Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Columnist Ralph Siraco: Baffert stalks $5 million bonus

Ralph Siraco's horse racing column appears on Monday and his Southern California selections run Tuesday through Friday on the scoreboard page. Write to him c/o Las Vegas Sun, 800 S. Valley View, Las Vegas, NV 89107.

They say that to win the Kentucky Derby you need the luckiest horse. To win the Preakness Stakes you need the fastest horse and to win the Belmont Stakes -- the third and final jewel in the American Triple Crown -- you need the best sophomore of its generation in what is billed the "Test of Champions."

They also say it's in the breeding. Well if that is so, then Nogales, Arizona, could be to the human element of the sport what Kentucky is to the equine side.

And that can be directly traced to one Mr. Bob Baffert. That, after all, is where the decade's hottest Triple Crown trainer was foaled some 46 years ago. He may also have the luckiest, fastest and best horse of this 3-year-old crop. Problem is, it may not be one and the same horse.

When the early nominations for this year's Visa Triple Crown Challenge came out a week ago, Baffert had 16 of the 396 nominated horses, from a 1996 North American foal crop of 35,400, sitting under his shed row.

Baffert is joined by D. Wayne Lukas, with a record 21 nominated, and Nick Zito as trainers who have made the Triple Crown sojourn a springtime ritual in this decade.

The three have accounted for 14 Triple Crown events in the 1990s, with Zito starting the parade by scoring Derby victories by Strike The Gold in 1991 and Go For Gin in 1994. Lukas strung a record six consecutive Triple Crown victories starting with the 1994 Preakness and Belmont with Tabasco Cat, followed by the 1995 Crown sweep of Thunder Gulch in the Derby and Belmont and Timber Country splitting the Preakness, and finishing with Grindstone's photo-finish Derby win in 1996.

That's where Mr. Baffert enters center stage. It was Baffert's California-bred gelding Cavonnier that ran Lukas' Grindstone to the slim Derby victory. And it has been the Baffert Crown road show ever since.

Baffert's credit line hasn't been the main concern of Visa over the past two years. The country's leading credit card company has been the major Triple Crown sponsor for some time now, and has offered a $5 million bonus to any horse who can sweep the Triple Crown --something no horse has accomplished since the bonus has been instituted.

However, it's not for the lack of effort by Baffert-trained steeds.

After his debut Derby near-miss in 1996, Baffert won the 1997 Derby and Preakness with Silver Charm only to run second -- beaten by less than a length -- in the bonus-cashing Belmont Stakes.

Then last year, Baffert won the Derby and Preakness again, this time with Real Quiet, and missed the Visa bonus bucks by a nose when Victory Gallop denied Baffert a twelfth Triple Crown winner with a mastercharge stretch run.

But, although Zito is always a Derby threat and Lukas -- who has nine Triple Crown trophies with three Derbies, four Preaknesses and a pair of Belmonts -- looms large with quantity if not always quality, it is Baffert who gives Visa more problems than MasterCard, American Express and the Discover card put together.

And he's back in force this year.

Of the 16 Derby noms, Baffert has at least five bona fide contenders for the Kentucky Derby this year. And if that isn't enough he unleashed another of the sweet 16, and honed one of the five leading charges over the weekend.

At Santa Anita on Sunday, Baffert rolled out Straight Man for an eye-opening debut maiden breaker that had onlookers running for the future books when the son of Saint Ballado stopped the clock for six furlongs in 1:08:4. The time of the race wasn't half as impressive as the ease in which he accomplished his first afternoon assignment.

Historians will remind you that it is almost impossible to expect a horse who starts his racing career so late on the Derby trail to make the distance and rigors of the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May, but this is, after all, Bob Baffert we are talking about.

Just as unusual may be the caliber of competition from the opposite sex this year. And again, Baffert has a pair of dynamite damsels that can be considered for the Derby. One of those, Excellent Meeting, made her 3-year-old debut on Saturday at Santa Anita. Winner of the Del Mar Debutante, Oak Leaf Stakes and Hollywood Starlet at 2, the daughter of General Meeting disposed an inferior field of would-bes with relative ease to signal a possible desire to take on the boys in Louisville. She may have deferred her Valentine's bouquet for a larger blanket of roses in the winners circle at Churchill Downs.

But Baffert is sitting on a dilemma of delight.

In addition to Excellent Meeting, he has last year's juvenile filly champion Silverbulletday also on the road to Kentucky. She is scheduled to make her next start on Saturday in New Orleans at the Fair Grounds in the Dovana Dale stakes. Although plans have her to run on the first Friday in May at Churchill Down in the Kentucky Oaks -- the filly counterpart of the Derby -- one can only speculate that Derby fever may spread to her owner, Mike Pegram, who won the Derby last year with Real Quiet.

And what about Bob and Beverly Lewis' Kentucky Derby future book favorite Exploit, who recently won his sophomore debut in the San Vicente Stakes? The owners would like to repeat their Silver Charm experience of 1997 at Churchill.

And Prime Timber, who goes next in the February 28 San Rafael Stakes at Santa Anita, or General Challenge, who will take the track next in the March 13 San Felipe Stakes, are also in the picture.

Baffert's delightful dilemma could lead to new Derby records. He has six horses with serious designs on the Run for the Roses, which could break the record for most starters in a single Derby that was set by Lukas with five in 1996. It also could produce a record third consecutive Kentucky Derby victory.

But ultimately he has five million reasons for another try at the Triple Crown, and for Visa the third time could be the charm.

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