Derby can’t escape Baffert
Two of banned trainer’s horses, Taiba and Messier, top contenders
Banned for two years from Churchill Downs and suspended 90 days by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert is absent from Saturday’s 148th running of the Kentucky Derby.
But two of his horses, Taiba and Messier, are prime contenders in the 20-horse field. They are being trained by Tim Yakteen — a former Baffert assistant — at least until the suspension ends July 2.
Taiba and Messier earned their way into the Kentucky Derby by finishing 1-2 in the Santa Anita Derby on April 9 in their first starts for Yakteen.
Messier is a prototypical Baffert horse, speedy and experienced with three wins and three seconds from six starts. His jockey, John Velazquez, is particularly adept at getting such a horse to make the lead even in a speed-laden field and go on to victory (see Authentic in the 2020 Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic and Medina Spirit in the 2021 Derby).
Medina Spirit was later disqualified from the Derby win — which would have been Baffert’s record-setting seventh — because of a medication violation. That prompted the two-pronged action against Baffert. Medina Spirit died of an apparent heart attack earlier this year.
Taiba is more of a wunderkind, and what he has done in just two starts — wins in a 6-furlong maiden event and a 11⁄8-mile Grade 1 race in just four weeks — is jaw-dropping.
But an even greater feat awaits Taiba: Only one horse, Leonatus in 1883, has won the Kentucky Derby off of just two prior starts. And no horse has done it having made both prior starts as a 3-year-old (Leonatus raced once at 2 and once at 3 before the Derby).
Yakteen has never run a horse in the Kentucky Derby and owned only three Grade 1 wins before Taiba’s Santa Anita Derby. But he has some Kentucky Derby experience assisting Baffert and, before that, Charlie Whittingham.
“Taiba is just a super horse,” Yakteen said. “And Messier is on target.”
Yes, Taiba might be the most talented horse in Saturday’s 1¼-mile race, but 19 opponents and a contestedpace scenario will be a lot different from his in-the-clear outside journey in a six-horse Santa Anita Derby field.
So if his lack of seasoning does him in, and Messier doesn’t get the job done, either, there are other likely winners.
Epicenter has four wins and a loss by a head in his five two-turn races and showed a new dimension in coming from off the pace for an authoritative win in the Louisiana Derby. His trainer, Steve Asmussen, has the most
wins in North American racing history (9,727 going into Friday), but is 0-for-23 in the Kentucky Derby with two seconds and two thirds.
Of course, 12 of Asmussen’s Derby horses went off at odds of 30-1 or higher and only four at 10-1 or lower. Epicenter is the 7-2 second choice in the morning line for Saturday’s race, with only Zandon lower, at 3-1. Epicenter beat Zandon in the Risen Star Stakes before Zandon won the Blue Grass Stakes.
“I’m good at getting horses here,” Asmussen said. “Some of them weren’t fast enough. Epicenter is very consistent with his temperament and his stride. We are just wanting more of the same, just a little faster, which is what he has done in every one of his starts this year and there is no reason he shouldn’t carry on.”
White Abarrio has won four of his five races including the Holy Bull Stakes and Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park — his only loss coming in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill Downs.
Crown Pride added to the recent worldwide success of Japanese horses when he won the UAE Derby on Dubai World Cup Day — four other Japanese horses won on that program. Japan celebrated its first two Breeders’ Cup victories Nov. 5 at Del Mar, won the top two races in Hong Kong in December and captured four races on the Saudi Cup program in February. Why not the Kentucky Derby?