Bob Baffert was confident to the point of being smug, but that's usual on any day that ends in Y.
Saturday, among the rain and heavy fog, Baffert was a ray of sunshine as he waited for the Preakness Stakes and his odds-on-favorite Justify to move him one step closer to racing immortality. His confidence was as big as this continent, and for good reason.
After an incredible duel -- a match-race if you will -- between Justify and Good Magic, who finished second to Justify in the Kentucky Derby, Justify held off a fast-closing Bravazo and game Tenfold to win the Preakness, a race Baffert has never lost with a Kentucky Derby winner.
One more Triple Crown and Baffert will go down as the G.O.A.T in the world of thoroughbred training.
From the hardscrabble quarter horses, he has risen into the most powerful man in racing. Billionaires beg him to take care of their horses.
The jockey colony, especially at Santa Anita, might as well be called Bob's Boy Scouts.
The guy from Nogales, N.M., who started out wanting to be a quarter horse jockey and didn't make the switch to thoroughbreds until the 1980s was not an overnight success.
His first big win was the Breeders' Cup in 1992, and it wasn't long thereafter he was walking in D. Wayne Lukas' boots as the man calling the shots in West Coast racing.
All of his five Kentucky Derby winners have gone on to win the Preakness, but it wasn't until 2015 that American Pharoah broke the 37-year Triple Crown drought to give Baffert his first holy grail of horse racing.
Horse racing continues to be a tough business, but Baffert makes it look easy.
His favorite, Justify, won the Kentucky Derby in the slop and proved his critics wrong as jockey Mike Smith knew exactly what to do with his push-button mount. Get him in the open, keep him out of the mud, and ask for that special gear in the stretch.
For the first time ever the Preakness copied the weather of the Kentucky Derby, and Saturday 40 horses scratched from the 14-card program, mostly turf races that were switched to the dirt. Many wanted no part of the track that had taken in almost 7 inches of rain in the days leading up to the $1.5 million Preakness.
In a slop, Justify -- a $500,000 purchase -- took the lead and suddenly was being stared in the eye by Good Magic, whose trainer Chad Brown had said after the Derby he would skip the Preakness. Obviously, he changed his mind.
As they went into the first turn inches apart, it was clear Good Magic was not going to let Justify win without a fight. For more than a mile, the heavyweights went at it with might and fight. As they turned for home, Good Magic put his nose in front for the briefest of moments.
That was when Smith pushed the button. All great thoroughbreds have that button that when pushed surges energy through the muscle and grit and flesh. Justify regained the lead, slowly pulling away before Good Magic tried to fight back before Tenfold put him away.
Suddenly on the outside came Bravazo -- who won an optional claiming race at Oaklawn Park in January -- with a rally to overtake Tenfold in the final stride, but Justify already had crossed the finish line.
It was not a remarkable Preakness. Justify didn't look like a super horse, but he proved he was good enough to be challenged every stride of the way and still end up in the winner's circle.
Now all he and Baffert need is for Justify to bounce back for the Belmont in 20 days.
Sports on 05/20/2018