Sabino Canyon breaks maiden in Los Alamitos Derby upset

Sabino Canyon turned a maiden tag into a Derby trophy at Los Alamitos Race Course, winning the $100,000 Los Alamitos Derby on June 27 in 1:50.45 and forcing a fresh look at how high this 3-year-old colt can climb. Ricardo Gonzalez guided the Maxfield colt to a half-length upset over the favored Start the Ride, who arrived off a January win in the California Cup Derby at Santa Anita.

The victory came in race 9, which went off at 5:17 over 1 1/8 miles on dirt with five 3-year-olds in the field. Sabino Canyon, owned by Michael Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman, paid $5.60 to win and $2.60 to place while collecting the $60,000 winner’s share. That pushed his record to three starts, one win and $64,400 in earnings, a line that now looks less like a work in progress and more like a colt that has finally found his level.

The way he won mattered as much as the result. Horse Racing Nation reported that Sabino Canyon pressed the pace from the outside through quarter-mile fractions of 22.71 and 48.31 seconds, then stayed engaged through six furlongs in 1:13.05 and a mile in 1:37.62 before re-rallying late to hold off the challengers. Daily Racing Form noted that Gonzalez said the colt was “waiting around,” and that he became more focused after the rider showed him the whip on the turn. Bob Baffert assistant Mike Marlow said, “We just kind of threw this horse in there,” a telling line for a horse that was still a maiden heading into a Listed stake.

The win extended Baffert’s remarkable Los Alamitos Derby run to 10 straight, a streak that began with West Coast in 2017 and continued through Once On Whiskey, Uncle Chuck, Classier, High Connection, Reincarnate, Wynstock and Nevada Beach. It was also the fifth Los Alamitos Derby victory for the Pegram, Watson and Weitman partnership, which has now built a deep track record at the meet. For Gonzalez, it was his first stakes win for Baffert, and for Sabino Canyon, the $575,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase now carries a profile that points beyond a single summer surprise.

By beating an established rival like Start the Ride while stretching to a route for the first time in stakes company, Sabino Canyon moved from promising colt to realistic late-summer player. The son of Maxfield out of Broadway Play left Cypress with more than a trophy. He left with a ceiling that suddenly looks much higher.