Bottle of Rouge solidified her status among the top 3-year-old fillies with a tenacious 1 1/2-length victory in the $250,000 Sunland Park Oaks at Sunland Park Feb. 15.
Winner of the Del Mar Debutante Stakes (G1) in September, the daughter of Vino Rosso came into the race off a sixth-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) for trainer Bob Baffert and his wife, owner Jill Baffert.
The Doug O'Neill-trained Cashed, the early race leader through fractions of :23.85 and :46.80, gave way to Bottle of Rouge midway through the final turn. Pashmina and Coffee Connection fought gamely down the stretch with Touch of Magic making a bold move on the outside to get up for second while Pashmina took show honors.
In the stretch as Bottle of Rouge pulled away, she veered to the right under Juan Hernandez, impeding the path of Pashmina, resulting in a stewards' inquiry and an objection made by Pashmina's jockey, Cristian Torres. Hernandez straightened the filly out and rode a straight path to the wire. After review, the stewards declared no change to the order of finish.
The Baffert trainee finished the 1-mile race in 1:35.82. She paid $2.80 to win.
Bottle of Rouge became Baffert's ninth Sunland Park Oaks winner. Her victory earned her 20 points on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks (G1). The race offered qualifying points to the top-five finishers on a scale of 20-10-6-4-2.
The filly was bred in Kentucky by Kathie Maybee out of the Bluegrass Cat mare Blues Corner. She was offered at public auction twice, bringing $60,000 as a weanling at the 2023 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale and $100,000 as a yearling at Keeneland's September Yearling Sale when purchased by Big Sky Racing.
