A lightly raced, once-pricey juvenile trained by Bob Baffert won the GIII Palos Verdes S: the $300,000 OBS April 2-year-old Essential Wager (Honor Code) who was making his stakes debut after riding a two-race win streak. “This horse is getting better and better, he had trained really well,” said Baffert. “All of Essential Wager’s races have been pretty impressive and actually, he’s bred not to be a sprinter. [Rider] Abel [Cedillo] did a great job, got him outta there and held off those horses pretty well. He took a lot of heat early and kept going.”
