After Hudson Ridge suffered an unlucky defeat in a May 1 maiden race, Bob Baffert saw enough in the 3-year-old colt to run in Sunday's $100,000 Cinema S. at Santa Anita Park.

The son of American Pharoah, owned by Baffert's wife Jill and Double L Racing, responded with a gritty 1 1/4-length victory in the 1 1/8-mile turf contest.

Hudson Ridge, in the outside post in the field of five, was forced wide out of the gate but recovered to settle in third going into the first turn. He inherited the second spot when Hubris was eased entering the backstretch. Hudson Ridge came up to and passed Jimmy Irish with a quarter mile to run, then dug in to hold off the oncoming Sword Zorro (IRE) in the lane.

The final time was 1:45.06 on the firm turf.

“I gotta give Abel’s agent, Tom Knust the credit for this one,” said Baffert. “I nominated for the race, but I wasn’t planning on running here and he said we should, that the horse had trouble last time and that he’d fit well with these horses.”

Baffert won the Santa Maria S. (G2) on Saturday with As Time Goes By, giving him a weekend stakes double with offspring of American Pharoah.