Bob Baffert can certainly be excused for getting caught up in the moment after Arrogate’s startling performance in Saturday’s $10 million Dubai World Cup.
Arrogate’s last-to-first run was so impressive that horse racing folks around the world are comparing Arrogate to 1973 Triple Crown winner Secretariat, the horse all others are compared to when judging greatness.
Baffert, himself, marveled at how Arrogate, who normally races near the lead from the start, fell back to last, then passed the other 13 horses as if they were standing still.
“I can’t believe he won,” Baffert said, almost giddy in disbelief. “That is a great horse right there. … As they turned for home, I turned to my friend and said, ‘If he wins, he’s the greatest horse we’ve seen since Secretariat. Unbelievable.”
Baffert, remember, trained 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, who became the first thoroughbred in 37 years to win the Triple Crown.
Arrogate never got a chance to duplicate the feats of Secretariat or American Pharoah since he didn’t make his debut until late spring of his 3-year-old season, missing the Triple Crown races.
He’s making up for it now.
Hardboot academy
Before Baffert began rubbing elbows with sheikhs in Dubai, he was dodging rattlesnakes 30 years ago at tiny Rillito Park in Tucson, Ariz.
That’s where Baffert, the Hall of Fame thoroughbred trainer who has won the Kentucky Derby four times, not to mention the sport’s first Triple Crown in 37 years, first started getting his picture taken, training quarter horses for as little as $600 in purse money in the early 1980s.
“My hope was to win there and maybe go on to the big time at Sunland Park or Los Alamitos,” he told the New York Times, referring to quarter-horse tracks in New Mexico and California. “I owe Rillito Park. One of these days, I’m going to run another horse there.”
Maybe so, but it won’t be with Arrogate, a son of Unbridled’s Song who won Saturday’s $10 million Dubai World Cup at lavish Meydan Racecourse, 8,378 miles and two worlds away from rickety Rillito.
Oh, doctor
Baffert, who hadn’t traveled to Dubai since suffering a near-fatal heart attack before the 2012 World Cup, told the New York Times that he had no reservations about making the trip.
“Dr. Armani is going to follow me around with the paddles,” Baffert said, referring to the welldressed doctor who treated him four years ago.
Baffert’s friendship with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, was the reason the Mohammed’s personal doctor was dispatched to treat Baffert.
Baffert said he marvels at how much the Sheik loves horses, even after losing to Baffert’s Silver Charm in 1998.
“Sheik Mo and his people met me in the winners’ circle, and all he wanted to do was put his hands on Silver Charm and admire him,” Baffert told the Times. “They have everything in the world, but all they wanted was to touch this horse. They have so much passion for these horses and sport.”