Columnist Ralph Siraco: Baffert gangs up on Del Mar Futurity with five entries

Ralph Siraco

Monday, Sept. 9, 2002 | 8:40 a.m.

Ralph Siraco's horse racing column appears Monday and his Southern California selections run Tuesday-Sunday.

On Wednesday, the 63rd racing season will come to a close at Del Mar, where the surf meets the turf for seven weeks each summer.

The traditional closing day feature is the Del Mar Futurity. The Grade II event is the centerpiece of the seaside racing schedule for the sport's freshmen runners.

Like it's counterpart in the East at Saratoga in August, the races for two-year-olds at Del Mar often feature the debuts of some royally bred big ticket equine youngsters that have owners dreaming of Kentucky the following spring.

And that road of hope for the Kentucky Derby begins in the maiden races that lead to the juvenile stakes on the spa calendar.

Each summer, trainer Bob Baffert takes an expensive contingent of promising two-year-olds to Del Mar with the primary goal of getting his golden-spooned equine team to embark on that road of dreams.

Since 1996, Baffert has annexed every Del Mar Futurity. His Derby map was drawn with that first winner, Silver Charm. Owners Bob and Beverly Lewis saw their gutty gray take the Del Mar Futurity before taking the sport on a Triple Crown bid that fell short in the 1997 Belmont Stakes after Silver Charm had successfully put the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes trophies on the Lewis mantle.

Baffert would duplicate that scenario the next year with Real Quiet and just this past year with War Emblem. In all, Baffert has won three Kentucky Derbies, four Preakness Stakes and a Belmont Stakes since 1997.

The Del Mar meeting has served the Baffert barn well on the way to the next year's classics, even if the eventual winners didn't compete the previous year at the Del Mar stand.

The Triple Crown notwithstanding, Baffert's run in the Del Mar Futurity is nothing less than amazing. Considering the event has been won by such trainers as D. Wayne Lukas, Ron McAnally, Laz Barrera, Neil Drysdale, Charlie Whittingham, Buster Millerick, John Longden, Carl Roles and Reggie Cornell, Baffert's reign has been incredible.

No trainer has dominated a major stakes race like the stranglehold Baffert has on the Futurity at Del Mar. Woody Stephens' five consecutive Belmont Stakes comes to mind when one thinks of the string Baffert has put together in Del Mar's premier race for juveniles.

He won the Del Mar Futurity with Souvenir Copy in 1997, Worldly Manner in 1998, Forest Camp in 1999, Flame Thrower in 2000 and Officer last year.

But after the entries were taken on Sunday for the Wednesday curtain call, even Baffert may have outdone himself.

A field of eight was drawn for the 55th renewal and five hail from the Baffert barn.

And, the real kicker is Baffert's best juvenile prospect isn't even in the Futurity.

Vindication, who broke his maiden and followed up with a solid non-winner-of-two score at the shore has been shipped off to -- where else? -- Kentucky for this weekend's Kentucky Cup Juvenile. Baffert hopes it will be Vindication's first of many steps on Kentucky soil. The striking son of 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew could be heading for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Arlington Park on Oct. 26 with a victory at Turfway Park.

Baffert is sure to send his multiple Del Mar Futurity starters to join Vindication if everything works out on Wednesday.

The Baffert team includes, from the rail out, Icecoldbeeratreds with David Flores up, Friendly Mike that gets the meet's leading rider in Pat Valenzuela, Bull Market and Mike Smith, Kafwain with Victor Espinoza aboard and Chief Planner with Corey Nakatani in the saddle.

As Baffert surrounds the Del Mar Futurity with numbers, a seventh consecutive victory could be thwarted by trainer Richard Mandella and his lone charge Gentlemen's Club, which seems to be the only horse with a decent chance to upset the Baffert parade.