Trainer Profile: Bob Baffert at the Breeders' Cup

Trainer Bob Baffert is perennially among the leading North American trainers. Coming into the 2023 Breeders’ Cup on November 3 and 4 at Santa Anita Park, Baffert has won 18 Breeders’ Cup races: this places him second all-time behind D. Wayne Lukas, who has 20 victories at the festival. Baffert’s most recent Breeders’ Cup win came with Corniche in the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Though he did serve a 90-day suspension from the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission after Medina Spirit tested positive for betamethasone after the Kentucky Derby, he was allowed to race in the Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland last year. However, he lost with all four starters, including heavy Juvenile favorite Cave Rock.

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Breeders’ Cup Classic

Baffert has one horse in the running for the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Classic, a race he has won four times before with Kentucky Derby winner Authentic (2020), Travers (G1) winner Arrogate (2016), Triple Crown winner American Pharoah (2015), and Haskell (G1) winner Bayern (2014). Though Baffert saw Triple Crown race success in 2023 when National Treasure wired the Preakness, he will try to take a page out of his playbook in 2014 and 2016 by winning the race with a horse who did not win any of the Triple Crown races.

Arabian Knight

Note that all of Bob Baffert’s Classic winners have been three-year-olds. His three-year-old this year is Arabian Knight. This lightly-raced son of Uncle Mo broke his maiden last year at Keeneland on the Breeders’ Cup undercard and then won the Southwest, but missed the Triple Crown series. He was laid off until the Haskell, where he was third behind Geaux Rocket Ride. He bounced back from that defeat on Sept. 2 at Del Mar in the Pacific Classic (G1), where he not only faced older horses for the first time but turned the tables on Geaux Rocket Ride, winning by a neck and earning an automatic bid to the Breeders’ Cup.

Breeders’ Cup Distaff

Despite his long history of winning Breeders’ Cup races on the dirt, Bob Baffert still has yet to win the Distaff in nine attempts. Abel Tasman did the best of any of his entrants when she finished only half a length behind Forever Unbridled in 2017 at Del Mar. However, she finished last in the same race the next year at Churchill Downs, and none of his other entrants in this race have hit the board.

Adare Manor

Adare Manor has won five of six starts in 2023, with her only setback being a second-place finish in a seven-furlong allowance at Santa Anita to begin the season. The four-year-old filly has won five straight races, all at two turns, including four graded races. Though most of those wins came on the front end, she proved in the Clement L. Hirsch (G1) two starts back that she can stalk and pounce as well. However, she has yet to face the East Coast contingent this year, horses like Clairiere or Idiomatic, and the company she has seen out west has not been as deep.

Breeders’ Cup Juvenile

Bob Baffert won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile most recently in 2021: his fifth victory in the race. Though all five of his winners have proven to be more precocious two-year-olds than real Kentucky Derby or Triple Crown race prospects, his runners will likely be a threat on November 3, Future Stars Friday.

Prince of Monaco

Prince of Monaco is widely regarded as the best two-year-old out west. The $950,000 son of Speightstown graduated on debut at 1-20 odds at Los Alamitos, and though he was the second betting choice in the Best Pal (G3) behind Muth, Prince of Monaco won by 4 ¼ easy lengths. Though stablemate Mirahmadi made him work for it in the Del Mar Futurity (G1) on September 10, Prince of Monaco proved he could gut it out, winning by ¾ lengths as a heavy favorite. Expect him to be among the favorites in the Juvenile, if not the outright betting choice.

Muth

An 8 ¾-length debut winner at Santa Anita in June, he was the heavy favorite in the Best Pal but no match for the aforementioned Prince of Monaco. He came back almost two months later in the American Pharoah (G1), where he did not have to line up against Prince of Monaco. Sent off the 2-5 chalk, he stalked, pounced, and won by a confident 3 ¾ lengths over stablemate Wine Me Up. Be You, another Juvenile prospect for trainer Todd Pletcher, checked in third.

Wine Me Up

A lightly-raced Vino Rosso colt, he stepped up from a maiden win on September 2 at Del Mar to try Muth in the American Pharoah. After setting the early pace in that race, he was no match for that more tested stablemate, but he still finished well clear of Be You and the rest of the field. He could be interesting if a speed bias arises at Santa Anita on November 3.

Breeders’ Cup Sprint

This has been one of Bob Baffert’s strongest races: from 18 starts, he has won the Sprint five times. His first-ever Breeders’ Cup win came in this race in 1992 with Thirty Slews, and his most recent came with Drefong in 2016.

Speed Boat Beach

Though he broke his maiden on debut over dirt, he won the Speakeasy on grass. That punched his ticket to the Juvenile Turf, but he finished a disappointing ninth as the second betting choice. He then won the Cecil B. DeMille (G3) at a mile on grass, but went on the shelf for almost ten months. His sophomore debut came in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship (G2) on September 30, where he held his own. Despite ceding age and experience to Grade 1 winner Dr. Schivel, he battled on to the finish and lost by only a head to that foe. Though Speed Boat Beach has yet to face the likes of Gunite or Elite Power, he showed ability over the surface as well as good enough form to build on second off the lay.

Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint

Bob Baffert has started eight horses in the Filly and Mare Sprint, winning it once with Gamine in 2020. His last start in the race came the next year, when Gamine attempted the repeat, went off the heavy favorite, but weakened to third behind Ce Ce and Edgeway. His only other starter to hit the board was Indian Blessing (2008), who was sent off as the favorite but had to settle for second, beaten four lengths, after the powerful closing run of Ventura.

Eda

Eda lost for the first time in over two years when she finished third behind Kirstenbosch in the Chillingworth (G3) on September 29 at Santa Anita. The loss was particularly surprising given that the Chillingworth covered 6 ½ furlongs, a trip at which Eda had emerged as a specialist. If she bounces back to her best, she could be a factor, especially since 6 ½-furlong horses can frequently translate their form to seven furlongs. However, she has the same question mark so many horses who keep running in these short-field West Coast races do: how will they fare against the shippers? With horses like defending champion Goodnight Olive and her conqueror Echo Zulu coming to run, she has her toughest challenge yet in the Filly and Mare Sprint.

Breeders’ Cup Mile

Every winning horse that Bob Baffert has had at the Breeders’ Cup has prevailed on the dirt. In fact, of his 137 starts, only four of those have come on the lawn. From those four starts, only one hit the board: Tuzla ran second, beaten a neck in the 1999 Mile.

Du Jour

One of the rare turf horses in Bob Baffert’s barn, this son of Temple City carries a two-win streak into the Breeders’ Cup Mile. He won the restricted Wickerr Stakes, and then the Del Mar Mile (G2). He gets to stay home for the Mile, though he tends to find one or two too good against West Coast turf horses at Santa Anita and will have to face truly world-class company in this. However, note that he did ship to Churchill Downs to win the American Turf (G2) at age three, suggesting some ability to step up against horses who are a bit better than the regular West Coast turf set.

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