Broken Sword Wins The Bayakoa

Fiftyshadesofhay wanted to be racing near the front right out of the gate of the $150,000 Grade II Bayakoa Stakes at Hollywood Park on Saturday. Instead she bobbled a bit at the start and it may have cost the even-money favorite the race, because from that point her trip was an adventure. Ultimately she’d finish second, beaten 4 1/4 lengths by 8-1 Broken Sword, who opened daylight on the field right out of the gate and then found more in the stretch under a smart ride by Joel Rosario.

Broken Sword showed promise first time last year

The Bayakoa, for three-year-old and up fillies and mares, run over 1 1/16 miles, is the first stakes win for Broken Sword. It’s her second victory in a row, but the previous was a $25,000 AOC race at Golden Gate where she was the favorite. Prior to that she was zero-for-five in 2013, after winning a minor stake by more than 11 lengths first time out last year, the only time she ran as a two-year-old.  She now has three wins and three thirds, in eight lifetime starts.

Fiftyshadesofhay was game in defeat

Fiftyshadesofhay, meanwhile, had put three graded-stakes wins on her resume already this year, and had hit the board in her last seven straight. She has four wins lifetime. Third place in the race went to third choice in the betting in the form of Warren’s Veneda, who went off at 7-2. She came into the Bayakoa off a win in the Cat’s Cradle Handicap at Hollywood, and this was her first graded-stakes attempt. The winner paid $17.80, with the $2 exacta $55.60 and the $1 5-3-2 trifecta paying $76.30.