By Ray Paulick
Take Control, an A.P. Indy colt who is the first foal produced from 2002 Horse of the Year Azeri, posted an impressive last to first victory while making his career debut for trainer Bob Baffert and owner Kaleem Shah in Wednesday’s third race at Santa Anita Wednesday.

The colt, purchased by Shah for a sale-topping $1.9 million at the 2009 Keeneland April auction of 2-year-olds in training, was the center of some controversy seven months earlier when he was listed as a $7.7 million buy-back at the Keeneland September yearling sale. He was bred by the Allen Paulson Living Trust, controlled by Michael Paulson, son of the late Allen Paulson, who bred and raced a number of champions, including two-time Horse of the Year Cigar. Pinhooker Eddie Woods sold the colt at the Keeneland 2-year-old sale.

Wearing blinkers and a shadow roll, Take Control broke well from the rail under Martin Garcia in the one-mile maiden contest on the Pro-Ride main track, fell back to last shortly after the start and remained there through fractions of :24.14 for the opening quarter, :49.61 for the half and 1:12.98 for six furlongs. He switched off the rail at the head of the stretch, moved up to fifth near the furlong grounds while racing greenly, then put in a burst of speed in the final eighth of a mile to win going away by a length and a half. The final time for the mile was1:37.64. Pacesetter Ivory Fudge finished second, with Line of David third. Take Control paid $7.60 to win as the third choice in the betting in the seven-horse field. Click here for a chart of the race.

Shah, a new client of Baffert’s, founded CALNET, a Virginia-based telecommunications comany that also does intelligence analysis. (Click here for a company profile of Shah.)

"I didn¹t think he could win first time out," said Baffert, "but he really impressed me. He was green, but he settled well and he overcame a lot of trouble. That was a good one to get; now we¹ve got our 2-year-old start out of the way. He¹ll run all day, and we¹ll let him tell us what¹s next.

"We¹re not going to ship out of town until March because the weather¹s terrible all around the country. I think we¹re seeing two stars develop here I thought Martin rode him great. He rode him like he had ice water in his veins."

Baffert, who trains the probable 2-year-old male champion Lookin at Lucky, was logging his seventh victory of the Santa Anita meeting that opened on Saturday. He also won Wednesday’s second race with Tiny Woods, a 2-year-old Roman Ruler colt racing or Legends Racing.

"He ran like he¹s supposed to,² Baffert said in the winner¹s circle. "He¹s probably a sprinter, and he¹s been training real good. We¹ve always been high on him, and I think we¹ll just stay here with him and hopefully he keeps running good."

Tags: a.p. indy, allen paulson, azeri, Bob Baffert, calnet, eclipse awards, eddie woods, kaleem shah, lookin at lucky, michael paulson, take control, tiny woods

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 30th, 2009 at 6:00 pm and is filed under California, Horse Racing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.