A suboptimal start following a six-plus month layoff proved to be no problem for Cavalieri in Sunday\u2019s $200,000 Zenyatta (G2) going 1 1\/16 miles at Santa Anita.<\/p>\n
After tossing her head in the gate and hopping at the start, then trailing the field, 3-5 favorite Cavalieri gradually made her way to a stalking position right behind stablemate Richi (CHI) down the backstretch and then overtook that rival to prevail by 1\u00be lengths under Juan Hernandez.<\/p>\n
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With the win, Cavalieri improved to 5-for-5 for trainer Bob Baffert and owner Speedway Stables while also earning a fees-paid berth to the $2-million Breeders\u2019 Cup Distaff Nov. 1 at Del Mar.<\/p>\n
Richi, ridden by Antonio Fresu, outfooted a third Baffert-trained stablemate, 18-1 Howin, for the early lead and proceeded to set a moderate pace of :23.67 and :48 for the opening half mile. Meanwhile, Cavalieri had secured a position just to the outside of Richi after the poor start.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was acting up, she was nervous,\u201d Hernandez said of Cavalieri\u2019s poor start. \u201cIt had been a while since she had run so she was excited. Even in the post parade she was dancing a little bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut she recovered in three jumps,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
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Richi completed six furlongs in 1:11.60 and continued to lead at the eighth pole, but in the final furlong, Cavalieri surged to the front and won comfortably by 1\u00be lengths. The final time was 1:42.64.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen she missed the break I thought, \u2018Well, oh well,’ \u201d Baffert said \u201cBut we knew that she is very talented.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richi finished 2\u00bc lengths ahead of Howin in third with another 4\u00bc lengths back last year\u2019s Zenyatta winner, Sugar Fish (11-1).<\/p>\n
\u201cThey went easy the first half, so I think that helped a lot,\u201d Baffert said of Cavalieri\u2019s performance. \u201cI knew she was going to be a little rusty today. I didn\u2019t think she was going to be that rusty in the gate, but she was. This will set her up perfectly for the Breeders\u2019 Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Zenyatta was Cavalieri\u2019s first start since winning the B. Wayne Hughes Beholder Mile (G1) on March 8 at Santa Anita. A 4-year-old daughter of Nyquist, Cavalieri won her debut last August at Del Mar, cleared her first allowance condition in October at Santa Anita, then won the La Canada (G3) in January prior to the Beholder Mile.<\/p>\n
Cavalieri was purchased by Peter Fluor\u2019s Speedway Stables for $900,000 at the 2023 OBS April Sale. Sunday’s win pushed her earnings to $438,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was scared,\u201d Fluor said of the poor start. \u201cShe usually comes out straight. She jumped up into the air, but I thought it was a gallant effort for not running for six months. Bob had her conditioned beautifully. At the backstretch I started feeling better and at the top of the stretch I felt even better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cavalieri, who is out of the Stephen Got Even mare Stiffed paid $3.40 for the victory<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported by Paulick Report<\/a> on Sep 29, 2025, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Paulick Report as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A suboptimal start following a six-plus month layoff proved to be no problem for Cavalieri in Sunday\u2019s $200,000…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[20442,72111,21765,3004,75669,20445,101,56,54,55,72110],"class_list":{"0":"post-167394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-bob-baffert","9":"tag-cavalieri","10":"tag-juan-hernandez","11":"tag-racing","12":"tag-richi","13":"tag-santa-anita","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom","18":"tag-zenyatta"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}