Charlatan’s Forced Entry Too Strong in Santa Ysabel, Earns Oaks Points

[Wandering Eyes]

She rolled into the lane with all the momentum and Forced Entry (Charlatan) carried it right to her first black-type win in the GIII Santa Ysabel Stakes.

Debuted Jan. 11 at this venue in a six-furlong turf maiden, she faded to last after having to fight every step of the way, but it was a much different result when she resurfaced Feb. 1 on this main track. Out to set the pace again, they were never able to reel her back in, and Forced Entry cantered home to win easily by 7 1/4 lengths.

Stepping up into black-type, and graded, company for the first time here, the betting public gave the Bob Baffert filly a 5-2 chance to extend the conditioner's dominant streak in the race and she didn't disappoint. Content to watch the action unfold from fourth after GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies heroine Super Corredora (Gun Runner) tossed her head and missed the break, Forced Entry held her own from the two path behind :23.34 and a half-mile in :47.57.

Inching closer to French Blue (Gun Runner) to keep her honest heading into the turn, the fillies had locked horns by the five-sixteenths. Pushing ahead of that longtime leader, Forced Entry was well in command by midstretch and had more than enough left to comfortably hold 22-1 longshot Bank Shot (Game Winner) to a 1 3/4-length margin. French Blue faded to third. The 8-5 favorite, Super Corredora, finished a distant sixth while My Love Caroline (Stay Thirsty) was eased and walked off.

Baffert now claims six consecutive victories in the Santa Ysabel, and 11 overall in the race. Forced Entry earns 50 Kentucky Oaks points here, and currently sits in fifth on the leaderboard. Bank Shot (31) moved into 10th with her runner-up effort while French Blue (15) sits in 24th.

“I broke better than everyone,” said winning rider Juan Hernandez. “But Bob was working this filly from kind of off the pace to see if she could handle it, and she was going pretty good in the morning. I saw the horse inside [French Blue] wanted to go, so I just said, “OK, go ahead and go. I'm just going to try like they have been teaching her in the morning, working from off the pace.”

“The heavy favorite [Super Corredora] she didn't break, she missed the break completely and that just changed the whole race in general,” Baffert 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 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 [also] good for Charlatan. He was a good horse and [his offspring] are finally coming around now. We have a bunch of Charlatans that look good, so it's a big day for Charlatan.”

 

FORCED ENTRY ($7.60) earns 5⃣0⃣ points toward the #KentuckyOaks and @BobBaffert's 6th consecutive win in the $100,000 Santa Ysabel Stakes (G3) with @JJHernandezS19 up at @SantaAnitaPark. Congratulations to owners Pegram, Watson or Weitman on your victory with this filly by… pic.twitter.com/p9UUH3lEwB

— FanDuel Racing (@FanDuel_Racing) March 8, 2026

Pedigree Notes:

Forced Entry is the first black-type winner for her dam, a multiple stakes placed mare on the Florida circuit named Violent Times (Violence). She is the mare's second to the races, but her first winner, and she does have a yearling half-brother by American Pharoah in the wings. Violent Times is due to Constitution for 2026.

This is the female line of Brazilian Group 1 victress Verruma (Brz) (Emmson {Ire}), who was also Grade I-placed in the States as well as a graded winner of the GII Dahlia Handicap.

Forced Entry is Charlatan's first North American graded winner, while Labwah was the stallion's first group winner when she took home top honors in the G3 UAE Oaks at the end of February in Meydan. Counting this victress, the stallion has four black-type winners and a stakes-placed runner in Japan named Princess Moko.

Sunday, Santa Anita Park
SANTA YSABEL S.-GIII, $101,000, Santa Anita, 3-8, 3yo, f, 1 1/16m, 1:44.79, ft.
1–FORCED ENTRY, 120, f, 3, by Charlatan
      1st Dam: Violent Times (SW, $228,701), by Violence
      2nd Dam: Make Time, by Empire Maker
      3rd Dam: Time Reveals All, by Pulpit
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. ($375,000 Ylg '24 KEESEP). O-Michael E. Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman; B-Stoneriggs Farm (KY); T-Bob Baffert; J-Juan J. Hernandez. $60,000. Lifetime Record: 3-2-0-0, $102,500. Werk Nick Rating: A++. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree or free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Bank Shot, 120, f, 3, Game Winner–Puskita, by Indian Charlie. 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. ($47,000 RNA Ylg '24 FTKJUL; $50,000 Ylg '24 FTKOCT; $160,000 2yo '25 OBSAPR). O-WSS Racing; B-Buck Pond Farm & John Wilmot (KY); T-Ryan Hanson. $20,000.
3–French Blue, 120, f, 3, Gun Runner–Twenty Carat, by Into Mischief. 1ST BLACK TYPE, 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. O/B-Three Chimneys Farm, LLC (KY); T-Bob Baffert. $12,000.
Margins: 1 3/4, 1HF, 2 3/4. Odds: 2.80, 22.90, 2.50.
Also Ran: Piney Woods, Cee Drew, Super Corredora, My Love Caroline.
Click for the Equibase.com chart or the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.

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