With Seven Wins, Baffert Fond Of Futurity

The race has been won by Hall of Fame trainers D. Wayne Lukas, Gary Jones, Woody Stephens, Charlie Whittingham, Jerry Hollendorfer, Neil Drysdale, Ron McAnally, Richard Mandella, and a leading seven times by Bob Baffert.

 

But with Los Alamitos' position on the Southern California racing schedule in considerable doubt after 2016, the race, if it is to continue, might have to pack its bags and move on while acquiring yet another name.

 

"The timing of this race is important," noted Baffert, who will send out Toews On Ice and Mor Spirit in an attempt to capture an eighth Futurity. "I would hate to lose it on the calendar. Very good horses run in it and come out of it to do big things. This race starts you thinking about the Kentucky Derby (gr. I)."

 

Baffert has pulled off the Futurity/Derby double with Real Quiet, who also went on to capture the Preakness Stakes (gr. I). Futurity winner Point Given   graduated to win the Preakness and Belmont Stakes (gr. I), while Futurity winner Lookin At Lucky   won the Preakness. Baffert has also won the Futurity with Captain Steve, Pioneerof the Nile  , Liaison  , and a year ago with Dortmund.

 

At 1 1/16 miles, the Futurity offers up in many cases the first evidence of which horses will be able to navigate two turns and which would be better off kept away from the Triple Crown trail.

 

"With a lot of horses, you don't know if they want to go long," Baffert said. "They can all go long if they go slow enough, but under pressure you don't know how far they'll go until they run in a race like this."

 

Going into the Futurity, Baffert is more certain of Mor Spirit's ability to get a distance of ground. The Eskendereya colt has already won at a flat mile and ran second in the 1 1/16-mile Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (gr. II).  Toews On Ice has been kept to sprints thus far, and while he is by distance influence Archarcharch  , his broodmare sire,D'wildcat, suggests speed.

 

"He's in good form right now," Baffert said of Toews On Ice. "He's fast, and some of those will come around and go fast enough where you can get two turns out of them."

 

Baffert, while acknowledging the Derby is "far off,"  explained he still has a number of horses that he is just getting going now. There is no one way to get a horse to the first Saturday in May, although Baffert stated, "You can only do so much with them. It has to happen on its own."

 

At this time last year Baffert felt that Dortmund was the colt in his barn most likely to do big things back in Kentucky.American Pharoah   had gone to the bench the week of the 2014 Breeders' Cup with an injury. But by February, he was touting himself.

 

"Pharoah was like, 'Hey, don't forget about me, boys,' and he started coming around," said Baffert. "By the time I was getting him ready for the Rebel Stakes (gr. II) he was telling us he was special. I had two special horses last year, and that was fortunate.

 

"You can't force it. You have to wait for it to happen. You start them out, bring them along at their own pace, and have the patience not to try to squeeze a square peg into a round hole."

 

Baffert uses the Futurity as a stepping stone to Derby prep races in February and March. Although he said the 60 days that American Pharoah took off probably helped him last year, in general he prefers to keep his horses running rather than putting them away and then trying to bring them back. The Futurity will give him the chance to see which of these two he can move along on the Derby trail with a legitimate shot to win it.