McKinzie Wins Emotional Debut for Baffert

Naming horses after people can be a tricky deal. And the more the person means to you, the harder it is.

In the case of a 2-year-old Street Sense  colt owned by Karl Watson, Mike Pegram, and Paul Weitman, and trained by Bob Baffert, the namesake that was under consideration meant as much as any.

"(The owners) told me, you better pick a good one," Baffert said of the colt that would eventually be named McKinzie, after longtime friend and Los Alamitos Race Course executive Brad McKinzie, who died from renal carcinoma Aug. 6 at the age of 62.

So what happened in the colt's debut in the seventh race Oct. 28 at Santa Anita Park sent a chill up the spine of anyone who had a clue what his name represented. With a wide move in the turn under jockey Mike Smith, McKinzie cruised by a trio of front-runners and pulled away with ease to win by 5 1/2 lengths going seven furlongs on the main track. As Smith entered the winner's circle aboard the colt, he looked to the sky and said, "That was for Brad."

Baffert doesn't get choked up in public often, but reliving the race after he took the winner's circle photo inspired more than a couple lumps in the throat. McKinzie was a classmate of Baffert's at the University of Arizona and once upon a time convinced the eventual Hall of Fame trainer of Thoroughbreds to relocate to Southern California when he was training Quarter Horses in the 1980s.

"He meant so much to us. He was like a brother," Baffert said after the race. "My mother used to call him her favorite son. That's how close we were. He's always been the biggest supporter of mine, so it was very emotional.

"There's not a day or week where we don't think about him. He was always part of our family gatherings, so I just hope this horse stays healthy and we can enjoy it."

The stretch run Saturday was certainly one to enjoy, as McKinzie was unchallenged in the lane, even if it brought a little bit of sadness in remembering an old friend.

"You want to cry watching him come down the stretch," Baffert said. "But I'm glad. And it's been a long time since this team has had a good horse. We've been spoiled—horses like Secret Circle  and Lookin At Lucky —and we found something that can run. And they're fun to win for, because they appreciate it. They know how tough it is."

Putting a debut winner into the company of multiple grade 1 winners is not something that's done lightly in the horse training business, but it's not by chance that McKinzie happens to be a good one. He was named because he was a good one, because Brad McKinzie was a good one.

And the next step in his racing career will come at a place his namesake loved with a passion.

"We'll run him back in the Los Al Futurity," Baffert said.