Baffert: Everyone Has a Shot in the Derby

One-liners, barbs, and gratitude were served aplenty at the annual Kentucky Derby Trainers' Dinner held April 28 at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Louisville.

Among the highlights of the annual event, organized by Kentucky Thoroughbred Association, was a lively exchange between Hall of Fame trainers Bob Baffert, who has won three Kentucky Derbys, and D. Wayne Lukas, who's won four. Baffert has two of the expected morning line favorites this year—Arkansas Derby (gr. I) winner American Pharoah and Santa Anita Derby (gr. I) winner Dortmund, while Lukas will have third-place Arkansas Derby finisher Mr. Z in the starting gate May 2.

"I haven't been to this dinner since Pioneerof the Nile   ran," recalled Baffert of Ahmed Zayat's homebred who finished second in the 2009 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) to 50-1 longshot Mine That Bird. Zayat bred and races American Pharoah, who is a son of Pioneerof the Nile.

"I remember the first guys I ran into were guys in cowboy hats," Baffert said. "I knew some of them from my Quarter Horse days. They were all excited. They said, 'We have Mine That Bird here. We really don't have a chance; we're just here having a good time.' " Afterward, Baffert's wife, Jill, asked him about the cowboys.

"Is their horse any good?" Baffert recalled being asked.

"They have no shot," he answered.

"It was amazing," Baffert continued about the 2009 Derby. "That is the whole thing with the Derby. You want a clean break. That's step one. Then going around the first turn, you want to make it out of there alive. Step two. Now we're on the outside, in the clear, turning for home, and I can hear the announcer. We are watching, we're coming home, and I'm thinking I'm going to win the Derby. The anxiety is building up and then I suddenly see something flying on the inside. I ask, 'Who is that?' "

Jill said (in a cleaned-up version), "It's Calvin Borel."

"I felt like, 'What just happened?' " Baffert said. "I have two really good horses here this year, but I have been here and gotten beat with good horses. Everyone has a chance, so you never take it for granted."

Lukas said he has been convinced early that American Pharoah would be an exceptional racehorse.

"I think we are going to see something really special, though I don't want to put Bob on the spot here," said the 79-year-old Hall of Famer. "I think when you get my age and have been in as many of these as I have been in, the reality of the whole thing sets in. I think we are going to see a really special horse on Saturday. This is as good a field as we have ever had and, like Bob pointed out, things happen, but I would like to trade places."

Lukas then shared a story from two years ago when the Zayats had sent out videos to their trainers of their yearlings that were being broke and trained.

"I studied the video and said, 'Here are the four horses I want: American Pharoah, Mr. Z, El Kabeir and a filly, who didn't turn out,'" Lukas said. "Well, they answered, 'You get one.' "

"I said I just wanted one," Baffert cut in.

Regarding Mr. Z, Lukas described the son of Malibu Moon   as quirky.

"We get paid to train them," Lukas said. "If they were perfect and did everything right every day then car salesmen would be doing this. We have him straightened out but whether he's good enough we'll see. We'll need some luck, but we're realistic. We'll scare the hell out of all of them to be sure."

Lukas said Baffert's multiple close calls in capturing the Triple Crown—Silver Charm's loss by half a length to Touch Gold   in the 1997 Belmont Stakes (gr. I), Real Quiet's loss by a nose to Victory Gallop in the 1998 Belmont Stakes—may mean he's due.

"If you stop and look at a couple of noses and nods, he's come the closest to the Triple Crown as anyone in 20 years," Lukas said. "I think it could be his year."