Forced Entry breaks into Kentucky Oaks picture in Santa Ysabel

Mar 08, 2026 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

Forced Entry wins the Santa Ysabel (G3) (Photo by Benoit Photo)

Mike Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman already have the points leader on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks, Explora, trained by their longtime associate Bob Baffert. Now the crew has another contender in Forced Entry, who broke into the leaderboard by capturing Sunday’s $101,000 Santa Ysabel (G3) at Santa Anita.

From the first crop of Charlatan, winner of a division of the 2020 Arkansas Derby (G1) for Baffert, Forced Entry pocketed 50 points toward the Oaks. She ranks fifth in the points standings behind stablemate Explora.

The complexion of the Santa Ysabel changed at the start, when 1.70-1 favorite Super Corredora totally missed the break and spotted the field several lengths. Last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) champion was hoping to bounce back from a subpar fourth in the Feb. 8 Las Virgenes S., but her poor start took her right out of her preferred running style. Once Super Corredora was unable to secure a forward position early, she never factored and wound up a tailed-off sixth.

With Super Corredora surprisingly out of the pace scenario, Baffert’s French Blue seized the initiative. French Blue, the 5-2 second choice in her stakes debut, set fractions of :23.34 and :47.57, and 1:12.18.

Forced Entry, also graduating to stakes company here, settled just off the pace in fourth. Advancing into second on the far turn, she took aim on front-running stablemate French Blue.

Baffert was poised to win his sixth straight Santa Ysabel, and 11th overall, but which one of his fillies would do the honors? Forced Entry, the 2.80-1 third choice, proved stronger.

Under hot-riding Juan Hernandez, who scored a graded stakes triple Saturday including the San Felipe (G2) aboard Baffert’s Potente, Forced Entry swept past French Blue in the stretch. The bay drove 1 3/4 lengths clear while covering 1 1/16 miles in 1:44.79.

The 22-1 Bank Shot stayed on resolutely to take second, adding 25 points to increase her total to 31. French Blue tired to third (15 points) in her first try around two turns. Piney Woods, yet another stakes debutante, checked in fourth (10 points), and Cee Drew (five points) rounded out the top five. Super Corredora sauntered home ahead of the eased My Love Caroline.

Forced Entry paid $7.60 while improving her scorecard to 3-2-0-0, $102,500. Her only loss came in her unveiling on turf, and she immediately broke her maiden when switching to the main track. Her maiden win came going a mile, and that routing experience likely gave her the edge over French Blue on Sunday.

Hernandez noted that Forced Entry used different tactics here. She went wire to wire last time, but Baffert has been conditioning her to take back early and pass horses in her works.

“She broke really sharp, I broke better than everyone,” said Hernandez, who has now won the past three runnings of the Santa Ysabel (and four in total). “Bob was working this filly kind of off the pace to see if she would like it, and she was doing pretty good in the mornings.

“I saw the inside horse wanted to go, so I just said, ‘OK, go ahead go, I’m just going to try like how they have been teaching her in the mornings, working from off the pace.’ It worked out pretty good.

“I think it was good of Bob to do that with her because the last time she went to the lead. Today, she went off the pace and she relaxed really good and wasn’t rank at all. I just made an early move because I knew the filly in front of me was a really nice filly too. I wanted to challenge her and test my filly. At the end of the race, my filly was the best today.”

Baffert mentioned that the miscue by Super Corredora affected how the race played out.

“The heavy favorite (Super Corredora), she didn’t break – she missed the break completely, and that just changed the whole race in general,” the Hall of Famer said.

“After that happened, French Blue, she was just out there cruising. She is still a really nice filly. But Forced Entry, she has been training really well. She had been training with (Triple Crown nominee) Crude Velocity who won yesterday. It’s nice when you have other nice horses to work with and keep them fit. I’m proud of the way they ran… It’s nice this time of year when you have nice fillies and you are thinking Kentucky Oaks.

“It’s good for (sire) Charlatan,” Baffert added. “He was a good horse, and they (his offspring) are finally coming around now. We have a bunch of Charlatans that look good, so it’s a big day for Charlatan.”

Bred by Stoneriggs Farm in Kentucky, Forced Entry sold to Pegram, Watson, and Weitman – the “Three Amigos” – for $375,000 as a Keeneland September yearling. Her name derives from her dam (mother), the stakes-winning Violent Times, by Violence.