Queen Maxima

GI Kentucky Derby third-place runner Baeza (McKinzie) returned to the work tab Friday at Santa Anita with an easy four-furlong drill in :53.60 (43/43) for trainer John Shirreffs. He was joined on the tab by fellow 3-year-old Barnes (Into Mischief) who also worked four furlongs (:48.00 {6/43}) for the first time since finishing last of five in the GI Santa Anita Derby April 5 for trainer Bob Baffert. After choosing to skip Saturday's GI Preakness Stakes, Baeza is slated to start next in the GI Belmont Stakes at Saratoga June...

A total of 772 2-year-olds in training and additional horses of racing age have been catalogued for the OBS June Sale, newly consolidated over the course of two sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday, June 17 and 18 beginning each day at 10 a.m. ET. Five under-track previews are scheduled between June 10 and 14, with a start time of 7:30 a.m. ET The opening day of the sale will see hips 1-386 plus supplemental entries go under the hammer with the session on June 18 encompassing hips 451-833, along with...

Queen Maxima (Bucchero) is a 'princess' in the barn but a 'tiger' on the track in the estimation of trainer Jeff Mullins, who registered his first graded-stakes victory beyond the borders of California since 2017 when the Florida-bred 4-year-old filly overwhelmed her rivals in Friday's GIII Unbridled Sidney Stakes at Churchill Downs. The final time of 1:01.29 establishes a new course record, despite significant rainfall that resulted in a downgrade of the turf from firm to good for the 5 1/2-furlong dash. A filly speedy enough to make the running,...

Queen Maxima (Bucchero) validated odds of 1-5 in Saturday's GIII Monrovia Stakes down the hill at Santa Anita, winning for the fourth time in succession and for the fifth time in her eight career starts. Making her graded stakes debut following a facile success in the restricted Wishing Well Stakes over the flat six-furlong course on Feb. 22, the $40,000 OBS June graduate was last to load and first out of the gates and, having shown versatility in terms of running style, was allowed to make the running beneath leading...

Queen Maxima, featured earlier this week on these pages and last seen Jan. 23 registering a facile 3 1/2-length score versus allowance company on the downhill turf course here, put forth a similar display over a sixteenth shorter in her return to stakes competition in Saturday's Wishing Well Stakes at Santa Anita. Second last Sept. 28 in the Unzip Me Stakes to Toupie (Uncle Mo), who proved victorious in the GIII Las Cienegas Stakes Jan. 19, Queen Maxima, sent off at 3-10, drubbed her five foes after biding her time...

For about a decade and a half, Mike Pender punched well above his weight as a trainer on the ultra-competitive Southern California circuit, winning Grade I races with modestly bred and moderately priced runners like Ultimate Eagle (Mizzen Mast) and Jeranimo (Congaree), each acquired for $70,000 out of the breeze-up sales on behalf of his client B.J. Wright. About a year after saddling Lombo (Graydar) to an 8-1 upset in the 2018 GIII Robert B. Lewis Stakes, Pender switched gears and entered the bloodstock arena, but without the same level...

10th-Del Mar, $77,500, Msw, 8-10, 3yo/up, f/m, 5fT, :57.42, fm, 1 3/4 lengths. QUEEN MAXIMA (f, 3, Bucchero--Corfu Lady, by Corfu), off at a firming 5.70-1 while making a belated first trip to the races, overcame a couple of spots of adversity to post an extremely impressive victory in the Saturday finale at Del Mar. Drawn the fence, the $40,000 OBS June graduate bombed the start and was clearly last early before making some ground to be about midfield into the turn. Traveling strongly and full of run passing the...