Disgraced and adorned, Bob Baffert is again at Churchill Downs this week forward of the 151st Kentucky Derby with a story to inform.
With a a three-year suspension within the rearview mirror — stemming from 2021 Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit testing constructive for the corticosteroid betamethasone — Baffert returned to the horse racing highlight hoping to writer one other chapter in an advanced legacy.
“Everybody’s been very nice to me,” Baffert stated of his reception from different trainers and horsemen. “They are saying they’re glad to see me, and I am glad to be again.”
Morning line favourite Journalism, who has 3-1 odds out of the No. 8 place, is the deserving favourite in keeping with the 72-year-old coach.
With a pair of entries within the first leg of the Triple Crown to be run Saturday evening in Kentucky, the draw wasn’t the reception he’d hoped to obtain.
Citizen Bull (12-1), which was anticipated to be the coach’s greatest probability at a powerful end, drew the dreaded No. 1 place.
“I want I had a problem flag. If I had it, I might have thrown it,” Baffert stated.
Citizen Bull, winner of the Eclipse Award as the highest 2-year-old in 2024, was the quickest of the 15 horses labored out at Churchill Downs on Monday with six furlongs in 1:12.40.
A six-time Derby-winning coach with two Triple Crown winners on his resume, Baffert can break the tie with Ben Jones along with his seventh victory this week. He has been actively operating horses throughout the Churchill Downs suspension lifted in November, when he forfeited his authorized combat towards the ban, and successful.
To get a seventeenth win in a Triple Crown race this week, Baffert seems to have come to the belief it is perhaps as much as Rodriguez, winner of the Wooden Memorial who drew the No. 4 place. Mike Smith, vying to grow to be the oldest jockey to win the Derby at 58, can be aboard and stated he’s pushing to get Baffert again within the Winner’s Circle. Smith was Baffert’s jockey piloting Justify to the Triple Crown in 2018 when he turned the oldest to finish that feat — at age 52.
Smith stated he advised Baffert he was simply “sitting right here on the bench quietly … ready so that you can put me in” when the choice lastly got here.
“You bought him in order for you him,” Baffert advised Smith.
American Promise, son of Justify, additionally labored out Monday earlier than returning to coach D. Wayne Lukas’ barn. The Virginia Derby winner has generated a whole lot of buzz since his final outing. He has simply run the Derby distance and past, and Lukas pressured stamina is a determined power.
“That may be a massive plus to not have to fret about something,” Lukas stated of the colt with 30-1 odds.
–Area Stage Media
