It was not a surprise that Bob Baffert won the Grade 1 $300,000 Awesome Again Stakes. After all, he had four of the eight horses in Saturday's race. What was surprising was which Baffert horse won.
Defunded, who had never won a graded stakes race, took the lead early and wouldn't give it up over the 1 1/8-mile race to win by 1 3/4 lengths and get an all-expenses-paid entry into the Breeders' Cup Classic on Nov. 5 at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky.
All eyes were on stablemate Country Grammer, who finished second to Flightline a month ago in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar. He won the $12 million Dubai World Cup this year and bettors installed him as the even-money favorite. He didn't run a bad race, finishing second. He just couldn't catch Defunded and jockey Edwin Maldonado.
