Uncle Mo’s Bast Adds Third Grade I Win to Record

Bast (2f Uncle Mo x Laffina, by Arch) added a third Grade I win to her resume this year when leading home an Uncle Mo 1-2 in the Grade I Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos on Saturday.

Bast had a slender lead over fellow Uncle Mo filly Donna Veloce throughout the 1 1/16 mile Grade I with the rest of the field right behind them. Drayden Van Dyke urged Bast on as they entered the stretch with Donna Veloce drawing even and setting up an exciting duel for the stretch run. Both fillies were running hard to the line with Bast edging ahead inside the final furlong to win by half length over Donna Veloce with the rest of the field 12 lengths behind them.

It was the third career victory for the Bob Baffert-trained filly, who has won Grade Is in all three of her career wins with a third in the Grade I Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies last out.

“We knew when we got her on this dirt surface she would love it and she just bounced over it,” Baffert told Thoroughbred Daily News. “Turning for home I was confident because she had been doing so well and her last work was so strong. She looked great in the paddock today.”

Purchased by racing owner Baoma Corporation at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale for $500,000 last year after selling as a weanling for $200,000, the filly was bred by BlackRidge Stable.

Bast is out of a half-sister to Grade II winner Mananan Mclir and the dam of Grade I winner Fault with 14 horses under her first two dams.

It’s been a stellar day for top sire Uncle Mo who also sired two runaway juvenile maiden winners at Tampa Bay Downs today. Bast is Uncle Mo’s second Grade I winner in two weeks following Mo Forza’s victory in last week’s Grade I Hollywood Derby.