Baze, Kimura and Rosario penalized as Mrs. Astor retires, Gold Phoenix targets San Juan Capistrano
Tyler Baze got a one-day, $500 penalty for overusing the crop, with Kimura and Rosario also sanctioned at Santa Anita. Mrs. Astor's retirement opened the turf picture.
The headline name was wrong, but the penalty was real: Tyler Baze, not Russell Baze, was suspended for one day and fined $500 after striking Come On Om seven times, one more than the permitted limit. In a game where every mount matters, even a one-day suspension can wipe out a rider’s whole card, disrupt agent planning and leave a stain that lingers long after the ruling is posted.
Kazushi Kimura also came out of the Santa Anita rulings under discipline, receiving a suspension for careless riding. Joel Rosario drew a crop-related sanction as well, and that ruling was challenged on appeal. Rosario and Tyler Baze both appealed their crop penalties, while Kimura’s case was tied to the careless-riding call. The practical effect is straightforward: a jockey can lose rides, lose leverage with trainers and, in the tight Santa Anita colony, lose ground in a market where reputation travels fast.
The penalties arrived alongside a major turf reset. Mrs. Astor, a homebred for George Strawbridge’s Augustin Stable, was nearing the end of a career that had bloomed with five stakes wins in the previous 14 months. Her record stood at 18 starts, with 5 wins, 3 seconds and 3 thirds, and earnings of $435,235. She had been expected to point to the San Juan Capistrano Stakes before the retirement update, which immediately changed the shape of the older-horse turf division.
Her next stop now is breeding, with Upstart named as the stallion destination. That move closes the book on a mare who carved out her best work on grass and kept showing up against deeper company as the distances stretched. Her absence matters because the San Juan Capistrano loses one of its more established names at the exact moment the race begins to sort itself out.
Gold Phoenix remains aimed at the San Juan Capistrano at Santa Anita, a 1 3/4-mile turf Grade 3 that carried a $100,000 purse in 2025. The race is built for marathon specialists, and with Mrs. Astor retired, the lawn test looks even more open for the older turf horses left standing.
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