For three decades, Bob Baffert told himself the same thing: Don’t relax until the saddle goes on your horse for a big race.
And for three decades, he was unusually lucky, avoiding the ankle chips and spiked fevers that have derailed so many would-be champions. This week, the old edict caught up with Baffert when the trainer’s early Preakness Stakes favorite, Muth, fell ill and had to be scratched from the race after an 18-hour journey from Southern California to Baltimore.
Baffert arrived Thursday, knowing he has a weaker hand in the race he’s won a record eight times but still hopeful that Imagination, the lesser of his two contenders, will give him a ninth Preakness.
“Imagination, he’s trying to catch up with Muth,” he said. “I keep waiting for him to turn on the afterburners, but he just sort of hangs out with another horse. He’s going to have to step it up.”
Baffert has long gushed about the informality of Preakness week, the camaraderie between trainers — all housed in the same stakes barn — as a respite from the grueling tension surrounding the Kentucky Derby.
The middle jewel of the Triple Crown has become a particular safe harbor for Baffert the past two years as he has remained barred from Churchill Downs because of the medication violation that cost Medina Spirit his victory in the 2021 Derby. That standoff grew more bitter last summer, when Churchill officials extended Baffert’s suspension through the end of 2024, saying in a statement that “a trainer who is unwilling to accept responsibility for multiple drug test failures in our highest-profile races cannot be trusted to avoid future misconduct.”
In other words, the most famous, successful and polarizing figure in thoroughbred racing is not welcome at the sport’s most prominent event.
That’s not the case in Baltimore, even after a complicated 2023 Preakness day when Baffert won the headline race with National Treasure but watched another of his horses, Havnameltdown, suffer a gruesome breakdown in an undercard race.
He held court at the center of the week’s largest media scrum Friday morning. He visited amiably with Kenny McPeek, trainer of this year’s Derby champion and Preakness favorite, Mystik Dan, and with his oldest rival turned pal, D. Wayne Lukas, who will saddle two horses for the Preakness.
McPeek and Lukas are among those who say racing is better off with Baffert involved in its biggest events.
“I want to tell you, Bob was one of the first people to call me [after the Derby],” McPeek said. “He and I just [talked] from horseman to horseman — not everybody calls you after you win a big race like that — but Bob’s great. And he was over the moon for me. Any notion that Bob Baffert isn’t special guy? He is — very.”
2024 Preakness week | PHOTOS
The 88-year-old Lukas used to battle with Baffert for supremacy in the Triple Crown races but has emerged as one of his most vocal defenders. They sat together for 15 minutes Friday on the bench outside Lukas’ familiar office on the far end of the Preakness barn.
“Bob should’ve been at the Derby; Bob is the face of the Kentucky Derby in this decade,” Lukas said earlier in the week. “That thing got out of hand. It mushroomed on him. But Bob being here is very important. … He’s going to be, as always, very, very tough to handle. But I wish he would’ve been in the Derby this year. Anytime we take somebody that’s that prominent in the Triple Crown series and don’t have him involved, I think it sets us back.”
Baffert, wearing a blue Los Angeles Dodgers quarter-zip and his trademark sunglasses, became more careful with his words when discussing his fractured relationship with Churchill Downs, saying the situation remains “in limbo” despite his desire to find an amiable resolution.
Muth’s owner, Amr Zedan, sued to get the horse and Baffert into this year’s Derby, with Churchill Downs issuing another snarky statement after that legal action failed: “Mr. Zedan may suffer from a case of Derby fever, which is known to spread with exposure to horses and is contagious this time of year. Symptoms can contribute to questionable judgment and in extreme cases can result in litigious behavior.”
Such words have led some in the racing world to argue that the dispute has become too personal and disconnected from the scale of Baffert’s original offenses.
Regardless, he said he’s focused only on the narrow mission in front of him, which grew more difficult when Muth’s temperature soared to 103 degrees Tuesday night. Muth was the 3-year-old Baffert knew he could trust, with a win over Mystik Dan in the March 30 Arkansas Derby and nary a dud race on his resume.
Imagination is gifted, a “beautifully balanced” horse in his trainer’s words, but has so far lacked a champion’s focus.
“He’s right there, first or second. He tries hard,” said Baffert, sounding like the father of a wayward middle child. “He’s a horse that’s going to get better and better with racing. He’s been working with Muth and working right alongside of him. I see a lot of upside in him, where Muth was just ready to roll right now.”
He wants Imagination to realize it’s OK to run away from the other horses rather than hang out with them near the lead.
He worried his remaining contender might catch whatever ailed Muth (still sick but improving Friday, according to blood tests). So far, so good on that front.
When it comes to the Preakness, Baffert said Imagination, a 3-1 second choice in the morning line, “needs to move up at least three lengths” to compete with the likes of Mystik Dan, an 8-5 favorite.
“He’s very consistent, Mystik Dan,” he said. “His race in the Southwest [Stakes] was really off the charts. He looked like the Derby favorite that day. Even thought it was a sloppy track, just the way that he did it; he really was just extending at the end. … I like the way he won the Derby, brilliant ride by [Brian] Hernandez Jr. He kept his horse in rhythm. That’s what it’s all about.”
He trusts veteran Italian jockey Frankie Dettori to pull out the best Imagination has to offer Saturday. Baffert just isn’t sure what that is, at least compared with his past greats such as Justify, American Pharoah and Silver Charm.
“I’m hoping this will be his coming out party,” Baffert said. “With Muth out, we really, really need him badly.”
149th Preakness Stakes
Pimlico Race Course
Saturday, approx. 6:50 p.m.
TV: NBC
Preakness 2024 field
Post, Horse, Odds
1. Mugatu 20-1
2. Uncle Heavy 20-1
3. Catching Freedom 7-2
4. Muth (Scratched)
5. Mystik Dan 8-5
6. Seize the Grey 12-1
7. Just Steel 12-1
8. Tuscan Gold 9-2
9. Imagination 3-1