Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Baffert’s quest for a third Crown has already begun
ARCADIA, Calif. – The gleaming colt, more than 1,200 pounds of him, strutted off a horse van on a recent Sunday afternoon and was walked into trainer Bob Baffert’s stable on the Santa Anita backstretch.
Justify was home, six weeks after winning the Kentucky Derby, four weeks after a victory in the fog of the Preakness Stakes, and a week and a day after sweeping the Triple Crown with an authoritative win in the Belmont Stakes.
Justify brought racing history back to California as Baffert’s second Triple Crown winner. Three years ago, American Pharoah ended a 37-year drought in the series and gave the Hall of Fame trainer his greatest accomplishment. Baffert is now tied with Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons – who won the Triple Crown with Gallant Fox (1930) and Omaha (1935) – as the only trainers with two Triple Crown winners.
Baffert wants more. The latest mission was achieved with Justify. The next one is beginning this summer – finding a prospect suitable for the rigors of the Triple Crown, one that could give Baffert a sixth Kentucky Derby win, an eighth victory in the Preakness, and a fourth win in the Belmont.
Perhaps the juvenile capable of such a sweep next spring is already in Baffert’s stable, as American Pharoah was at this time of 2014, or perhaps the colt will join the barn well into the fall, as Justify did last year.
“The 2-year-olds are coming in,” Baffert said on a recent morning in his stable office.
“It makes you think. I hope there are a couple of superstars.”
With Justify at Santa Anita, Baffert was ready to enjoy the recent success and plan for the colt’s starts in the second half of the year. Justify may have only a brief campaign before going to stud, most likely in 2019.
Justify is the 13th winner of the Triple Crown. Even though his sweep arrived essentially on the heels of American Pharoah, taking a small amount of luster from the achievement, Justify has been celebrated in his own right.
“People love it when history is made,” Baffert said. “I wanted his name up there, to be mentioned with the greats.”
Justify, who is unbeaten in six starts, was an unraced maiden on Valentine’s Day and did not debut until four days later. He won his stakes debut in the Santa Anita Derby on April 7, a month before the Kentucky Derby.
“It went by so fast,” Baffert said the day Justify returned to Santa Anita. “We can enjoy it now.”
At 65, Baffert says he has no desire to slow down, no interest in reducing the size of his stable, and no plan to change the focus of his operation. International events such as the Triple Crown, the Breeders’ Cup, the Dubai World Cup, and Pegasus World Cup provide ample goals for horses of all ages in his stable.
“I’m always asking, ‘How can I beat last year,’ ” Baffert said. “How can we outdo that? You have to stay on it and stay focused.”
In 2017, the stable earned $21,112,912, the first-time it surpassed $20 million. The figure soared after Arrogate won the $16 million Pegasus World Cup and $10 million
Dubai World Cup in early 2017. By comparison, Baffert’s runners through June 20 this year had earned $10,386,956.
“I get more motivated because I’m trying to beat last year,” he said. “If you have the clientele, you will have the right horses. I get to train for people that I really enjoy working with and you have their mutual respect. It takes the pressure off.
“I’m at a stage of my life they know I’m trying hard. They know I want to get them there.”
The list of prominent owners has evolved in the 27 years since Baffert made the fulltime switch to Thoroughbred racing. From the late 1980s until November 1991, Baffert had a Quarter Horse division at Los Alamitos and Thoroughbreds across town at Santa Anita. He switched entirely to Thoroughbreds the day he won three races on California Cup Day in 1991.
In those years, Baffert was stabled adjacent to the Hall of Fame trainer Charles Whittingham, who often would have a visit from his inquisitive neighbor asking about training methods.
“I would pick his brain,” Baffert said. “I’d go over there and just talk to him and ask, ‘Why did you do this and why did you do that?’ I wanted to learn. I wanted to take a crash course, coming from Quarter Horses. You have to adjust.”
At first, Mike Pegram and Hal Earnhardt were his principal owners. They are still part of the team, which over the years has included the late owners Bob Lewis, John Mabee, and Ahmed Salman. Baffert trained horses for Kaleem Shah earlier this decade – winning the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Classic with Bayern – but the two split at the end of 2016.
These days, Baffert’s client list is more diverse in a stable with more than 100 runners. Ahmed Zayat, who owned American Pharoah, has horses with Baffert. Justify is owned by an international partnership of WinStar Farm, China Horse Club, Head of Plains Partners, and Starlight Racing. China Horse Club co-owns Abel Tasman, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2017 who is trained by Baffert.
Pegram owns horses in partnership with Karl Watson and Paul Weitman, including McKinzie, the multiple stakes-winning 3-year-old who was considered Baffert’s leading hope for this year’s Triple Crown until he was sidelined by injury in late March. Baffert also trains for Juddmonte Farms and Gary and Mary West, among many others.
Those clients provide Baffert with deep pockets at yearling and 2-year-olds in training sales. Baffert leaves those sales with horses that essentially are first-round draft choices.
“We’re in a good situation and we can take advantage of that,” Baffert said.
Aided by longtime assistant Jimmy Barnes, Baffert has trained the last three champion 3-year-old males – American Pharoah, Arrogate, and West Coast – and will have a fourth with Justify.
“He’s a Hall of Famer 10 times over,” said Mike Smith, the regular rider of such Baffert-trained runners as Arrogate and Justify. “The last three or four horses he’s had would have been anyone’s Hall of Fame horse – Arrogate, American Pharoah. Those would make for a Hall of Fame career.”
For Baffert, the accomplishments have accumulated at a rate that hardly allows for reflection.
“Four years straight?” he said, when reminded of the success with 3-year-olds. “I haven’t had a chance to think about it. We’re going and going. I don’t have a chance to let it soak in.”
American Pharoah and Justify prepared for Triple Crown success in different ways. American Pharoah was the champion 2-year-old male of 2014 and the focus of the buildup to the Triple Crown.
Justify arrived in California last November, shortly after the Breeders’ Cup was held at Del Mar, and stayed with the barn’s second division at Los Alamitos for the first two months before joining Baffert’s main stable at Santa Anita in mid-January.
“One thing they have in common is they prove themselves all the time,” Baffert said of the two Triple Crown winners. “It’s like boxing – they have to do it.”
Justify had seven workouts at Los Alamitos in December and January under the direction of assistant trainer Mike Marlow.
“Mike has always been a good judge of horses,” Baffert said. “I remember him saying this could be any kind.”
Justify is expected to race only a few more times before he is retired to stud, with the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3 an obvious goal. The colt’s value dictates that the business of racing outweighs the sporting interest of keeping him in training as an older horse.
“I understand the economics of the sport and the amount of insurance you have to pay on those horses,” Baffert said. “It’s like traveling around with the Mona Lisa in the back of your car. You have to be careful. You hate to see him go, but you think, ‘Don’t get a scratch on him.’ ”
Perhaps Justify should have been Baffert’s third or even fourth Triple Crown winner. With a little luck in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Baffert would have won his first Triple Crown then.
Silver Charm, owned by Lewis, won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness and finished a half-length behind Touch Gold in the 1997 Belmont Stakes. A year later, Pegram’s Real Quiet was beaten a nose by Victory Gallop in the Belmont in his attempt to win the Triple Crown. In 2001, Point Given, owned by Salman, was fifth in the Kentucky Derby as the 9-5 favorite after a wide trip before winning the Preakness and Belmont Stakes.
“I’d like to redo it with all those horses,” Baffert said. “Real Quiet still haunts me a little bit. Point Given could have done it.
“I’m proud they all fired, and that’s all you can ask for.
“I wonder what I could have done differently. It was overwhelming for me. I’ve got more experience now. When we get a good one, we know what to do with it.”