Relaxed Baffert Shares Triple Crown With All

If not for the trademarked white hair and dark glasses, it would be hard to imagine that the man outside John Terranova's Belmont Park barn is the same person who perched up on the Santa Anita Park grandstand steps countless mornings before the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I).



A frenetic gumbo of nervousness when working out then Derby hopefuls American Pharoah, Dortmund, and One Lucky Dane, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert shrugged off a small group of reporters just like the eventual Belmont Stakes (gr. I) winner dispatched rivals when winning the Triple Crown.



"Get away from me," he said with a wry smile, while those around were unsure whether he was joking or not.



The contrast June 7, the morning after American Pharoah became the 12th Triple Crown winner, was stark.



Bringing the horse out of Barn 1 to meet the media, the conditioner paused for a moment.



"You you guys want to come up and, like, pet him?" Baffert said.



He didn't have to ask twice. The media horde turned into a gushing group of fans, surrounding American Pharoah, who soaked it all in, snuggling with his admirers and letting them give him kisses.

NOVAK: Churchill-Bound American Pharoah Star of Show



"I wanted to share him with everybody and show everybody how kind and sweet he is... He's been so special to me, because for some reason, he connects with you," Baffert said. "Horses of his caliber are not that nice and sweet. They're just sort of tough. If I brought Bayern out here, you can't get near him, he's too aggressive. He's just so different than any horse I've ever had."



It's as if this Triple Crown has softened Baffert's core, which had been hardened by soul-crushing Belmont defeats with Silver Charm, Real Quiet, and War Emblem.



"This game can really get you bitter at times," Baffert said. "Sometimes you just—I wish I would have done something else, and you get down. Then all of the sudden, something like this comes around and you go, 'Wow, I'm glad I'm a horse trainer.' This horse took me somewhere where I never thought I'd come again... Looking back... I was kind of obnoxious."



But even back in those mornings at Santa Anita, there was a reason he distanced himself. One of his most well-used lines is about how he never relaxes until the saddle is on for any particular race.



Baffert's apprehension isn't unfounded. The morning of April 18, he was at his Santa Anita perch when his radio buzzed. It was jockey Martin Garcia, Baffert's on-track lieutenant for morning drills, who was on another horse while Rafael Bejarano worked One Lucky Dane. Something was wrong.



"Patron," Garcia's voice rattled through the radio. "Raffi pulled him up."

Baffert was gone in a flash, back to the barn while One Lucky Dane was transported to the backside in a equine ambulance. When he learned of the news that the colt had a leg injury and would need four months off to recover from surgery, he emerged from the barn. His ever-present sunglasses were off. There was nothing to shield the sorrow in his eyes, tears building underneath them.



"That's why you're never safe until you put the saddle on, but he looks like he's going to be OK," Baffert said at the time.



Back on the lawn at Terranova's barn, while American Pharoah pawed at the turf and grazed, the sun shined through a clear sky for the first time since the horse arrived June 2, giving a literal afterglow to Saturday's transcendent achievement. The bay colt gleamed in the bright sunlight and appeared ready to run another mile and a half with no problem.



As about 30 people surrounded the horse, Baffert described American Pharoah's younger days, when he struggled through schooling.



"Early on, he was all over the place. He was nervous, jumping around—he wasn't this way at all," Baffert said. "After that first race, we worked with him, and all the sudden he got really sweet and really mellow. He was a little bit of a headcase, always ducking, trying to get away from horses. He wasn't really a great student... Every day, he went to that paddock. He went to that paddock every day for like two weeks, until he finally settled down. He never had a bad day after that."



Maybe it was this horse who taught his trainer, not the other way around.