instead of riding at Kentucky Downs, also piloting An Chorr Dubh to an unplaced effort in the Del Mar Juvenile Turf Stakes. The jockey was winning his third Futurity, earlier taking the race with Dr. Schivel in 2020 and Prince of Monaco last year. Baffert trained Prince of Monaco.
"You're always concerned when you draw the one, two—but Prat, he's smart," said assistant trainer Jimmy Barnes. "He let the other ones go. He let him drop back a little bit, picked a spot up the rail and to the outside, and he was on his way."
Gaming followed Cave Rock in 2022, Drill in 2011, and Lookin At Lucky in 2009 as the fourth Del Mar Futurity winner trained by Baffert for Pegram, Watson, and Weitman. Baffert also won the race in 2002 with Icecoldbeeratreds, bred and owned by Pegram, who goes back to Baffert's Quarter Horse days with him. Pegram's Real Quiet, trained by Baffert, missed winning the Triple Crown by a nostril in the 1998 Belmont Stakes (G1).
Baffert's 18 Futurity winners include Game Winner , the sire of Gaming, who won the race in 2018. It is the first time Baffert has trained a second generation to win the Futurity, and Gaming is Game Winner's first stakes winner.
Baffert, who won a record 10th Del Mar Debutante (G1) the day before with Tenma, was in Kentucky all weekend preparing for the Keeneland September yearling sale. All three of Baffert's Futurity runners came out of that sale last year. Gaming sold out of the Lane's End consignment for $40,000 to Pick View, which pinhooked him into the 2024 Ocala Breeders' March 2-Year-Olds in Training sale. Pegram, Watson, and Weitman bought Gaming for $250,000 in the name of Three Amigos at the OBS sale.
Mt Brilliant Farm & Ranch bred Gaming in Kentucky from the Johannesburg mare So Stylish, a stakes-placed runner in Ireland. The mare is a half sister to European champion One Cool Cat, and she has a full brother to Gaming in the upcoming Keeneland yearling sale consigned as Hip 3051 by Lane's End.
Gaming is from the first crop of Game Winner, who also won the 2018 Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) and American Pharoah Stakes (G1) in addition to the Futurity en route to being named that year's Eclipse Award-winning 2-year-old male. The stallion stood for a 2024 stud fee of $20,000 at Lane's End near Versailles, Ky.
