Bob Baffert

2nd-SA, $60K, Msw, 2yo, 6f, post time: 2:30 p.m. ET SAN SABA (Justify) topped last year's Fasig-Tipton October Sale on a bid of $725,000 and has drawn the outside in this field of seven. John Velazquez has the call aboard the May 8 foal, whose dam Arienza (Giant's Causeway) finished second in the 2011 GII Fantasy Stakes. The latter is a daughter of 2002 Horse of the Year and treble champion older female Azeri (Jade Hunter), the dam of the talented MGSW/GISP Wine Princess (Ghostzapper) and granddam of GSW Smokin'...

While 'TDN Rising Star' Tamara (Bolt d'Oro) will be a main attraction on the Dec. 26 opening-day card at Santa Anita, another highly anticipated foal who is also out of the fan-favorite champion Beholder--this one an unnamed and unraced 2-year-old colt by Curlin--fired a bullet three-furlong morning move Saturday in just his third published workout for trainer Bob Baffert and owner Zedan Racing. The in-company :36 clocking (1/18) just prior to the Christmas holiday on a non-racing Saturday at Santa Anita might have flown a touch under-the-radar for a juvenile...

The federal court in the Western District of Kentucky Friday dismissed a class action lawsuit brought by a group of gamblers against trainer Bob Baffert over Medina Spirit's win and subsequent disqualification in the 2021 Kentucky Derby. Paid off to the public as the race-day winner, Medina Spirit lost the Derby due to a failed post-race drug test. He tested positive for betamethasone, a controlled medication banned on race-day. Mandaloun, who had passed the post second, was promoted to first. The plaintiffs, spearheaded by professional gambler Michael Beychok, argued that...

A six-time winner of the race in its days at Hollywood Park, including with future GI Kentucky Derby hero Real Quiet (Quiet American) in 1997, trainer Bob Baffert took the first seven runnings of the GII Los Alamitos Futurity after the relocation to Ocean County in 2014 and ran his overall total to 14 when Wnystock (Solomini) caused a 13-1 upset last year. Just five juvenile males have taken up the challenge this term, three of whom are trained by Baffert, and Gaming (Game Winner) is an all-the-way candidate at...

Southern California, not known for tradition, has a rich and wonderful history in the world of horse racing. Santa Anita was built in1934 and they got it right. The track embraces the San Gabriel mountains, which loom in the forefront on an incredibly large piece of land by Southern California standards. Bob Baffert has called Santa Anita the most beautiful in the country. From almost any angle, fans get a good view of the horses. Santa Anita is the Wrigley Field of horse racing. Fans can get just feet away...

The Saturday graded stakes action across North America offers several options, but the Big A earns the spotlight as the venerable NYRA track plays host to some strong races. Even though the Cigar Mile Handicap was downgraded a tick from its top level status by the American Graded Stakes Committee in 2023, connections still consider the race to possess a certain cache and the rigor in this year's edition is evident. "It [Cigar Mile] came up pretty salty," said Book'em Danno's trainer Derek Ryan. "It is a Grade II now...

All of us involved in this game tend to be exposed to its ups and downs on a scale proportionate to our means. That being so, there have unsurprisingly been some pretty wild extremes--for better and worse--in the story of the most lavishly funded program in its history. Just think back, for instance, to the last days of April 2001. Sheikh Mohammed had sent Street Cry (Ire) back to the United States, where he had been skillfully developed as a juvenile by Eoin Harty, with the mission of winning the...

Zedan Racing Stables' Barnes (c, 2, Into Mischief--All American Dream, by American Pharoah), a $3.2-million FTSAUG yearling, made trainer Bob Baffert's return to Churchill Downs a winning one Wednesday when just getting his head in front of Innovator (Authentic) on the line. The 1-5 favorite was hustled out of the gate, but was taken in hand and settled off the pace when Luis Saez, aboard Innovator, proved intent on gaining the early lead. Innovator was in front through the quarter in :21.90 with the heavy favorite buried in traffic along...

7th-CD, $120K, Msw, 2yo, 5 1/2f, 3:55 p.m. ET. The debuting $3.2-million Fasig-Tipton Saratoga graduate Barnes (c, 2, Into Mischief--All American Dream, by American Pharoah) is set to become the first starter at Churchill Downs for Hall of Famer Bob Baffert since the lifting of his well-documented, corporation-imposed three-year suspension. Owned by Zedan Racing Stables, Barnes worked five furlongs in 1:00 2/5 (2/8) at Baffert's Santa Anita base Nov. 20 before heading to Louisville. His third dam is MGISW Dream Supreme (Seeking the Gold), responsible for GISW Majestic Warrior (A.P....

Bob Baffert told TDN via text last week it would be "exciting" to have a horse run at Churchill Downs for the first time in more than three years. Four months ago, on July 19, the gaming corporation that owns the track rescinded a ruling-off it had imposed upon the Hall-of-Fame trainer in 2021 because of a string of drug positives in horses Baffert trained, including one in Churchill's most prominent race, that year's GI Kentucky Derby. The colt who tested positive for an overage of betamethasone was Medina Spirit,...

2nd-Del Mar, $54,500, Msw, 11-23, 2yo, 6 1/2f, 1:15.91, ft, 2 1/4 lengths. ROMANESQUE (c, 2, Practical Joke--Mony'slittlegracie, by Alphabet Soup) was the slightly better-fancied half of an uncoupled Bob Baffert-trained entry at 5-2, raced in lockstep with Rodriguez (Authentic) for most of the final half-mile of Saturday's second race at Del Mar and finally gained the upper hand inside the final 100 yards to graduate at first asking. Off perhaps a half-step slowly from the inside gate while Rodriguez clearly won the break, the $60,000 Keeneland November weanling turned...

7th-CD, $120K, Msw, 2yo, 6 1/2f, 3:55 p.m. ET. A $1-million buy at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale, YINZER (Twirling Candy) takes the racing stage for the ownership group of West Point Thoroughbreds, CJ Stables and Bill Farish. The Steve Asmussen trainee is out of Rehearsed (Tapit) who is a full-sister to GISP Closing Bell and a half-sister to GII San Felipe Stakes hero Hear the Ghost (Ghostzapper). Also making the races is Aerate (Candy Ride {Arg]). The Stone Farm homebred trained by Brian Lynch was produced by Ducru...