Baffert has long history at meet

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Bob Baffert insists he doesn’t hate Saratoga.

The Hall of Fame trainer hasn’t raced much at the Spa in recent years, having started just a handful of horses the last few meets and electing to send his top assistant, Jimmy Barnes, here with those horses rather than make the cross-country trip himself. Baffert, 62, has cut down on his travel since suffering a heart attack in March 2012.

Overall, Baffert has a solid record at Saratoga – 21 for 97. Since 2009, however, he’s won only six races from 43 starters here and is just 2 for 34 in stakes. Contested’s win in the Grade 1 Test in 2012 was his last winner at Saratoga.

Baffert sent some horses here because he didn’t want to run them over the synthetic surface that was in place at Del Mar. That track switched to dirt this year.

Still, Baffert’s eight stakes wins at Saratoga since 1999 include Grade 1 staples such as the Travers, Alabama, King’s Bishop, Forego, and two Tests. So, what’s not to like?

“I don’t know where that came from,” Baffert said of his supposed disdain for Saratoga. “I hear it. Where did that come from? Maybe I need to give all those trophies back.

“First of all, it’s during Del Mar. It’s hard to go back there when you’re here. It’s tough to get to Saratoga. They say I don’t want to travel because of my health, but I can send Jimmy and watch from here. We both don’t have to be there.”

Baffert will be here Saturday when his Triple Crown winner, American Pharoah, runs in the $1.6 million Travers Stakes. It is Baffert’s first trip here to watch one of his horses race since 2011, when Coil finished 10th in the Travers.

American Pharoah arrived at Saratoga on Wednesday afternoon, and Baffert and his family were to follow Thursday.

Since Point Given won it in 2001, the Travers has not been kind to Baffert. Roman Ruler finished third in the race in 2005. In three of the last four years, Baffert has run Coil, Liaison (ninth in 2012) and Bayern (last in 2014) in the Midsummer Derby.

Roman Ruler, Baffert believes, “would have been better to turn back to one turn” in the King’s Bishop. But that was the year Lost in the Fog was a 3-yearold, and he dominated the King’s Bishop en route to being crowned champion sprinter.

In 2011, Coil, coming off a neck victory in the Haskell Invitational, finished last in the Travers behind Stay Thirsty. Baffert said running Coil was probably a mistake as he turned out to be a Grade 1 winner at six furlongs.

“Most of the Travers runs are stallion moves,” Baffert said. “We’re trying to make stallions out of them.”

In 2012, Liaison finished third in the Jim Dandy Stakes but ran ninth in the Travers behind Alpha and Golden Ticket, who dead-heated for the win. Baffert said Liaison underwent knee surgery following the Travers.

Last year, Bayern won the Haskell by 7 1/4 lengths, which followed a 7 1/2-length victory in the seven-furlong Woody Stephens Stakes at Belmont Park. Baffert said part of the thinking of running Bayern in the Travers was to make a run at the 3-year-old championship after dual classic winner California Chrome lost his Triple Crown bid in the Belmont Stakes.

“We thought if he could have won the Travers and the Breeders’ Cup, maybe we could be champion,” Baffert said. “We got a little aggressive.”

By virtue of his Triple Crown sweep and Grade 1 victories in the Haskell and Arkansas Derby, American Pharoah is a lock for 3-year-old champion and most likely the Horse of the Year as well.

With American Pharoah, Baffert hedged about the Travers all the way until Sunday, when the horse worked a sensational seven furlongs at Del Mar. Owner Ahmed Zayat had expressed a strong desire to run in the Travers, but Baffert wanted to make sure the horse was in perfect condition before committing.

“I didn’t want to say, ‘ Yes, we’re going to come,’ and then let people down,” Baffert said. “I didn’t want people to spend their summer savings to go up there to watch him run and he wouldn’t be able to show up.”

Baffert has previously said that when pointing to the Travers, it’s beneficial to have a race over the track, such as the Jim Dandy. But he also believes an exceptional horse can do anything, and American Pharoah is exceptional.

“Point Given and Pharoah are the two best horses I feel like I ever trained,” Baffert said. “I could get away with it and run them in those spots because they’re just really good horses.”

Baffert has sent some of his other really good horses to Saratoga to win prestigious races. Silverbulletday won the 1999 Alabama, and Midnight Lute won the 2007 Forego.

Silverbulletday, Baffert said, “was so awesome.”

“She’d make that Beholder move and put everybody away,” he said. “And when Midnight Lute won the Forego, that was fun.”

It was also fun for Baffert to come to Saratoga when Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel was still alive. Frankel, who also trained in California, died in 2009.

“The only time I talked to Bobby Frankel was when we’d come to Saratoga,” Baffert said. “Frankel would take me to different places to dinner, tell stories. It was fun. To me, it wasn’t the same [when he died]. If he was still alive, I’d be going up there more.”

Well, Baffert and his Triple Crown winner are here this weekend.

If things go as expected, a good time should be had by all.