Baffert again on brink of racing history

Trainer Bob Baffert's road from brash upstart to elder statesman has him on the brink of US Thoroughbred racing's most fabled achievement, for the fourth time.

Baffert charge American Pharoah lines up for the Belmont Stakes on Saturday aiming to become just the 12th horse to sweep the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont.

It's a feat that hasn't been accomplished in 37 years, and Baffert's three failed bids mean he is well aware of the monumental difficulty of the task.

"It's about the horse now," Baffert said as he geared up for a frenetic week in New York, in which one of his main aims was to keep the pressure he feels from trickling down to his star horse.

Three times Baffert has travelled to Belmont Park bearing the weight of those expectations, as the prospect of a Triple Crown -- not seen since Affirmed in 1978 -- ignites the imaginations of even the most casual fans.

"I start feeling the pressure because I don't want to let those fans down," Baffert said. "Every year, people say 'This is the one.'

"So hopefully, maybe, this is the one."
Baffert has been judging horses since his childhood, when his father, rancher Bill "The Chief" Baffert decided to add quarter horses to the family's stock in Arizona.

Riding led to racing, racing to training and eventually Baffert, having conquered the quarter horse world, made his move to the more elite, more lucrative world of Thoroughbred racing -- where he was a bracing, sometimes grating, contrast to the sport's establishment.

Even Baffert sounded surprised at the journey as he looked back during his racing Hall of Fame induction in 2009.

"I stand here today and I look around here, and you're all wondering the same thing," he said. "'What is Bob Baffert doing in the Hall of Fame?'"

But results don't lie. Less than 12 months after setting up shop as a thoroughbred trainer in California, he won his first Breeders' Cup race in 1992 with Thirty Slews in the Sprint -- although it took him until last year to claim his first Breeders' Cup Classic with Bayern.

He has 11 wins in the three Triple Crown races -- and three heartbreaking memories of Triple Crown disappointments when Silver Charm in 1997, Real Quiet in 1998 and War Emblem in 2002 captured the first two jewels of the Triple Crown only to falter in the Belmont.

- 'A brutal beat' -
War Emblem, ridden by the same jockey that will be aboard American Pharoah, Victor Espinoza, stumbled out of the gate at Belmont Park and never had a chance.

Silver Charm succumbed to a late stretch run by Touch Gold, but perhaps the most painful loss was Real Quiet, finishing second by a nose to Victory Gallop.

"That was a brutal beat," said Baffert, who has admitted that seeing one of his horses lose often leaves him "moody" and hard to deal with.

The moody moments are perhaps fewer now, thanks to the perspective gained from a tough 2012 in which he endured a heart attack scare in Dubai and the death of his father, along with the mysterious death of seven horses in his stable at Hollywood Park in Los Angeles.

"I have a lot more patience," said Baffert, who calls American Pharoah a "special" horse, but is nevertheless braced for disappointment.

"I've seen a lot of great horses get to this point and lose," he said. "Right now, I'm just focused on getting him up there, putting a saddle on him, listening to the song 'New York, New York.'

"And then he's on his own."
Source: AFP