From Derby Goat To Hero, All In A Day's Work For Baffert
By, William F. Reed
May 4, 2002

"You need to leave the Derby to horses who belong there. If you don't belong, then stay the hell away. So the Derby is probably one thing we don't want to do."
- Russell Reineman

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (May 4, 2002) - War Emblem's shocking wire-to-wire victory in the 128th Kentucky Derby (GI) caused a lot of heartburn around the racing world. There was a lot of serious gagging at Churchill Downs when trainer Bob Baffert changed instantly from Derby goat to Derby hero, some retching in Illinois at the sight of jockey Victor Espinoza waving his whip in triumph, and some royal anti-acid guzzling in Ireland and Dubai at the sight of Prince Ahmed Bin Salman leading his colt into the winner's circle.

When War Emblem rolled to a 6 1/4-length victory over Repent in the Illinois Derby (GII) on Apr. 6, owner Reineman shocked just about everyone by declaring immediately, in a statement that will go down in Derby lore, that War Emblem would pass the Kentucky Derby and maybe point for the Preakness (GI) two years later. This surely was a disappointment to trainer Frank R. Springer and jockey Larry Sterling, Jr., who had never been in the "Run for the Roses".

What made Reineman's decision especially surprising was that, at 84, he doesn't figure to have many more chances to win the race he has coveted for years. In addition, this was the first year that Sportsman's Park ran the Illinois Derby as a Kentucky Derby prep and offered an enticing $1 million bonus to any horse winning both the Illinois Derby and one of the Triple Crown races.

So when Baffert found out that War Emblem might be for sale, he got on his cell phone and began working on the deal that culminated when his main client, Prince Salman of Saudi Arabia paid Reineman a reported $1 million for the dark bay colt, a son of Our Emblem, out of Sweetest Lady, that was bred in Kentucky by Charles Nuckols, Jr. and sons. From the moment the Prince signed the check, it was understood that Baffert would train him for the Derby.

Salman has been battling the powerful Godolphin Stable of Dubai to see which could be the first to win America's grandest prize. So, while Godolphin's Essence of Dubai finished a distant ninth on May 4, Prince Salman's recent acquisition shot to the lead, controlled the pace, never was seriously challenged, and drew off in the final furlong for an easy four-length victory over Proud Citizen in the respectable time of 2:01.13 for the mile and a quarter.

"By the way," said Prince Salman with a sly post-Derby smile, "I am the first Arab owner to win the Kentucky Derby."

Last year the Prince had the Derby favorite in the Baffert-trained Point Given, but that colt finished a dull fifth in the race won by Monarchos. But Point Given bounced back to win the Preakness (GI), Belmont (GI), Haskell (GI), and Travers (GI) to nail down Horse-of-the-Year honors.

"I told the Prince I owed him one for last year," Baffert said. "Now he's got his Derby. We were fortunate to be able to buy this horse and bring him here."

A lot of Baffert's critics roasted him for coming to the Derby with a horse that he didn't develop. Said trainer D. Wayne Lukas after his Proud Citizen's victory in the Lexington Stakes (GII) at Keeneland, "He'll be in the Derby, and nobody had to buy him for me, either."

The Baffert bashers wrote off War Emblem's chances in the Derby, saying it was only a matter of Baffert's lust for the spotlight getting the better of him. But that was nothing compared with the criticism he received for waiting until the very last minute to enter the longshot Danthebluegrassman in the Derby, knocking Windward Passage out of the 20-horse field.

"Entering him wasn't so bad," said one veteran Derby trainer, "it was the way he did it. He should gave gone over to Steve Asmussen (trainer of Windward Passage) and told him what he was thinking about, so Asmussen could alert his owners about the possibility of being knocked out."

The Derby field shrunk to 19 on May 2 when a minor foot injury caused Wood Memorial (GI) winner Buddha to be scratched. Then it became 18 the morning of the Derby when Baffert scratched Danthebluegrassman because of muscle spasms after a jog. By winning the Derby, however, Bobthederbyman muted a lot of the criticism that would have been heaped on him.

Even Baffert's promise to give half the million-dollar bonus to Springer probably didn't keep War Emblem's former trainer from having a sinking feeling as he watched Espinoza, who won his first Derby in his second attempt, run such ballyhooed contenders as Harlan's Holiday (seventh), Saarland (10th), Medaglia d'Oro (fourth), Private Emblem (14th), and Came Home (sixth) into submission.

"I had some disappointment, sure," said Springer from Illinois, where he was contacted by the Churchill media staff. "But what can you do? I didn't have much control over the situation. I'm tickled to death for that horse. There is still a lot of pride in it for me. This is like having one of your children succeed."

After all, horsemen such as Springer and jockey Sterling do their work on racing's fringes, far from the big crowds and big purses. They are as anonymous as Baffert is famous. Baffert's probably quoted and photographed more in a week than they've been in their careers. So as they watched War Emblem pound down the long Churchill stretch, they probably saw the first, and maybe only, chance at immortality slipping away.

On a bright, sunny, and not-too-warm afternoon at everybody's old Kentucky home, the Derby drew a crowd of 145,003, proving wrong the dire predictions that increased security measures would cause attendance to drop precipitously. The crowd was down only about 9,000 from last year.

From the precipices of Millionaire's Row to the raucous depths of the infield, the movie stars, celebrity stalkers, and beer-addled college kids bet their cash on the entrants being touted by the "experts" in the pressbox, but let War Emblem get away at odds of 20-1. He paid $43, $22.80 and $13.60. The $2 exacta paid $1,300.80 and the winning trifecta paid a whopping $18,373.20.

The Irish-based horses, Johannesburg (eighth) and Castle Gandolfo (12th) ran as if they'd had only one prep race on the grass in Europe, didn't cross the pond until Derby week, and stayed so long in quarantine at Keeneland that they didn't even see the twin spires until Derby morning.

Which, of course, is exactly how the two horses came into the Derby.

Because he was ill, their trainer, Aidan O'Brien, didn't attend the Derby or even the 2,000 Guineas (Gr.I) in England, where his horses finished 1-2. Surely, however, he now understands that he needs to come up with a new game plan if he's ever going to win the Kentucky Derby (GI).

Unlike most runnings of the Derby, No. 128 was suprisingly devoid of drama. While the other jockeys were saving their horses and waiting for War Emblem to fold like a cheap accordian, Espinoza was all alone on the lead. The pace was respectable, not killing, and Espinoza had plenty of horse as the field turned for home.

In the last furlong, War Emblem was Tiger Woods at the Masters, waiting for somebody to challenge him. Nobody did, allowing the colt to become the Derby's first wire-to-wire winner since Winning Colors in 1988.

"We sort of came in the back door," said a jubilant Baffert, "but we're leaving by the front door."

You could almost hear the upset stomachs growing in the background.

Native Kentuckian William F. "Billy" Reed has been a sports writer in various capacities for 42 years and has missed covering the Kentucky Derby a mere two times since 1966. He has been a high-profile sports writer in Kentucky for the Commonwealth's two largest daily newspapers, the Louisville Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader and was a national columnist for Sports Illustrated, covering among other sports, Thoroughbred horse racing and college basketball. Reed currently pens a column for the Louisville Sports Report , contrbiutes features to the Keeneland program and will be, among varied other assignments, filing Kentucky Derby installments on www.kentuckyderby.com.

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