Away since October, Can the Man looked very sharp in his comeback and stamped himself as one to watch during the second half of the season while providing the Kaleem Shah / Baffert team with its’ second impressive graded stakes winner of the day after Bayern’s runaway in the G2 Woody Stevens on the east coast.

A debut graduate at 1-2 odds at Del Mar 8/17/2013, the bay rounded out the trifecta in the G1 DelMar Futurity on 9/4/2013. Fourth after attending a hot pace in the track – and – trip G1 Frontrunner Stakes on 9/28/2013, he cut back to take the six panel Speakeasy Stakes on 10/14/2013 when last seen.

The bay had fired four six furlong bullet works at Los Alamitos leading up to this, and went straight to the front as expected. He got some token pressure, but was always going comfortably on an even pace. They stacked up to his outside rounding the final turn, but Can the Man cut the corner, opened a bit of daylight passing the eighth pole and held on.

“He’s a fast horse and he is more mature now with the time off. He is a really good horse.” Trainer Bob Baffert, who said Can the Man would likely resurface in the G2 $500,000 Los Alamitos Derby on July 5th added, “This was sort of a tough spot to go in coming off a layoff and having to go two turns. He’s a classy horse. We should have a lot of fun with him from here on out.”