BY JIM WELLS
You are Bob Baffert and your barns are well stocked with expensive horses, but there is one of them asked about almost exclusively in recent days.
The 3-year-old Chestnut colt under your care is attracting a lot of attention, questions about his health, his demeanor. Has anything changed since Pimlico ?
Baffert is well equipped to handle the intense glare and accompanying queries that are part and parcel of having a horse whose next race can make him a Triple Crown winner.
It is only three years ago, after all, that he saddled the first winner of that distinction since Affirmed – American Pharoah.
One week from today, June 9, Baffert will send out Justify, that 3-year-old son of Scat Daddy and Stage Magic, with an opportunity to become the 13th Triple Crown winner in racing annals.
So, at this point what is essential, what is needed with a horse that has run two taxing races two weeks apart and is about to run a third, all within a five week period ?
“I’d be petting him a lot and watching him rest,” said trainer Vic Hanson.
Overstatement? Not in the least.
After races covering a mile and ¼ (for the first time at that distance) and then, two weeks later, a mile and 3/16, there is no need to talk about conditioning.
“He’s fit. All of those horses are fit,” said trainer Francisco Bravo. “The easy thing to do is to work them. It’s very easy now to over-train a horse in that position.”
What seems agreed upon by trainers at this point is that a horse such as Justify, a horse that has won the first two legs of this three-race series, needs only some careful handling and certainly nothing rigorous or overly demanding.
“In a barn with the kind of help they have, you want to keep them busy so it’s real easy to just train,” Bravo added. “The hard thing is not to.”
Nothing more than carefully managed breezes and short works to keep a horse loose and tuned up, exactly what Baffert has been doing in recent days.
Justify got his first post-Preakness breeze earlier this week, a half mile work in a reportedly effortless 46.80, immediately prior to a five-furlong work in 59.60.
Baffert used a similar strategy with American Pharoah leading up to his Belmont Stakes.
Foremost for trainer Tony Rengstorf at this point is the horse’s mental and physical state. “How sound is he and how much has the mental grind gotten to him,” he said.
Can he withstand not one but maybe two or three shots that will be leveled at him over the course of a mile and one-half ?
Which brings up another aspect to this race that has little to do with the horse itself. “They always say this is a rider’s race,” Rengstorf added.
Riding strategy, over the Belmont distance, can be the difference.
Hanson imagines that Baffert has been the subject of numerous conversations on the backside at Belmont Park this week, even though he has been in California and at Churchill Downs where Justify will remain stabled until mid-week.
“I’m sure there are plenty of people who don’t want to see him win this one, too,” he said. “That entire field will be out to get him.”
Him, of course, is Justify.
EIKLEBERRY HAS A HOT HAND.
You know you’ve had a good night in the saddle when relatives text you for a ride home because they’ve been celebrating after your trips to the winner’s circle.
Say, five wins in a row.
Ry Eikleberry did that on Friday night, winning races three through seven to increase his lead in the rider standings.
“I’ve won five a few times on a card,” he said, “but I’m not sure about five races in a row. I can’t remember doing that.”
Did he anticipate such a successful evening?
“Well, you always think you’ll do well,” he said. “But sometimes when you think you’ll win five, you win one. Then you might think you’ll win one and you win five.”
Eikleberry’s big night increased his lead in the rider standings to 19 wins, five more than Orlando Mojica, who rode two winners Friday.
