Page 112 - Speedhorse March 2018

Bob Baffert
Going For The Gold
by Diane Ciarloni Simmons
Bob Baffert, the 34-year-old conditioner of World Champion Gold Coast Express, is considered by some people to be a youngster
in the world of trainers. He has, however, compressed a multitude of race horse experiences into his 34 years and . . . he has the gray hair and the credentials to prove it!
There wasn’t a time when Baffert wasn’t around horses, and seldom was there a day
when he didn’t ache to win “the big one.” Born in 1953, he grew up on a ranch at Nogales, Arizona. His father ventured into the world
of race horses as nothing more than a pleasant diversion; a hobby that would provide him with an enjoyable outlet. It was 1964 when the Baffert family acquired Baffert’s Heller, a sorrel runner who claimed double breeding to the famed Ed Echols. Baffert’s Heller ran in 1963 and 1964. He then went through a three-year hiatus and didn’t return to the track until 1967. By the time he finished running in 1968, the sorrel claimed 13 starts with two victories and one second. His total earnings came to the rousing sum of $797! And, in the middle of all those modest numbers, he managed to set a track record when he skimmed across 250 yards in :14.10.
Baffert accompanied the sorrel to the race tracks, but he was the only one from his six brothers and sisters who found enjoyment in the activity. “I learned to ride on Baffert’s Heller after we retired him,” he laughed. “He’s 26 years old now; old and gray and still living with my dad. That horse will always be a part of us.
“Dad decided to train his own horses, and I became his groom. Sure I loved every minute of it, but it never dawned on me back then that I’d end up as a professional trainer. For one thing,
I was bitten by the bug to be a jockey before I thought about training. I started galloping and began spending a lot of weekends at Rillito.
I’d get out of bed and gallop a couple of horses before taking off for school. There were times when Dad would pull up to the school door and I’d jump into the truck with him. We were off to a match race. I was learning to love everything and anything connected with race horses.”
As Baffert began closing out the high school phase of his life, he directed his thoughts toward veterinary medicine. Before going into college, however, he couldn’t resist the urge to take one
more shot at jockeying. “I made my way to California,” he recalls, “and began riding Dr. Ed Allred’s third string horses. One day, Doc felt sorry for me and let me ride Zippy Hank. He even told his trainer to drop the horse to a $1,250 claiming race so I could win! I finally won three or four and pushed the jockey bug out of my system.”
It was back to Arizona for Baffert where
he enrolled in the University of Arizona. His intentions were still directed toward veterinary medicine; but working with the couple of horses his family still had in training and the distracting pursuits of fraternity life sidetracked him from his original intentions! He switched majors, concentrating on Animal Science and Racetrack Management.
“I still had the racing fever after I graduated,” he laughed. “I just couldn’t shake it. We owned a horse called Pete Hoist around that time. That devil was always the fastest qualifier for a race, but he could never win the finals. I went to Prescott with him, and he turned me into a nervous wreck. I decided the training business was definitely not for me. There were just too many disappointments, and far too many major letdowns. Who needed it? I vowed I’d never train again.”
With that vow fresh on his lips, Baffert landed a job with a veterinary supply company. It didn’t turn into what one might refer to as a career. As
a matter of fact, it lasted only six months. “But it helped me,” insists Baffert. “It taught me how to deal with people but, all the time I was dealing with people, I kept thinking I’d never won a stakes race and . . . I wanted one . . . bad!”
Pete Sammons offered Baffert a job running his Prescott ranch for him. Baffert agreed, but he also convinced his friend to purchase a race horse. The outcome was a second in the Prescott Futurity. Baffert still didn’t have his big one.
Through a set of unintentional circumstances, Baffert next found himself taking over a string of horses for a trainer at Turf Paradise. And all of sudden, he found himself entering a new experience . . . that of training for the public. “It was 1979,” he remembers.
“I had some good horses and, right off the bat,
I won a stakes race. I went on to win every futurity and derby Arizona offered back then.”
By 1981, it looked as if Baffert was, indeed, headed for the racing big-time. He had a filly by the name of Love N Money by Easy Jet
and out of American Dream by Hoist Bar. He won the West Texas Derby at Sunland Park with her in 1982. In that same year, he won
the first Budweiser Derby at Turf Paradise
with War Star Wrangler out of Dainty Lake by the Thoroughbred Lake Erie. Love N Money wound up with $272,115 in earnings and a track record at Rillito for 400 yards in :19.86. War Star Wrangler wound up his career with
60 starts and earnings of $336,461. The brown gelding was off the board only three times. Both were more than a far cry from Baffert’s Heller.
It was Kellys Coffer, a 1979 filly by Allstar by Jet Deck and out of The Wind Mariah, who proved to be Baffert’s first big runner in Arizona. He took the filly and returned to Prescott with her. This time, he won the Prescott Futurity. Before Kellys Coffer left the race tracks, she earned $252,771.
By 1980/81, Baffert was winning 100 races each year. “Don’t forget that I started when
I was 13,” he laughed. “Some people think I made it to where I am in a hurry. Well, that isn’t true when you consider I’ve been at it for more than 20 years. I do admit, though, that training always seemed to come easy for me. Why? I think it’s because I grew up around horses my entire life. I had the advantage of solid horsemanship behind me. That’s the kind of background that allows someone to look at a horse and know, almost instinctively, if something’s wrong with the animal either mentally or physically.”
110 SPEEDHORSE, March 2018
LOOKING BACK - AN EXCERPT FROM JUNE 1987 ISSUE