California Horses Thrive on Big Scene

If the surroundings were taken away and the focus was solely on the horses, the stretch run of the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) might as well have occured at Santa Anita Park—where speed reigns supreme.



American Pharoah, Firing Line, and Dortmund were all going at it on the font end, and almost every other horse trailing looked as if they were treading through wet cement.



On any given race day at Santa Anita, it's a familiar sight. Deep closing bids are so rare, they feel anecdotally inexistent. If you're not on or near the lead exiting the final turn on the main track at the Arcadia, Calf. oval, you're probably not winning.



The Derby finish was fitting, then, because the first three horses who crossed the wire at Churchill Downs all call Southern California home.



Bob Baffert, the trainer of Derby winner American Pharoah and third-place finisher Dortmund calls it "California speed," but the term can be, at times, construed as pejorative—a euphemism for "cheap" speed.



Baffert, however, is unabashed. A former Quarter Horse trainer, speed is in his blood, and he drills his crop accordingly. A bullet next to a Baffert workout is nothing to get worked up about.



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"The Eastern bias is really strong," Baffert said, markedly more relaxed in his barn at the entrance of the Santa Anita backstretch a week before the Xpressbet Preakness Stakes (gr. I) than he was in the weeks prior to the Derby. "We're on an island out here... California is very speed-oriented. These jockeys, they ride fast, they ride tight, and we train a little bit different. We train a little faster and these tracks are fast."



Baffert tells a story about Hall of Fame jockey Laffit Pincay, Jr. making his first appearance on the Southern California scene. After being "top dog," as Baffert puts it, in the East, the beginning was difficult for Pincay on the West Coast.



"One of the greatest riders ever... and he came to California," Baffert recalled. "The first couple of days he was riding, everybody was just gone (at the start), riding like crazy. His first few days he was like, 'I can't make it here. These guys, like (Patrick Valenzuela), they leave and I'm sitting back there, trying to save horse.' Back (East), it's more of finesse, but here, it's like—dude. He had to change up to be more aggressive."



The other part of the Derby trifecta, Firing Line, was so fast during his runaway 14 1/4-length Sunland Derby (gr. III) victory—albeit over a notoriously-speedy Sunland Park course—that he set a track record (1:47.39 for 1 1/8 miles) under a hand ride from Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens.



Firing Line's trainer, Simon Callaghan, is a native of Newmarket, England, where speed isn't exactly king. The young trainer initially settled in Southern California to focus on turf fillies with Breeders' Cup plans for European owners and quickly learned how competitive the scene was.



"Since I've been here—and as you learn about the racing in general—you kinda realize there's some incredibly good trainers here," Callaghan said. "People think the tracks in California are very speed-favoring, but I think, in fact, all the good horses in California have speed. That's my view. Right through all levels here, it's incredibly competitive.



"There are tons of owners who send quality stock to the likes of Baffert and (Jerry) Hollendorfer, and those sort of guys. A good horse here is a good horse anywhere."

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But the beginning of 2015 is no aberration. Only last year, California Chrome ascended in the Triple Crown races, Shared Belief made a mid-season surge, and Bayern took the field gate to wire in the Breeders' Cup Classic (gr. I). In the Classic, all three horses based in the Golden State finished in the top four.



Trainers in Southern California talk about the "island" they're on, with limited secondary-track options—although Golden Gate Fields and Turf Paradise are relatively close, they don't offer comparable quality and purses—which can cut both ways. In one aspect, it doesn't provide ample of opportunities for horses a step below the top competition. On the other hand, it makes the top levels that much more competitive.



"The knock against racing in California is that there isn't the group of secondary racetracks to go to if your horse doesn't quite meet the top (competition)," Callaghan said. "That's why it makes it so competitive across the board. There isn't that place where you can pick up and go somewhere else, unless you go to Golden Gate, but that's a 6- to 8-hour van ride, a different track, and that's not really what you want to do."



The answer for California's most-recent resurgence appears to be rather basic. It's not in the water (there's not much left, anyway). Most likely, it's simply that some of the top trainers in the country are getting some of the top young horses.



Baffert, in particular, has dug out a niche as one of the few go-to trainers to send horses to if you want a Triple Crown contender. He didn't get Firing Line, however, which still doesn't sit all that well.



"Firing Line is a beautiful horse," Baffert said. "My agent who was (at the Derby) tells me, 'What the hell is wrong with you? Why didn't you buy that horse?' He's a beautiful specimen of a horse. I'll buy those horses all day. I didn't see him, because I wasn't there. If I was there... he looks like Bayern a little bit, built for speed, and I love that."



Both trainers aren't getting ahead of themselves, though. They agree the California swing in Triple Crown races is likely cyclical, but regardless of trends, the horses will claim their legacies on the track, not in speculation.



"You don't know until you get them all together, and that's what the Derby and the classics are all about," Baffert said. "They're the best of their group, but you can't compare these horses with Seattle Slew or Secretariat until it's over with."