Baffert calls tune again with Concert Tour,
It’s become a rite of spring, like filing taxes in April, filling brackets for March Madness and wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day.
It’s hardly an original line, but since a certain white-haired trainer rediscovered racing in Hot Springs, Oaklawn runs on Baffert Standard Time.
To give you some idea, trainer Bob Baffert has more victories in the Rebel Stakes than Tom Brady has in the Super Bowl. Eight might have been enough for comedian Suzanne Somers, but tell that to the man who, though he’s seldom sighted outside California (health reasons), has his finger on the pulse beat of racing here and at other tracks.
Concert Tour, winning the Grade 2 $1 million Rebel by 4
1/4 lengths, gives the Hall of Famer three viable contenders for the May 1 Kentucky Derby, which Baffert won for a sixth time last year with Authentic, the trainer’s third Horse of the Year in six seasons.
Name a box, and Concert Tour probably checked it in the Rebel.
• First two-turn race? No problem.
• Outside post (seven), while the favorite, a local stakes winner, broke from the rail? A mere trifle.
• First road trip, in his case from California? Piece of cake.
• Kentucky Derby qualifying points? 50 for the win, joining stablemates Life is Good (60) and Medina Spirit (18) in the discussion.
Baffert may not fill all 20 starting spots in the 147th Kentucky Derby, but it won’t be for lack of trying.
“It was a very good race,” said jockey Joel Rosario, whose horse jogged home straight while others behind home wobbled. “He broke very good and I just let him go on with it. It was impressive for his first time going two turns.”
Paying $5.40, $3.80 and $3.40 as the 3-2 second choice, Concert Tour clocked 1 1/16 miles in
1:43.18. Baffert even completed the exacta, Hosier holding second by three quarters over the troubled Big Lake. Hosier (20), Big Lake (10) and fourth-place Super Stock (5) also collected Derby qualfiying points.
Concert Tour, by 2007 Derby winner Street Sense, won the race that another Baffert trainee for owners Gary and Mary West, champion Game Winner, could not pull off. Game Winner and Improbable each lost for the first time in the 2019 Rebel, which was split to convenience horsemen affected by a track closure at Santa Anita. The Wests had an ace in the hole at Derby time, only to see Maximum Security (trained by Jason Servis, later by Baffert) disqualified for interference after wiring
the field on the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs.
While Baffert and the Wests look ahead, connections of Caddo River ask what went wrong. The 6-5 favorite Saturday after winning the Jan. 22 Smarty Jones mile by 10 1/4 lengths, Caddo River let Concert Tour go on the first turn but was still in contention when he folded in midstretch. The Equibase chartman used words like “rank” and “empty” to capsule the colt’s fifth-place finish, almost seven lengths back
Keepmeinmind, his 3-yearold start delayed because of winter weather, finished sixth after turning onto the backside last of eight. Get Her Number, a Grade 1 winner last time at Santa Anita, beat only one horse.
All in all, said Baffert, “that was nice, impressive. I’m just happy to run one-two. That’s pretty huge. I’m just glad they showed up.”
Concert Tour joins Nadal
(2020), Cupid (2016), American Pharoah (2015), Hoppertunity
(2014), Secret Circle (2012), The
Factor (2011) and Lookinlucky
(2010) as Rebel winners for Baffert. Bodemeister (2012), American Pharoah and Nadal won the Arkansas Derby, which on April
10 may be Concert Tour’s final Kentucky Derby prep.
As for pre-race instructions, “I just told (Joel) Rosario he’s fast,” Baffert said. “I know Caddo River’s fast. This horse going two turns first out, just play the break and do what you think is right..
“This is a really top horse. I was gong to be disappointed if he didn’t do what he did today.”