Making his belated debut after earning a final bid of $2,000,000 at Keeneland September as a yearling in 2023, Jude (Uncle Mo) proved waiting for as he put in a ‘TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard’-worthy performance at Santa Anita for Bob Baffert and Zedan Racing Stables Friday.
Drawn outside his favored stablemate in second time starter Into Midnight (Into Mischief), Jude earned second billing of the three Bob Baffert-trained starters, going off at 3-1 just off the rail while Mutaz (Nyquist), also owned by Zedan, had improvement to find at odds of 13-1 on the outside.
Slow and away awkwardly with nearly the entire field sprinting by, Jude quickly found himself last under Juan Hernandez who gave the colt a quick left-handed reminder to pick it up through the opening furlong. Up front, Simple Song (Munnings) was content to lead inside a three-wide attack for Mark Glatt with Into Midnight, who was also away slowly, up to press things from third.
His reminder well taken, Jude began to roll down the inside, passing a pair of trailers into the far turn but still with plenty of room to make up to even reach the front quartet who whipped through the opening half in :44.59. Simple Song hit the quarter pole in front and looked to have the race wrapped up but Jude was still coming, cutting the corner into the stretch and hitting his best stride with a furlong to run as he tipped outside to come after the leader. Simple Song needed the wire but didn’t get it in time as Jude swept past inside the sixteenth pole to win under a hand ride.