When the GII Los Alamitos Futurity–formerly the Hollywood Futurity, which was also known for a time as the CashCall Futurity–was renamed in 2014, perhaps it should have been labeled as the Bob Baffert Futurity, as the Hall of Famer has now won the race a record 15 times since 1997, including seven straight from 2014 to 2020. To put an exclamation point on his domination in the race, the silver-haired trainer finished one-two-three Saturday, with 3-5 choice Litmus Test (c, 2, Nyquist–Study Hard, by Malibu Moon) bringing home a Baffert trifecta in front of a closing Blacksmith (Liam’s Map) and ‘TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard’ Provenance (Into Mischief).Litmus Test, looking like a powerhouse just waiting to be asked with neck neatly bowed, got a perfect stalking trip behind his stablemate. Acknowledgemeplz recovered to track from the outside in third with Blacksmith–a highly regarded maiden–moving easily to his inside.
Litmus Test earned 10 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby with the win. He got the 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.38, more than a full second faster than eventual MGISW Journalism (Curlin)’s time in his victory in the race last year.
“Down the backside [Litmus Test] looked like he was traveling easy,” said Baffert. “Juan [Hernandez] said the farther the better for him. He loves his stride. A lot of horses just get over this track really well. I’m happy. I cut his blinkers back just a tad because he was looking around a little bit. You’re trying to figure these horses out, what their style is or the way they want to run, but there’s nothing like a race. He’s getting better and the way he’s bred he’s going to get better with age. He’s a horse we’ve always been very high on.”
A $875,000 purchase by Donato Lanni at the 2024 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale, Litmus test campaigns for SF Racing LLC, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Stonestreet Stables, Diane Bashor, Determined Stables, Golconda Stable, Waves Edge Capital LLC, and Catherine Donovan.Litmus Test broke his maiden in a good-looking debut sprinting 5 1/2 furlongs at Del Mar in August, then jumped into the deep end. After a fourth in the GI Del Mar Futurity behind ‘TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard’ and $3-million OBS graduate Brant (Gun Runner) in the GI Del Mar Futurity, he shipped to Keeneland to finish third behind champion-elect and additional ‘TDN Rising Star’ Ted Noffey (Into Mischief) in the GI Breeders’ Futurity. He was last seen finishing fourth in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile behind that same rival. His 95 Beyer Speed Figure in the Juvenile marked the highest previous figure among all six Los Alamitos Futurity runners Saturday.