2025 San Felipe Stakes prediction, odds, horses: Surprising picks by expert who nailed Breeders' Cup

After hitting the exacta in the Breeders' Cup Classic, Michelle Yu offers her best bets for the San Felipe Stakes 2025 at Santa Anita Park featuring three Bob Baffert horses

By CBS Sports Staff

Mar 1, 2025 at 3:04 pm ET • 2 min read

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Will the 2025 San Felipe Stakes give us a preview of this year's Kentucky Derby winner? Four winners of this Kentucky Derby prep race at Santa Anita Park have gone on to win the Run for the Roses, including California Chrome in 2014 and Authentic in 2020. Triple Crown winner Affirmed was victorious at Santa Anita Park in 1978, so there is a chance a historic run will begin at the San Felipe Stakes 2025. Post time for Saturday's race is 6:43 p.m. ET. Bob Baffert-trained Barnes is the 1-1 favorite in the 2025 San Felipe Stakes odds, followed by Rodriguez at 9-5 and Journalism at 7-2. With talented three-year-olds set to enter the starting gate on Sunday, you'll want to see what Santa Anita-based racing reporter and insider Michelle Yu has to say before making any 2025 San Felipe Stakes picks.

Few people in racing are as well-connected as Yu. An on-air host and reporter who has provided racing analysis for TVG, HRTV and the Breeders' Cup, Yu has spent a lifetime in racing. Prior to her television career, she worked for trainers Steve Asmussen and Ron Moquett. She also is married to Santa Anita-based trainer Ryan Hanson.

Yu also has tremendous handicapping chops. In a wide-open Kentucky Derby in 2021, she gave out Medina Spirit, who crossed the finish line first, as the winner at 12-1. In Pool 5 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager two years ago, she suggested a play on All Other 3-Year-Olds, which cashed at a whopping 18-1 when Rich Strike won the Derby.

Last year, Yu correctly called National Treasure to win the Pegasus World Cup, predicted Stronghold's upset win in the Santa Anita Derby and smashed the exacta in the Apple Blossom Handicap. On the Belmont Stakes undercard, she nailed National Treasure's win in the Met Mile, and had the winner and exacta in the Woody Stephens Stakes. She closed out the year by hitting the exacta in the Breeders' Cup Classic.

Now, Yu has handicapped the 2025 San Felipe Stakes lineup, made her picks and constructed her best bets. You can head to SportsLine now to see them.

Top 2025 San Felipe Stakes predictions

One surprise: Yu is fading Barnes, even though he is the heavy favorite at 1-1. The San Felipe Stakes 2025 will be the first time this son of Into Mischief will race two turns, and the expert says there is "no guarantee" he will be as successful, despite his early Kentucky Derby hype.

Barnes had success at Santa Anita in January, emerging from the solo turn before overtaking frontrunner McKinzie Street and winning by 5 1/2 lengths. Yu called him "overly impressive" in that race, and thinks his $3.2 million price tag has made the expectations of him too high. You can see all of Yu's 2025 San Felipe Stakes bets here.

How to make 2025 San Felipe Stakes picks

Yu is especially high on a favorite who "should make headlines." She is including this horse in her 2025 San Felipe Stakes bets, and so should you. She's sharing which horses to back at SportsLine.

So who wins the 2025 San Felipe Stakes? And which horse shocks Santa Anita Park? Visit SportsLine to see Yu's picks for the San Felipe Stakes 2025, all from the Santa Anita-based racing insider who nailed the Breeders' Cup Classic, and find out.