Making Turf Debut, Greenwich Village Rallies From Last And Nails Favorite Hey Nay Nay In Sunday’s Baffle Stakes For 3-Year-Olds Going About 6 ½ Furlongs On The Hillside Turf Course At Santa Anita

MAKING TURF DEBUT, GREENWICH VILLAGE RALLIES FROM LAST AND NAILS FAVORITE HEY NAY NAY IN SUNDAY’S BAFFLE STAKES FOR 3-YEAR-OLDS GOING ABOUT 6 ½ FURLONGS ON THE HILLSIDE TURF COURSE AT SANTA ANITA

ARCADIA, CA (Jan. 25, 2026)—Making his first start on turf, Greenwich Village rallied from far back in last and nailed even-money favorite Hey Nay Nay in the final strides to win Sunday’s $100,000 Baffle Stakes for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita.

Ridden by Juan Hernandez for trainer Bob Baffert, Greenwich Village was making just his third start in the about 6 ½ furlongs sprint on the hillside turf course. He also raced without blinkers for the first time.

After breaking in last, Hernandez was content to let Greenwich Village bring up the rear as 25-1 longshot Track Tiger set the pace while being stalked on both sides by Hey Nay Nay and 5-2 second choice Later Than Planned. Opening fractions were 22.41 and 44.25 seconds.

As the field passed the dirt crossing, Track Tiger and Later Than Planned were locked in a stride-for-stride duel near the rail with Hey Nay Nay making up group to their outside. Hey Nay Nay eventually grinded past those two rivals inside the sixteenth pole, but rolling on his outside came Greenwich Village. The winner surged past Hey Nay Nay near the wire to win by a neck in a time of 1:12.63.

“After I broke a little slow I said, ‘Okay I’m going to stay here and make one move,’” Hernandez said. “Crossing the dirt, he crossed like a professional and he was passing horses. I was like, okay let’s win this race. It was a really big effort for him because he is a really big horse, heavy, but he has a really good turn of foot.”

Hey Nay Nay, ridden by Hector Berrios for trainer John Sadler, finished in second by three-quarters of a length over Later Than Planned.

Greenwich Village is owned by an extensive partnership that includes SF Racing, Starlight Racing and Madaket Stables. By Quality Road, Greenwich Village is out of the Australian-bred mare Houtzen, by I Am Invincible. He was purchased for $350,000 at the 2024 Keeneland September yearling sale.

In his two previous starts, Greenwich Village won his debut going 6 ½ furlongs at Los Alamitos in December then was last of five in the GII San Vicente going seven furlongs on Jan. 10 at Santa Anita.

“Bob told me that his mom was a grass champion in Australia, so we were going to try the grass,” Hernandez said. “The horse was doing really good. He told me we took the blinkers off because sometimes he was a little rank and he was right. He won the race.”

Greenwich Village paid $11.00, $3.80 and $2.60. Hey Nay Nay returned $2.40 and $2.10. Later Than Planned, with Tiago Pereira up for trainer Phil D’Amato, paid $2.40.

Live racing resumes Friday with an eight-race card starting at 12:30 p.m. PT.

BAFFLE STAKES QUOTES

JOCKEY QUOTES

JUAN HERNANDEZ, GREENWICH VILLAGE, WINNER: “The inside horse and outside horse kind of bumped me out of the gate but it worked out really good because this horse, sometimes he gets a little rank. After that happened, he relaxed beautifully at the back. We just made one move.
“Bob told me that his mom was a grass champion in Australia so, we were going to try the grass and the horse was doing really good. He told me we took the blinkers off because sometimes he was a little rank and he was right. He won the race. “After I broke a little slow I said, ‘Okay I’m going to stay here and make one move.’ Crossing the dirt, he crossed like a professional and he was passing horses and I was like, okay let’s win this race. It was a really big effort for him because he is a really big horse, heavy, but he has a really good turn of foot.”

NOTES: The winning trainer is Bob Baffert. The winning owners are SF Racing, LLC, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables LLC. et al.