The Week in Review: Baffert’s Embarrassment of 2-Year-Old Riches

[Wandering Eyes]

When Improbable (City Zip) trounced his opponents in Saturday’s GI Los Alamitos Cash Call Futurity he received much deserved rave reviews. He endured a brief scare from stablemate Mucho Gusto (Mucho Macho Man) before switching into another gear and drawing off by five. He is undefeated, a two-time stakes winner and now a Grade I winner. This is a very good horse.

And he may not be Bob Baffert’s best 2-year-old. He might not be his fifth best 2-year-old.

There’s nothing new about Baffert having a lot of quality juveniles in his barn, but he’s taken it to a new level this year. A ridiculous level. Baffert has had 13 2-year-old males break their maiden this year, a list that includes champion-in-waiting and GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Game Winner (Candy Ride {Arg}). He’s also had seven 2-year-old fillies win a maiden race.

No doubt, there’s more. There are 21 days left to go in 2018 and he proved last year with Justify that he can still win a GI Kentucky Derby with a horse that didn’t start until February. Baffert doesn’t have to win next year’s Derby, but it appears that he could show up at Churchill Downs with the greatest collection of talent any trainer has ever brought to Louisville.

Here are the 13, and one person’s opinion on where they belong on the Baffert pecking order:

1) Game Winner: While some believe that Improbable is Baffert’s best 2-year-old, you can’t deny Game Winner first place. Not after all he has accomplished. He’s a three-time Grade I winner, the Breeders’ Cup winner, is undefeated and a future Eclipse Award winner.

2) Improbable: Would anyone be surprised if this horse were standing in the Derby winner’s circle on May 4? He struggled to break his maiden, winning by only a neck, but has been nothing short of sensational since. He won the Street Sense S. at Churchill by 7 1/4 lengths and looked like a potential superstar in the Los Al race Saturday.

3) Coliseum (Tapit): This horse hasn’t accomplished nearly as much as Game Winner or Improbable, but it appears his potential in unlimited. The colt’s owner, Godolphin, signed on with Baffert because winning a Kentucky Derby remains a major goal, and they came to the realization that their chances can only get better if they team up with the best Kentucky Derby trainer of modern times. Godolphin sent Baffert a handful of 2-year-olds and, reading between the lines, they sent ones they were very high on. Coliseum has run once, winning a Del Mar maiden by 6 3/4 lengths.

4) Roadster (Quality Road): This one is a bit of a sleeper. He was an impressive maiden winner in July at Del Mar and then came back to run third in the GI Del Mar Futurity behind Game Winner. Despite facing Game Winner, he was the 7-10 favorite that day. Baffert said the horse had a minor setback after that race and that he remains very high on him.

5) Magic On Tap (Tapit): By Tapit out of a Grade I winning mare, Aubby K, this horses is bred as well as a horse can be bred. He debuted Sept. 1 at Del Mar and won easily, by 2 1/4 lengths. The race was at 6 1/2 furlongs and this horse should only get better with added distance.

6) Tale of the Union (Union Rags): A New York-bred that costs $925,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Midatlantic 2-Year-Old Sale, he smashed the competition in his debut on Aug 26. He won by eight lengths, covering the 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:03.81. You have to wonder why he hasn’t run back, and he hasn’t had a published workout since Sept. 18.

7) Mucho Gusto (Mucho Macho Man): Already a graded stakes winner, which he accomplished in the GIII Bob Hope S., he finished second Saturday behind Improbable at Los Alamitos. It was his first start around two turns, which could mean two things–this horse doesn’t want to go long or Improbable is just that good.

8) Metropol (Shackleford): Broke his maiden Oct. 10 at Santa Anita as the 7-10 favorite. He would be rated higher, but falls to the middle of the pack because he won by only three-quarters of a length over a horse that subsequently ran seventh in a maiden race.

9) Kingly (Tapit): Another whose breeding is off-the-charts good–he is a full brother to Mohaymen, a four-time Grade II winner, and a half brother to GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner New Year’s Day (Street Cry {Ire}). He debuted Dec. 1 at Del Mar and won by 3/4 of a length. What made no sense is that with his breeding and the Baffert brand, he went off at 4-1. The ones the barn really likes almost always go off as odds-on favorites.

10) Much Better (Pioneerof the Nile): Started off with a bang, breaking his maiden by 3 1/4 lengths at 9-10. But Baffert then decided to turn him into a grass horse. He ran second in the Zuma Beach S. and 14th in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. Sorry, Bob, grass is not your forte. Time to put this one back on the dirt.

11) Cruel Intention (Smiling Tiger): The good news: he’s 2 for 2. The bad news: His wins have come in California-bred competition.

12) Count Di Luna (Liason): Broke his maiden by 1 1/2 lengths at Santa Anita in his lone appearance, but was completely dead on the board at 10-1. Baffert also used an apprentice, Assael Espinoza. Doesn’t sound like a horse the stable was very high on.

13) Dark Prince (Cairo Prince): Took him five starts to break his maiden and when he did it was in a maiden claimer on the grass.

All Hail, Kukulkan

That was an eye-catching performance turned in by Kukulkan (Mex) (Pointed Determined) in the Carribean Classic at Gulfstream. The Mexican Triple Crown winner made an almost Arazi-like move down the backstretch on his way to a 10 1/4-length win. He is now 14 for 14 and earned ($180,000) more in that one race than he did in all his prior starts ($152,484).

But how good is he? His Beyer number was just a 71, which may or may not win a $25,000 claimer in the U.S.

Gulfstream handled $9,617,173 on the card, a 9% increase over the inaugural Clasico Internacional del Caribe program. Yet, American racing fans are, apparently, still having a hard time betting the races for the foreign horses with any confidence. A week earlier, on Claiming Crown Day, Gulfstream handled $13.6 million.

Saturday, the last two non-Caribe races handled a combined $2.2 million in the win, place, show, exacta, trifecta and superfecta pools. In the first two Caribe races, the total handle for those races for the same pools was $1.2 million.

Nonetheless, there’s something to be said about creating big events at the track, even if they affect the betting. I have not been to a Clasico Internacional del Caribe program, but those who have say the atmosphere is as electric as you’ll find at any racetrack on any day. That’s something you can’t put a price on. It looks the Caribe Classic at Gulfstream is here to stay.

Horse of the Year

In recent days, the TDN has featured a series asking prominent people in racing who should be Horse of the Year. I figured Justify (Scat Daddy) would come out on top over Accelerate (Lookin at Lucky), but it wasn’t close. Though the poll was hardly scientific, it left me with no doubt that Justify will be named 2018 Horse of the Year.

With one exception (Steve Cauthen), I compiled the reports, so I feel I’ve earned the right to have my own opinion heard.

I will not only vote for Justify, I won’t even give it a second thought. In fact, as long as I’ve still got a vote and a pulse, I will vote for any horse than wins the Triple Crown. It is the ultimate achievement in this sport, and nothing else comes close. We can be a fickle bunch. Until American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile) won the 2015 Triple Crown there were those who were convinced that feat was so difficult that it may never be achieved again. Remember all that talk about shortening the races and/or putting more space between them?

So now that it took just three years for another horse to win a Triple Crown, to some people, it’s not that big of a deal? C’mon. Accelerate had a marvelous year and it took something of the magnitude of a Triple Crown winner to deny him what would have been a very deserving Horse of the Year.

Yes, we all wish Justify continued to race after the Belmont, but that doesn’t take anything away from what was a sensational, albeit, brief campaign. A Horse of the Year campaign.

 

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