So Happy Delights Connections in San Vicente Stakes

It's hard to beat trainer Bob Baffert in a Southern California stakes for 3-year-olds, but Mark Glatt pulled it off with So Happy in the $200,000 San Vicente Stakes (G2) at Santa Anita Park Jan. 10 Certainly, Baffert-trained Buetane deserved his 1-2 favoritism off a second to subsequent Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) winner Ted Noffey in the 2025 Hopeful Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course. So Happy was making only his second start and his stakes debut in the 7-furlong San Vicente, and he remained undefeated by vanquishing Buetane by 2 lengths. Mike Smith aboard So Happy wasn't the only one trying to beat Baffert trainees Buetane and Greenwich Village. Kazushi Kimura on Acknowledgemeplz took it to the other four rivals from the start, zooming to the front and setting the early fractions of :22.03 for a quarter-mile and :43.56 for a half-mile. Heading into the turn, Kimura tried to steal the race, letting Acknowledgemeplz open up to a 2 1/2-length advantage. Buetane had to come around runners, while Smith sat in third with So Happy, in the perfect spot to take over the lead from Acknowledgemeplz. Buetane, who had bumped So Happy at the start, came running late, but he couldn't catch So Happy, who stopped the timer in 1:21.12. Acknowledgemeplz finished 2 1/4 lengths behind Buetane in third. "I was really happy with the way he handled the seven-eighths because usually that's a pretty good indication they will go two turns," Smith said of the winner. "He was well within himself running underneath the wire." Glatt selected So Happy, a son of 2015 champion male sprinter Runhappy out of the Blame mare So Cunning, for $150,000 out of the 2025 Ocala Breeders' Sales March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training. He bought So Happy for Hans and Ana Maron, who race in the name of Saints or Sinners, and Robert Norman later bought into the horse in the name of Norman Stables. "He's a beautiful horse, and he just struck me as a horse that, out of a Blame mare, maybe he wouldn't be just a sprinter," Glatt said. "When you go to these sales, you try and buy athletes, you try and buy runners. You're just there to try and pick out the best ones you can for the money you have to spend and sort out the rest later." Glatt said he often takes a conservative approach and doesn't run horses early. He unveiled So Happy in a 6 1/2-furlong maiden race at Del Mar Nov. 22, and the colt scored by three-quarters of a length at 38-1. He went off as the second choice in the San Vicente, paying $7.80 to win. Leverett Miller bred So Happy in Kentucky, and the colt sold as a weaning ($12,000 at the 2023 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale), as a yearling ($20,000 at the 2024 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale), and as a 2-year-old. So Cunning, who won two of three races, is a homebred for Leverett and his late wife, Linda. The Millers also bred and raced the second dam, graded stakes-placed So Glitzy. Runhappy, who was sold to South Korea last year to continue his stud career, won the 2015 Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) and was voted an Eclipse Award that season. His progeny includes 2023 Hopeful winner Nutella Fella.