Zensational moving right along

Yes, it's early. Still four months before the Breeders' Cup, but trainer Bob Baffert just might have another Breeders' Cup Sprint winner on his hands in Zensational, impressive winner of Sunday's Grade 1 Triple Bend Handicap at Hollywood Park. He became the first 3-year-old to win the race since Debonaire Junior in 1984.

The thing about Zensational, who was running some outrageous splits when he first began, is that he's learning to relax and run more realistically early. He's showing an ability to save his best for the final part of the race, and that's a dangerous quality when you're dealing with a horse like Zensational who has so much natural speed.

"He just has that brilliant speed," Baffert said after the race. "He's getting better and he's relaxing a little bit. I told him (Victor Espinoza) to keep him out there. If you bring a horse like him to the rail, he'll just take off on you. He kept him in the middle to keep him under control. Victor is learning how to ride this horse too. He's a very difficult horse to ride."

Zensational, who set very realistic splits of 22.34 and 45.02 seconds while going gate to wire to beat Rush With Thunder by a length in the 7-furlong Triple Bend, has gone much faster early in some of his races. When he broke his maiden at Santa Anita on Feb. 21, he went 21 4/5 and 44 2/5 early on. In his last start before Sunday, in an $80,000 optional claimer, Zensational sat second early and then sped off to win handily after swift early fractions of 21 3/5 and 43 3/5.

Next up? Baffert says they are pointing the Unbridled's Song colt to the King's Bishop Stakes for 3-year-olds on Travers Stakes day at Saratoga on Aug. 29. That race is run at 7 furlongs on dirt against other 3-year-olds.

"I just don't want to run him too many times," Baffert said. "I want him fresh for the Breeders' Cup."

Baffert won the past two Breeders' Cup Sprints with Midnight Lute, a horse he called the best he's ever trained after the son of Real Quiet became the first repeat winner of the Sprint last fall at Santa Anita in what was probably Baffert's best training job ever. Midnight Lute had run only once in 2008 before the Breeders' Cup, a dismal effort in the Pat O'Brien Handicap at Del Mar, but Baffert had him cranked for the $2 million Sprint.

If you ask Espinoza, you'd probably get a thumbs up about the colt's ability to win this year's Sprint on Nov. 7.

"The way he finished today was unbelievable," Espinoza said. "This is the second time I rode him and he showed big improvement from that race to this one."