Baffert 'Hungrier' After Triple Crown Success

By Tom Pedulla

America's Best Racing

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert often describes American Pharoah  , the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years and his first after three near misses, as the "horse of a lifetime."

Given American Pharoah's speed and power, the efficiency of his running style, his durability, his responsiveness to jockey Victor Espinoza, his sweet demeanor, and just about every other attribute that can be named, Baffert knows deep inside that he is almost surely right.

The likes of American Pharoah may never pass this way again for Baffert, 63. The 12th Triple Crown champion won at six different tracks as part of an eight-race tour de force that brought an astounding $8,288,800 in earnings for Zayat Stables and charmed a nation.

The son of Pioneerof the Nile   was as good on Oct. 31 at Keeneland, when he became the first Triple Crown winner to win the Breeders' Cup Classic (gr. I), as he was when he dominated his 3-year-old debut in the Rebel Stakes (gr. II) at Oaklawn Park.

"I always felt he had an angel on his back the whole time to do what he did," Baffert said.

Many a good horse, perhaps even some great ones, never reached their potential due to handlers who failed to embrace the opportunity. American Pharoah landed in the perfect barn. Baffert and his staff molded abundant talent until the bay colt with the misspelled name and the cotton earplugs was almost untouchable.

"Every time I led him up there," Baffert said, "I felt like Nick Saban with his Alabama team."

But surely the trainer who kept the colt in top form for so long must be saluted, whether or not he is presented with the Eclipse Award as the leading trainer in North American the evening of Jan. 16. Remember, he was playing from behind early in the season because the colt had missed the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (gr. I) with an injury. Everything had to fall into place just right.

With Baffert, a four-time winner of the Kentucky Derby, six-time winner of the Preakness, and two-time winner of the Belmont Stakes (all gr. I), it so often does.

After so much success, after such a glorious season, and especially after a major heart attack in Dubai in March 2012, it would be understandable if Baffert felt contented and backed off a bit. If he scaled back his high-powered operation, everyone would understand.

That is not in Baffert's makeup. His laser focus, for so long locked on American Pharoah, is now riveted on identifying another potential Triple Crown hopeful and bringing him along just right.

"When you go through it," he said of last year's campaign, "it makes you hungrier because it was so much fun."

Baffert has at least one 3-year-old that quickens his pulse: Mor Spirit. The Pennsylvania-bred by Eskendereya closed last year by winning the Los Alamitos Futurity (gr. I). He is expected to make his 2016 debut in the 1 1/16-mile Robert B. Lewis Stakes (gr. II) Feb. 6 at Santa Anita Park.

"He looks like a Derby horse. He's maturing; he's getting better every day," Baffert said. "He has good size, he has the right mind, and he's not one-dimensional. He has speed, but he can sit (off the pace)."

Baffert noted that he has other prospects in his barn that may emerge. "I have horses where the jury is still out," he said. "They need to run a few times before we really find out."

Baffert finds himself chasing ghosts at this stage of his magnificent career. He is in headlong pursuit of Ben Jones, who saddled six Derby winners between 1938 and 1952, and of James E. "Sunny Jim" Fitzsimmons, the only trainer to oversee two Triple Crown immortals (Gallant Fox in 1930, Omaha in 1935). Baffert swept the first two legs with Silver Charm (1997), Real Quiet (1998), and War Emblem (2002).

"This is a game of hopes and dreams," Baffert said.