Baffert: Kentucky Derby is still a wide-open race
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Bob Baffert is feeling the pressure now. The five-time Kentucky Derby winner finds himself with new favorite Game Winner after Omaha Beach was scratched with a breathing problem Wednesday evening.
“Oh, boy, here we go,” the white-haired trainer said Thursday to a throng outside his barn at Churchill Downs. “I think everybody is trying to jinx me. It’s still a very wide-open race.”
The field for Saturday’s race could lose another horse, too.
Haikal, a 30-1 shot trained by Kiaran McLaughlin, is being treated for an abscess in his left front foot. The Gotham Stakes winner didn’t train Thursday and soaked in Epsom salts to reduce the accumulation of pus in his infected foot. If Haikal can’t train again today, McLaughlin said he would be out of the race. The deadline to scratch is this morning.
No matter how much he tries to deflect the attention, Baffert holds a strong hand heading into the first leg of this year’s Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. Game Winner is the 9-2 early favorite, and Baffert’s two other entries, Improbable and Roadster, are the co-second choices at 5-1.
A sixth victory would tie him for the most wins by a trainer in the Kentucky Derby’s 145-year history.
“I don’t think there’s a heavyduty favorite now,” he insisted.
Instead, he tried to sic the media on Jason Servis, who trains Maximum Security. The Florida Derby winner is a 10-1 shot.
“He should be the favorite,” Baffert said. “He’s a horse that nobody is talking about and that’s a horse that I’m worried about. He’s run faster than we have. Put the pressure on Jason, will you?”
Over at his barn, Servis empathized with Omaha Beach trainer Richard Mandella and Rick Porter, the horse’s 78-yearold owner, their Derby hopes dashed a day earlier. However, he was glad to see jockey Mike Smith knocked out of the race. The 53-year-old Hall of Famer is a crafty rider who won a year ago with Justify.
“I was really happy about that, especially having him outside of me,” Servis said, alluding to Smith’s ability to have possibly prompted Maximum Security into a quickerthan-desirable early pace.
Baffert said he gave no thought to replacing Florent Geroux aboard Roadster with Smith, who initially chose to ride Omaha Beach over Roadster in the Kentucky Derby.
“I would never do that to the riders,” said Baffert, who broke into racing as a jockey.
Meanwhile, Omaha Beach was set to have surgery Thursday to fix the entrapped epiglottis that has affected his breathing.
The minor procedure at a nearby clinic in Lexington will require two to three weeks of recovery, enough time to knock the colt off the Triple Crown trail, which continues with the Preakness Stakes on May 18 at Pimlico Racecourse in Baltimore and the Belmont Stakes on June 8 at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. He’s expected to race this summer.