Baffert hopes quantity brings quality

Bob Baffert has become America's trainer. In horse racing's oldest tradition, he follows the money, the big purses, wherever they might be, from California to New York and at numerous stops in between, such as West Virginia, New Mexico and Arkansas. Wherever a purse's serried zeroes are strung out like a chorus line, Baffert is there, irrepressibly affable and glib, a ubiquitous reminder that the game at its highest level is about quality horses pursuing lucrative prizes and that, more than anything, it's all fun. And so with the Breeders' Cup purses high-stepping to the tune of $26 million, Baffert, of course, will be a conspicuous presence at Churchill Downs next weekend.

And he'll be in Louisville, Ky., with the largest contingent he ever has sent to the sport's championship event. Baffert has pre-entered 10 horses in Breeders' Cup races.

“

Whenever I get a little high on myself, she'll [his wife Jill] tell me, 'You're not curing cancer; you're training horses.'

” -- Trainer Bob Baffert

"But I don't know if it's the strongest group," the trainer said. "When you show up with Midnight Lute and Indian Blessing, that's when you're going in loaded." In 2007 at Monmouth Park, Baffert sent out Midnight Lute to win the Sprint and Indian Blessing to win the Juvenile Fillies.

"I think I'll have just one favorite [for the upcoming Breeders' Cup]," Baffert said, referring to Secret Circle, the unbeaten colt he says could "be any kind" and will probably be heavily favored in the Juvenile Sprint, the first of the Breeders' Cup races on Friday.

"And we'll have horses who have a legitimate chance," Baffert continued, "but we'll need a lot of racing luck. You always need luck in races like these."

If there were an over-under line on Baffert's Breeders' Cup victories in the two-day, 15-race event, it would probably be two. Plum Pretty, who persevered to win the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill, should again prove tough to run down in the Ladies' Classic. Euroears, who can be a bolt of lightning when he gets away cleanly from the gate, could be dangerous in the Sprint. Candrea in the Juvenile Fillies, The Factor in the Dirt Mile and Drill in the Juvenile are all contenders. Game On Dude could be an intriguing upset possibility in the Classic, the Breeders' Cup finale on Saturday.

"He just wants to get out there and go," Baffert said about Game On Dude, who won the Santa Anita Handicap in March, at the Classic distance of 1 1/4 miles, and recently won the Goodwood, also at Santa Anita, after battling through rapid fractions. Baffert explained that attempts to rein in the 4-year-old's speed were largely unsuccessful: "He won't kick home if you shut him down."

And so the plan, Baffert said, will be to let Game On Dude roll in the Classic: "If he goes too fast, we'll pay the price, but if we try it the other way, he won't finish."

Yes, Baffert could very well match or even improve on his best Breeders' Cup. Twice he has won two Breeders' Cup races and seven in his career.

A three-time winner of the Eclipse Award as the outstanding trainer, Baffert is enjoying one of his most successful seasons in recent years. Horses from his stable have earned $11.68 million, which ranks third nationally, and have won 109 races, including 37 stakes. Although based in California and a regular visitor to Kentucky, he follows the big money, wherever it might be. Baffert's horses have won three million-dollar races this year. He has sent out horses to win stakes at Prairie Meadows in Iowa, Lone Star Park in Texas, Oaklawn Park in Arkansas, Pimlico in Maryland, Sunland Park in New Mexico, Monmouth Park in New Jersey and Mountaineer in West Virginia.

"I love going to all those places," Baffert said. "Even at some of the smaller tracks, people treat you so well, and they appreciate good horses."

“

Even at some of the smaller tracks, people treat you so well, and they appreciate good horses.

” -- Trainer Bob Baffert

Most important, he's having fun again. An intuitive trainer who has an uncanny rapport with horses, Baffert hit the big time like a starburst in the 1990s. In back-to-back years, he went to Belmont Park with a horse that already had won two-thirds of the sport's most coveted and celebrated jewelry and so had an opportunity to sweep the Triple Crown.

By a nose, specifically the nose of Grindstone, Baffert missed winning an unprecedented three consecutive Kentucky Derbies. After sending out Cavonnier to that runner-up finish in 1996, Baffert won the next two Derbies, with Silver Charm and Real Quiet. He won the Kentucky Derby again in 2002, with War Emblem. And four times Baffert topped the national trainers' standings.

Having grown up on a ranch in Arizona, he briefly had pursued his dream to be a jockey, but his talent was training, and his gift an ability to listen to what racehorses could tell him in their unique language of subtleties. As he once put it, as soon as he walked through the stable gate, his IQ went up dramatically. And who could doubt it?

Suddenly the game he was born to play seemed easy for him, so easy that he reached a point where he took winning for granted and, he said, probably didn't appreciate the victories as much as he should have. He didn't appreciate them fully simply because he expected them.

At the 2001 Dubai World Cup, Baffert recalled, his wife, Jill, "was shouting her head off" for Captain Steve. "And after we won [the world's richest race], I just said, 'OK, he won.'"

Winning had become routine. Or so it seemed. And nobody appreciates routine.

"I think I got too big for my britches," Baffert said. "And all of a sudden, everything got harder, and then I lost some clients."

From 2003 through 2006, Baffert didn't win a Breeders' Cup or Triple Crown race. But somewhere along the way, he recovered his passion for the game along with his appreciation of winning. Perhaps it happened in New Mexico, or Texas, or West Virginia, where crowds would sometimes gather to see the white-haired sage or ask him to sign a program; maybe it happened at one of those racetracks where fans don't regularly see outstanding horses or witness superlative performances and so gush their appreciation whenever they do. And perhaps those fans reminded him how rewarding and special winning can ultimately be and how remarkable and generous these horses invariably are.

These days, Baffert said, Jill keeps him grounded: "Whenever I get a little high on myself, she'll tell me, 'You're not curing cancer; you're training horses.'"

And so Baffert has 10 horses aimed at the Breeders' Cup. Far from taking victory for granted, he's hoping for some luck in Kentucky. Moreover, he's quick to acknowledge the importance and patience of his clients and to heap praise on his staff. Most of all, though, he credits the horses.

The Breeders' Cup, Baffert said, is like the World Series, each race an inning in a crucial game. And having recovered his passion, he expects to be like those nail-biting fans who hang on every pitch.

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