Bob Baffert

With the leading GI Kentucky Derby runners looking likely to skip the May 18 GI Preakness S., a wave of non-Derby starters are lining up for the second leg of the Triple Crown. Trainer Bob Baffert, whose horses were banned from the Derby, confirmed GI Arkansas Derby winner Muth (Good Magic) and stablemate Imagination (Into Mischief), who won the GII San Felipe S. before finishing a narrow runner-up behind Stronghold (Ghostzapper) in the GI Santa Anita Derby last time out, are both expected for the Preakness. The duo breezed in...

To most people, 88 is just a number. But to Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, it already holds special meaning. It was the year he famously collected his first Kentucky Derby win, with a filly no less. The amazon Winning Colors became only the third filly in history to accomplish the feat. Armed with B C Stable's Just Steel (Justify) for the latest renewal, a win would also earn the 88-year-old Lukas the distinction of becoming the oldest trainer to win the Classic in its 150-year history. Since...

In a debut befitting his princely price tag, Parenting (c, 3, Justify--Iadorakid, by Lemon Drop Kid) kicked away from a well-met group of maidens at Santa Anita Park, and became the newest 'TDN Rising Star' to hail from the Bob Baffert barn. Hugging the rail after coming out a narrow leader via a scramble for the front, Parenting rolled into the lead off of :22.42 and :45.48 splits, and had put away most of his early competition by midstretch. Shaking loose under hand-urging, Parenting found enough in the tank to...

A Kentucky Court of Appeals judge on Wednesday denied a motion by Amr Zedan's incorporated racing stable that would have conferred "emergency" status on his legal quest to get 'TDN Rising Star' Muth (Good Magic) into the GI Kentucky Derby despite a ban by Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI) against the colt's trainer, Bob Baffert. Technically, the Apr. 24 order by Judge Jeff Taylor didn't decide Zedan's appeal of a lower court's denial of a temporary injunction in full. But from a practical standpoint, it appears that time has all but...

Likely GI Kentucky Derby favorites and 'TDN Rising Stars' Fierceness (City of Light) (9-2) and Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) (6-1) will open as the second and third choices in the Preakness Future Wager when the final pool opens Friday, Apr. 26. The Preakness Future Wager favorite is GI Arkansas Derby winner and 'Rising Star' Muth (Good Magic), listed at 3-1 after opening at 19-1 in the first Preakness Future Wager, while Bob Baffert-trained stablemate and GI Santa Anita Derby runner-up Imagination (Into Mischief) is 12-1. Muth and Imagination will not...

6th-SA, $54K, Msw, 3-5yo, 5 1/2f, 6:30 p.m. ET. PARENTING (Justify) debuts for Gandharvi LLC., who purchased the colt at last year's OBS April Two-Year-Olds In Training Sale for $750,000. The Bob Baffert trainee's dam is a half-sister to Canadian champion turf male El Tormenta (Stormy Atlantic) and GSW Zero Tolerence (Mizzen Mast). The other half of the Baffert uncoupled entry is first time starter Middleburg (Tapit). A $485,000 buy for SF Bloodstock, Starlight and Madaket at the 2022 Keeneland September Sale, the gray is out of MGSW Selcourt (Tiz...

The much-anticipated documentary "The New York Times Presents: "Broken Horses" will debut on the FX Network Friday at 10 p.m ET and will begin streaming on Hulu next day. What follows is a review of the documentary. You probably haven't seen the FX documentary "The New York Times Presents: "Broken Horses" yet, but, then again, you have. Be it from 60 Minutes, HBO's Real Sports, the Washington Post or in the pages of the New York Times, the story of horse racing's problems has been told numerous times. It's not...

Churchill Downs Inc., (CDI) invoked a horse-health argument on Monday in an attempt to get the Kentucky Court of Appeals not to overturn the banishment of trainer Bob Baffert that Thoroughbred owner Amr Zedan is trying to reverse so his 'TDN Rising Star' Muth (Good Magic) can gain entry into the GI Kentucky Derby. "This case has already drawn intense media attention," CDI stated in one of two court filings Apr. 22 that seek to halt Zedan's incorporated racing stable from moving forward with its appeal for emergency relief and...

Dear Sir/Ma'am, I have a couple of questions, the answers to which have eluded me. It is my understanding that restricted stakes cannot be awarded graded status, no matter the purse. So, if several of the most talented three-year-olds in the country are prevented from running in the Kentucky Derby and the Kentucky Oaks, does this make them restricted stakes? If so, should they retain their Grade I status, be downgraded, or have their graded status removed altogether? Respectfully, Nick de Meric.

One day after a lower court in Kentucky denied a motion to make Amr Zedan's 'TDN Rising Star' Muth eligible for the GI Kentucky Derby by overturning Churchill Downs Inc., (CDI)'s ban again trainer Bob Baffert, Zedan's incorporated racing stable on Friday asked the Kentucky Court of Appeals to "vacate the Jefferson Circuit Court's order and issue a temporary injunction" to let his Good Magic colt at least begin the entry process to race in the first leg of the Triple Crown. Zedan's Apr. 19 motion proposed that "At a...

7th-OP, $115k, Msw, 3yo, f, 1 1/16m, post time: 4:20 p.m. ET Having campaigned the likes of 'TDN Rising Star' Frank's Rockette, Arkansan Frank Fletcher will debut another daughter of the all-conquering Into Mischief Saturday afternoon at Oaklawn Park in the form of MISS ROCKETTE. The February foal, trained by Bob Baffert, is the first to race out of Song of Spring (Spring At Last), upset winner of the GIII Allaire du Pont Distaff in 2018, and was hammered down to Donato Lanni on behalf of Fletcher for $1.25 million...

Amr Zedan's incorporated racing stable is planning an immediate appeal to a Thursday decision by a Kentucky judge who denied an injunction request that would have overturned Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI)'s ongoing ban against Bob Baffert. Zedan had initiated an Apr. 3 lawsuit in an effort to get his Baffert-trained 'TDN Rising Star' Muth (Good Magic) eligible for the GI Kentucky Derby. But Judge Mitchell Perry of Jefferson Circuit Court also denied CDI's request to dismiss the case in his Apr. 18 order. This means that barring a successful appeal...