Bob Baffert

Robert A. Baffert (born January 13, 1953) is an American racehorse trainer who trained the 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify.

Baffert's horses have won a record six Kentucky Derbies, eight Preakness Stakes, three Belmont Stakes, and three Kentucky Oaks.

He has been the subject of significant controversy regarding repeated incidents of his horses failing drug tests or dying under his care.

Baffert grew up on a ranch in Nogales, Arizona, where his family raised cattle and chickens.

When he was 10, his father purchased some Quarter Horses and he practiced racing them on a dirt track.

In his teens, he worked as a jockey for $100 a day in informal Quarter Horse races on the outskirts of Nogales.

From there, he moved to racing at recognized tracks, scoring his first victory at age 17 in 1970.

Baffert graduated from the University of Arizona's Race Track Industry Program with a Bachelor of Science degree, got married, and began training quarter horses at a Prescott, Arizona farm.

By age 20, he had developed a reputation as a trainer and was hired by other trainers to run their stables.

His first winner was Flipper Star at Rillito Park on January 28, 1979.

In the 1980s, Baffert moved to California and worked at Los Alamitos Race Course, where he switched to training Thoroughbreds full-time in 1991.

He got his first big break in 1992 when he won his first Breeder's Cup race with Thirty Slews.

Baffert established his early reputation with less expensive horses like Silver Charm and Real Quiet, bought for $16,500 and $17,000 respectively.

Fellow trainer D. Wayne Lukas attributed Baffert's success to his "extraordinary eye for a good horse" and his management ability in finding the right opportunities for his charges.

Baffert's history in the American Classic races began in 1996 when he trained a three-year-old colt named Cavonnier, who ran second in the Kentucky Derby.

In 1997, he trained Silver Charm to win the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, finishing second in the Belmont.

Baffert revisited the Derby the next year, sending two top colts, Real Quiet and Indian Charlie, to Louisville.

Real Quiet won the race that year, and Baffert also finished third with Indian Charlie.

Real Quiet won the Preakness as well, but, like Silver Charm, the horse was denied a Triple Crown win and finished second in the Belmont Stakes by a nose.

Baffert, however, became the first trainer in history to win the Derby and Preakness in back-to-back years.

Between 1997 and 1999, he won the Eclipse Award as outstanding trainer three years running and was voted the 1997 Big Sport of Turfdom Award.

Baffert did not win another classic race until 2001, when he won the Preakness and Belmont Stakes with eventual Hall of Fame member Point Given.

He finished third in the Derby that year with Congaree.

Baffert won the Derby a third time in 2002 with War Emblem.

The colt went on to win the Preakness Stakes, giving the trainer his third shot at winning the Triple Crown.

The colt lost the Belmont Stakes after breaking poorly from the starting gate.

Baffert was inducted into Lone Star Park's Hall of Fame in 2007, and in 2009, he was nominated and inducted to the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame, the same year as a filly he trained, Silverbulletday.

Baffert did not have a horse hit the board again in any of the Triple Crown races until 2009, when he trained Pioneerof The Nile to a second-place finish in the Derby.

Baffert trained Lookin At Lucky, co-owned by Mike Pegram, to win the Preakness Stakes in 2010.

The colt skipped the Belmont Stakes but became the champion three-year-old colt that year.

In 2012, Baffert saddled Bodemeister, named for the trainer's youngest son, Bode, to second-place finishes in the Derby and Preakness.

He saddled Paynter in the Belmont Stakes later that year, but that colt, like his stablemate Bodemeister, finished second.

In winning the 141st Kentucky Derby, bringing his total number of victories in the race to four; Baffert also ran the third-place finisher, the previously undefeated colt Dortmund.

American Pharoah next won the 140th Preakness Stakes, making six victories in that race for Baffert, who also finished fourth with Dortmund.

In 2015, Baffert trained the 2014 champion two-year-old colt American Pharoah to win the Triple Crown, the first to do so in 37 years.

Then, when American Pharoah won the 2015 Belmont Stakes, the win was the fourth attempt at a Triple Crown for Baffert, who at age 62 became the second-oldest trainer to win a Triple Crown.

Baffert also trained the 2018 Triple Crown Winner, Justify and the 2020 Kentucky Derby winner, Authentic. Baffert became a 7-time winner of the Kentucky Derby in 2021 with Medina Spirit.

However, Medina Spirit tested positive for the steroid betamethasone.

the question of whether the horse would join Dancer's Image by being disqualified for a drug violation in the Derby remains pending.

Medina Spirit died after a training session on 6 December 2021 and an ensuing necropsy on 11 February 2022 was inconclusive.