Hughes wins Juvenile by 2¼ lengths, joins Street Sense and Nyquist on short list

Only two horses in 42 years have won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and the following spring's Kentucky Derby.

Hughes joined that exclusive group on Friday at Keeneland. He won the $2 million race by 2¼ lengths. The 1 1/16 mile time was 1:42.27. His victory marked his fifth win in five starts. The colt has won three straight Grade 1 races. His first four victories came by a combined 24½ lengths.

The win gave trainer Bob Baffert his seventh victory in the Juvenile. It also gave him his 22nd Breeders' Cup win. That ties Aidan O'Brien for the all-time record. O'Brien had broken the tie one race earlier. Baffert has won six Kentucky Derbies. A seventh, Medina Spirit, was disqualified after testing positive for a prohibited medication.

Jockey Flavien Prat kept Hughes close to the lead through a half-mile in 46.65 seconds. Coach Pope, trained by Kenny McPeek, challenged Hughes approaching the stretch. Baffert said the colt had never been battle tested. He noted that Hughes caught another gear when the pressure arrived. American History finished second. Baffert's other horse, Salahudin, finished third.

The Juvenile has historically been a poor predictor of the Kentucky Derby winner. Since 1984, 109 Juvenile runners have started in the Derby. Six won. Nine finished second. Nine finished third. Baffert had won the Juvenile six times before Friday. None of those horses won the Derby. Game Winner finished fifth in 2019. Citizen Bull was 15th last year.

Hughes is a son of Into Mischief. His sire produced Derby winners Authentic, Mandaloun, and Sovereignty. The colt is owned by Front Row Club, a group founded by Tom Ryan. Ryan works with Baffert and bloodstock agent Donato Lanni to find promising colts. Ryan named the horse after Jack Hughes, the New Jersey Devils player who scored the winning goal for the United States in Olympic hockey gold earlier this year.

Ryan said family pressure played a role in the naming. His wife is a Hughes. The colt is undefeated. Baffert said everyone who rides Hughes compares him to a cheetah. He noted that the horse skips over the ground and never takes a deep breath. Baffert said the four colts in the race are very good. He expects to hear a lot about them next spring.