A year after Triple Crown, Baffert back with 3 favorites
Trainer Bob Baffert needs one more victory in the Kentucky Derby to tie Ben Jones’ record of six, and Baffert has the three morning-line favorites for Saturday’s race at Churchill Downs: Game Winner (9-2), Improbable (5-1) and Roadster (5-1).
Game Winner and Improbable each finished second in both starts this year after combining to win all seven races in 2018, when the former was the nation’s champion 2year-old.
The later-developing Roadster has won three of four starts and beat Game Winner by a half-length in the Santa Anita Derby as both finished strongly.
“It’s a tough Derby this year,” said Baffert, who’s won it with Silver Charm (1997), Real Quiet (1998), War Emblem (2002) and Triple Crown champions American Pharaoh (2015) and Justify (2018). “We’re fortunate to have three in there. There’s a lot of parity.”
The strongest competition for Baffert’s three would have been Omaha Beach, the original 4-1 morning-line favorite who edged Game Winner by a nose in the second division of the Rebel Stakes and beat Improbable by 1 length in the Arkansas Derby.
Omaha Beach, though, had to be scratched because of an entrapped epiglottis — a throat condition requiring a simple surgery that will keep him out of training for 2-3 weeks.
“That’s why when everyone is like, ‘You don’t seem that excited,’ it’s because I know what can happen,” Baffert said. “We’re all on pins and needles the whole way. Until I get that saddle on them and throw the jockey up, that’s when my job is done.”
Even without Omaha Beach, contention runs deep for Saturday’s 1¼-mile race as the field of 20 includes undefeated Florida Derby winner Maximum Security, Wood Memorial winner Tacitus, Blue Grass Stakes winner Vekoma and Louisiana Derby winner By My Standards.
“It’s just amazing what a good horse does for your soul,” Baffert said. “It puts some pep in your step, and it’s that time of year that if you have a horse that has a chance to win the Derby, it’s a totally different feeling. That’s the beauty of this race. These horses really get you going.”
For Baffert, the feeling is totally familiar.
“When I come in here, I treat every Derby like it’s the first one,” he said. “I don’t get ahead of myself. I just prepare them, come in there prepared. Luckily, we’ve been here a couple of times, so we know what we have to do.”
Ben Jones won his Derbies from 1938 to 1952 and, like Baffert, had two Triple Crown winners: Whirlaway (1941) and Citation (1948).
“I never think about the record,” Baffert said. “I never thought I’d get one.”
Baffert wouldn’t say which of his three horses gives him his best chance at a sixth Kentucky Derby victory.
“Game Winner is a champion, he’s right there and has never run a bad race,” Baffert said. “Improbable, I think, is the quickest of the three, and he looks fantastic. Roadster has got a beautiful stride and what he did beating Gamer Winner off of just one prep was impressive.
“Any of them could win it. But they’ve got to get the trip. It comes down to the trip, they’ve got to get a good one.”