July 15, 2020
Haskell Stakes/Saratoga Preview
Guests
- Bob Baffert, trainer, Authentic (Haskell)
- Saffie Joseph Jr., trainer Ny Traffic (Haskell), Tonalist’s Shape (Coaching Club American Oaks)
- Terry Finley of West Point Thoroughbreds, co-owner Decorated Invader (Hall of Fame Stakes)
Full transcript (note: transcript has not been edited)
P R E S E N T A T I O N
Operator:
Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the NTRA Road to the Triple Crown conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. At that time, participants are asked to press star one to register for a question. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Miss Alicia Hughes. Please go ahead, Miss Hughes.
Alicia Hughes:
Thank you so much, Dan, and welcome everyone to this week’s NTRA teleconference on the road to the Triple Crown. This week we will be previewing two signature summer events in thoroughbred racing. The grade one Haskell steaks at Monmouth Park, which is also a breeders’ cup challenge series, they went in and are in qualifier for the breeders’ cup classic. And we’re also going to preview the start of the historic Saratoga racecourse meeting. The $1 million half will headline the card this weekend at Monmouth that features five rated steaks on the Jersey Shore while the grade one Coaching Club American Oak and the grade two hall of fame will be opening weekend of grade stakes at Saratoga. Later on, in this call, we are slated to be joined by trainer Saffie Joseph who has New York Traffic set for the half poll out of post seven. And Saffie also has Tonalist’s Shape set to go for the Coaching Club American Oaks.
We are also slated to check in with owner Terry Findley of West Point Thoroughbreds who will send out grade one winner Decorated Invader in the hall of fame stakes. First and foremost, though, we are lucky as always to be joined by hall of fame trainer, Bob Baffert, who has won the Haskell a record eight times with his latest victory in the race coming in 2015 with Triple Crown winner, American Pharoah. Bob will be aiming for his nice Haskell win this Saturday with multiple grade stakes winner, Authentic, who is the four to five morning line choice in the field of seven. Bob, thank you so much for joining us today.
Bob Baffert:
Thanks for having me.
Alicia Hughes:
It’s always a pleasure, Bob, when we get to have you on with us. Like I said, first and foremost, I said, we’ll talk about Authentic, the favorite here for the Haskell. He hasn’t done a whole lot wrong in his fourth career starts with his only loss coming last time out when he was second in the Santa Anita Derby. How do you kind of assess that last race for him? And how has the kind of progressed for you in his work that have led into this spot?
Bob Baffert:
Well, I mean, he had sort of a rough trip. He didn’t break well, and he broke out, lost a couple lanes and ended up getting taught. Why? He was a little rank. He came into the race, Alicia, I think he was a little bit fresh. I backed off of him because I didn’t know when they were going to run the Santa Anita Derby. And we like to make excuses for our horses cause they’re were like our children, but he was a little bit fresh coming in there and he got tired. He was wide and the winner, Honor A.P. ran a great race, went by him. And so, it was a good race and he got beat that day. So hopefully, since then he’s been training really well. I think he couldn’t be doing any better. And so, here we are.
Alicia Hughes:
Sounds good, Bob. Like I said I, looking at the queue here looks like we have a lot of media joining us today. So, with that, I am going to throw it to our operator, Dan, to check in with the media, to see if they have any questions for you.
Operator:
Thank you. At this time, we’ll open the floor for questions. If you’d like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. If you’re using a speakerphone, please make sure your mute function is turned off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. Again, press star one if you’d like to ask a question. And we’ll pause for just a moment to allow everyone an opportunity to signal for questions. We’ll take our first question in queue comes from Jim Hague with The Racing Biz. Please go ahead.
Jim Hague:
Thank you. Bob, what do you attribute why you’ve had so much success in the Haskell? Is it just because you put good horses in – pedigree horses in the past or is it just your horses liked the track and liked racing here?
Bob Baffert:
Well, I mean, I love Monmouth Park. I’ve been going there — I remember going the first time there, and I loved the track. Speed horses usually do well there. But the reason I’ve had all that success is I brought my best horses there, and they’re good horses. And so, that’s the secret. I’ve never been able to win it with the horse that wasn’t the best. As we saw last year [inaudible] ran the race of his life and it looked like he was going to get the better of Maximum Security. But Maximum Security, he just — we could have gotten around there twice. We were not going to get by him.
Operator:
We’ll take our next question, comes from Danny Brewer, horseracingscoop.com. Please go ahead.
Danny Brewer:
Bob.
How are you?
Bob Baffert:
Fine. Thank you.
Danny Brewer:
With all of everything that has gone on, you’ve been kind of having to make like Tommy Lasorda here with all the lineup changes and stuff, more than normal. I mean, talk about that for a minute as far as all this that you’ve had to deal with as a trainer.
Bob Baffert:
Well, all you can do is you have a situation and we’ve had some horses get injured and it’s unfortunately, and it’s changed everything. But you just have to just move on. And I’ve always had a motto is, never looked back. You can’t change the past in the past. So, we just get these horses, we get them ready. And we have those other horses, [inaudible] in May, we were on a tremendous, with all my horses, we were on a tremendous schedule. They were peaking at the right time. I was going in. I couldn’t have been any stronger than I’ve been in a while. And then all of a sudden, boom, the whole thing just blows up. And so, that happens. It’s like any sports team. Unfortunately, we have injuries. But now that these races are coming up, the Haskell, it’s always been a really important race to me. I think it’s a very prestigious race. I don’t think of it as Derby points. Otherwise, I would have brought Uncle Chuck or somebody. I thought this horse Authentic would be a perfect fit for that. He’s extremely — he’s a fast horse and he’s a good horse. And so, I’m really looking forward to the race.
Danny Brewer:
Shifting gears just a little bit to Maximum Security, as good as you thought — you had your hands on him for a little bit now, as good as you thought, better than you thought? What do you think there?
Bob Baffert:
On what now?
Danny Brewer:
On Maximum Security. I know like his work though the day was fantastic. And I know he’s running in San Diego on the Saturday. Is he as good as you thought he was before you had him under your care?
Bob Baffert:
Yeah. I mean, I don’t — when I see him train, he trains like a really top horse. He looks like — and that’s what I see. And I’m actually very excited, a little bit nervous about it, I feel a little added pressure. But there’s a lot of pressure when you’re around good horses, and we always have that. And so, I’m excited, I’m nervous about Authentic anytime he ran in a big race, but he’s just — I mean to be around, he’s a big, strong, he’s a beautiful horse. He’s been doing everything well. I think it’s — I don’t like the circumstances the way I got the horse, but he couldn’t be trained any better and I really expect the big efforts from him.
Danny Brewer:
Appreciate the sound, Bob. Wish you the best of luck.
Bob Baffert:
Thank you.
Operator:
We’ll take our next question comes from David Grening, Daily Racing Form. Please go ahead.
David Grening:
Hey, Bob, I just wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you about Crystal Ball and what makes — just coming off a maiden win center across country for a race like the Coaching Club.
Bob Baffert:
Well, there’s not a whole lot here at Del Mar and after discussing it with Elliott Walden, the racing manager of WinStar, we thought this would be a good spot for her. I think she’s a Filly, she’s sort of a grinder type. She has speed, but grinder. And I thought her first race, I ran her long. She wasn’t really quite ready, pretty green. And her second race was really, a strong race. And we’ve always thought highly of her and it’s there, she caused a lot of money, but she doesn’t have really — like to have another race in her before something like this. But the opportunities, there’s not a lot of them out there and being that I wasn’t going to run Gamine in that race, that’s why we decided we’ll take her there and I think she’ll run well. I think she wants to go along. And so, I think she’ll get a lot out of it and might set her up for maybe the Alabama.
David Grening:
Was being on a lead key last time, or?
Bob Baffert:
I think just having an out was key with her and, going to turns, I think that’s her game. And so, I’m sure she’s — hopefully, she breaks well and she’s going to be played forwardly.
David Grening:
And Gamine, are you more settled yet on whether you’ll come for the test or not? And does NYRA’s rules regarding jockeys impact any plans you might have?
Bob Baffert:
No, not really. One thing about Saratoga, I think your Jockey Kong is pretty strong there, so I’m not worried about that. And Johnny’s there, so I’m not worried about that. But I don’t know, right now we’re pointing for — haven’t really decided, I think Detach is an option. The seat race would have been great. I wish it was another week or two. She ran that big, big effort in New York, and I didn’t want to really bring her back too soon, but you’re always worried about the super balance, but she just ran like the most incredible race of any Filly I’ve ever trained. So, she looks fantastic, she’s looking great. So, I wanted to give her a little extra time because the Kentucky Oaks, that’s the goal, and I want to keep her fresh for that race.
David Brewer:
Thank you.
Operator:
We’ll take our next question in the queue; this comes from Byron King of Blood Horse. Please go ahead.
Byron King:
Hi, Bob. I was hoping you could expand a little bit, I’m cycling back to Maximum Security, you opted for Abel Cedillo to ride him on Saturday. And I was hoping you could expand on what led to that choice. You had mentioned to me earlier that some of your options were limited because Mike Smith, for example, was going to be at the Haskell. But if you could talk about Abel Cedillo on Maximum Security.
Bob Baffert:
Yeah, I was — when I got the word that Luis had tested positive and couldn’t come ride him, I immediately — I asked around with different agents who was open cause most of them they’d already given their calls in the race. And some of them said, well, is it for Maximum Security and maybe get open but I didn’t really want to take anybody’s rider. So, what I did, I just waited. And Cedillo was on a horse that Mark Lot wasn’t sure if he was going to run them on the turf. He says, if you don’t run Max, I’m going to run, but if you run Max, I’m not going to run. And so, I waited for them to get the okay from their owners and to ride Max. And Cedillo, he has the same kind of style. He’s a strong rider, he’s aggressive. And he won fighting mad for Gary and Mary West. He rode her and won the stake for me and he’s won some races for me. And he seems like he can handle pressure when you write a top horse like that. So, I’m just happy that I have him here. It’s supposed to be a one-shot deal, but it doesn’t look like — looks like they’re not going to let anybody come back or something. That’s the world we live in, so it changes. Alright.
Operator:
We’ll take our next question in queue. This comes from Dave Bontempo, playnewjersey.com. Please go ahead.
Dave Bontempo:
Hey, Bob, nice to speak with you again. It’s five years since American Pharoah, one of the biggest days ever at Monmouth Park. Just your thoughts on A, having brought a Triple Crown winner here, what that day was like for you, and then also, how you think this race stylistically sets up.
Bob Baffert:
I remember bringing Pharoah in there, I was really nervous. I was really nervous. We were all nervous. I mean, the Zayat family, I think they invited like 200 of their friends. It was just a big thing and I felt a lot of pressure on me because I didn’t want to get Triple Crown winner B and coming in here — but he trained well, he had been training well going in there. I’ll never forget, it was such an exciting — the visual of when they were getting ready to go in the gate. I mean, the place was packed. All the fans were there. And Monmouth Park’s Fans are just unbelievable. They love it. They were just there behind the horse 100%. And all of a sudden, somebody said, look at the rail on the front, by the winter circle. And I’d never seen it before, but every jockey that rode — the jockey’s room was emptied out and all the jockeys were there to watch him run. And to me, I thought that was just — I’ll never forget that. And when I saw that, I go, wow, man.
It was such a wonderful experience. I mean, American Pharoah brought so much joy to everyone that day. And I always told Victor Spinoza, don’t win by too much. And I wish I should’ve just tell him what, just let him just, just open up the sales, let him live and roam and stretch. And he could have broke the track record that day. But it was great. And then Frank Miramonti’s call, and the party continues. I love that call. It’s always such a great call. It was satisfying, but it was so exciting that those stands got to see a great racehorse run.
Dave Bontempo:
Yeah. I mean, if people made special trips just to see that horse, I mean, after 37 years. So that was itself, a coronation. And of course, a lot of people think that, hey, this could be your race, named after you almost. What would be your instructions with this race? How do you see it setting up from a play standpoint? And so how would you see this idealistically playing out?
Bob Baffert:
Well I haven’t really seen — I heard we drew the two homes. I know that. That’s all I know. I haven’t even looked at the horses, what the field is, I just worry about — going into these races, I really don’t look at that too closely because Mike Smith, he’s a master and he does his homework. He figures it out. And then, we usually will briefly talk about it. And my job is to make sure that horses — that he has plenty of horse center for him because he if doesn’t, then he can’t ride them. My job is to tell him, look, he couldn’t be doing any better. You can ride him. You would confidence. You might be tired. Different races. And so, I think the horse is doing great. I think the key is that he gets away, like all my horses; they have to get away from the gate cleanly. He gets away from the gate cleanly, he’s a horse that he has speed, he can go fast. I think he can sit off a little bit in the two. So, I don’t know. But the key is the break. And once Mike gets away from there and he can figure it out, basically I’ll leave it up to Mike.
Dave Bontempo:
Okay. And my final one and I’ll let you go, I know you have others, Charlatan and the Doll are very special horses. Did you think they had the American Pharoah capabilities in them from what you had seen even in the short time that they were out there?
Bob Baffert:
Well, I mean, I think Charlatan is probably — he has a brilliant speed cause what he did, the way he broke his maiden and then coming back and winning his second race and then when his third race, he is probably the closest to that cause he’s pretty brilliant speed. I mean, he went eight and changes first out, which is at Santa Anita, the way the track is there, Dave, I mean, that was sick what he did. So, I knew when I let him up and we knew that [inaudible] he just had him — it was just incredible. So, and The Doll was a fighter. I mean, he was a tough horse. He was just — to lose those horses for the Derby was tough because there was two good horses that were going to be right there. There were going to be the top horses.
Dave Bontempo:
Thanks Bob.
Bob Baffert:
Thank you.
Operator:
Callers queuing up, we ask that you please limit yourself to one question, again, one question only so we ensure we get all the questions on this call today. And we’ll take our next one, comes from Lynn Snelson Monmouth Park. Please go ahead.
Lynn Snelson:
Hey Bob. I understand that he arrived yesterday, and can you just let us know how he traveled, how he settled in, how he’s doing in New Jersey?
Bob Baffert:
Yeah. He got in late in the evening. I think he got in there around seven o’clock, but he shipped. You always worry about that, but he settled in well and Jimmy said he went to the track today. He moved really well over that track. He said he just floated over the racetrack. And so, all systems are very, so far, very positive.
Lynn Snelson:
Thanks.
Operator:
And we’ll take our next question in queue, comes from Jim Hague with The Racing Biz. Please go ahead.
Jim Hague:
Bob, how different has this year been obviously with the way the schedule has played out? But usually the Haskell is something that’s done for the Derby winner or the best three-year-old after the Derby. Now this year the Haskell is almost like a prelim to the Derby. And how different is that from a trainer’s standpoint, to you use the Haskell as a prelim for the Derby?
Bob Baffert:
Well, I think the Haskell to me, I’ve never — it’s always been — sometimes it’s a pre for the Travers. And so, being the Travers had it shipped when the Derby went to September that just threw everything out of whack. And so now, I think the Haskell, I think this would have been — I might’ve run a horse like Charlatan in this race. That’s what I really wanted to do, was run Charlatan in the Haskell. But Authentic, he’s a top horse and when he got beaten in the Santa Anita derby, I was thinking the Haskell would be his prep anyway. So, I don’t really look at it that way. I look at the Haskell as just a great race, a great race to win and it’s exciting. So that’s the way I look at it.
Operator:
We’ll take our next question in queue. This comes from Jason Franks, The Courier Journal. Please go ahead.
Jason Franks:
Hey Bob, thanks for joining us. I wonder if you might provide an update on Charlatan’s health and if the Preakness down the road could still be a possibility for him.
Bob Baffert:
Yeah, he’s actually — they had done the surgery and it went very well. They felt really good about it. And right now, he won’t join me until probably, maybe August, middle of August or the end of August. So, it’s nothing — I haven’t really thought about it yet until I get him back. Preakness, it’s going to be tight. It’s going to be tight. We’re going to do what’s right. I think Breeder’s cup, maybe we have a shot there and so — but Preakness is going to be a little bit tight for my team.
Jason Franks:
And you think Uncle Chuck could be headed to Travers, is that correct?
Bob Baffert:
Right now, Uncle Chuck today, this minute, I’m thinking Travers. And, as long as he’s doing really well, he came back and he’s still pretty green. I’d loved to have met a little race into him. He sort of like on the — he joined the party late here, but so far what he’s shown us is that raw talent, that’s brilliant, that we see from a Uncle Mo line and where he gets that from Indian Charlie, a great horse that I trained, but he looks fantastic right now. He’s got that big, long stride, I think a mile and a quarter would be right up his alley. So hopefully all goes well, we’ll get him up here.
Jason Franks:
Thank you, Bob.
Alicia Hughes:
Bob, thank you again, as always for coming on our call today. Again, you’re always one of our most popular ones. I know that that things are busy for you. So again, can’t thank you for joining us. Best of luck this weekend. And hopefully we’ll be talking to you after you win the ninth one this weekend.
Bob Baffert:
Well, thank you very much. And also, I wanted to mention something that what’s making this thing really a lot of fun and probably a little bit more pressure, but at my racehorse.com, volume of the horse and they’re selling those little shares. So, all my friends, family had been bought in shares. I even got Walker Buehler from the Dodgers, Bodie Miller. So, they’re all texting me. They want to know how their horse is doing. So, it’s not only this — it’s Wayne Hughes, what he did is unbelievable, lets people in. So, it’s something that I think people should look into because now they all have a Derby horse because Authentic is one of the top five prospects for the derby this year.
Alicia Hughes:
Awesome. Cool. Thanks for that, Bob. So again, thank you again, as always, look forward to chatting you and continued best of luck with everything going forward.
Bob Baffert:
Thank you.
Alicia Hughes:
And next up, we are going to go to trainer Saffie Joseph who holds a strong hand this weekend in both the Haskell and the Coaching Club American Oak. Saffie’s Haskell winner New York Traffic was most recently second last time out in the Matt Winn stakes behind Grade One winner Maxfield. And he was also top three in both The Risen Star and the Louisiana Derby. Saffie, thank you for joining us today.
Saffie Joseph:
Hi, thank you for having me on.
Alicia Hughes:
Thank you. I know that you’re at a time crunch today. You got a horse to saddle at around 1:50. So we’ll try to get this moving for you quickly here. With New York Traffic, this is a colt who has certainly been knocking on the door of these great big races this season. What are some of the intangibles that you see from him that gives you the confidence that he’s ready to go ahead and put himself over the hump this weekend?
Saffie Joseph:
Well, he just seems to be a horse that’s getting progressively better and he’s a star for us. We took him over around last year, November or December. And as far as [inaudible], he won nice, the number came by just okay. Then we went to Louisiana, he was third there in The Risen Star. And then after that was in Louisiana Derby was sacrum and then brought him back again and took him back to the Matt Winn at Churchill and he ran probably the first or second derby favorite. That’s the reports of Elaine Maxfield. On the number of skills, he’s just got faster and faster each time. And it hasn’t been huge jumps, but has been just progressive jumps, and that’s what you want to see from a three-year-old because he’s heading in the right direction. I don’t think he was the best horse of the crop, but the way things have worked out, he’s just kept climbing higher and higher. And that’s our whole hope, he could just run another bang-up race and hopefully on Derby day one. If we can get there, you never know it could be the best on that day. And that’s what we would like.
Alicia Hughes:
Absolutely. He’s definitely a horse that has a lot of upside to him. With Tonalist’s Shape, she’s been very good to season as well. I know that you were weighing the Ashland and the Coaching Club American Oaks obviously opted to go to Saratoga. What kind of ultimately swayed you to go for that spot? And how has she done since her very sharp win last time out in the Hollywood Wildcat stakes?
Saffie Joseph:
Well, it was a tough decision. Initially, we were all in for the Ashland and then we saw the Coaching Club was a week after and we knew there were only so many horses. They can’t all run it. We decided they were going to end up in Ashland and see what’s our best choice to win or gives us our best chance to win. Both be in grade one, and it’s important — she’s obviously a grade two already and a grade three, if we can get a grade one on a resume will be very important for her as a brood mare. The coaching club just seems like there’s a spot that we could probably be the favorite. Doesn’t mean we’re going to win, but it seems like it gives her the best chance to be competitive. And that was our decision finally, we all talked it over the owners and us and they decided we’ll go to their coaching club.
Alicia Hughes:
Sounds good. And, with that Saffie, I will throw it back to our operator Dan, to check in with the media to see if they have any questions for you.
Operator:
Thank you. At this time, we will go back to questions. If you’d like to queue up for a question, you can press star one, again, star one is to queue up for a question. Please limit yourself to one question. And we’ll pause for just a moment to allow everyone an opportunity to signal for questions. We’ll take our first question in queue. This comes from Lynn Snelson with Monmouth Park. Please go ahead.
Lynn Snelson:
Hi, Saffie. Can you just give me a little bit of a rundown about travel plans and what you’re going to do with him, up to the race and how it’s all working from here to there?
Saffie Joseph:
Well, they left on Florida on Monday, and he’s actually at Monmouth there. Today was her first day on the track and we jogged a mile and seems to be in good order. So, they’re at Monmouth.
Lynn Snelson:
Okay. Thank you.
Operator:
Take our next question. Queue. This comes from Byron King, Blood Horse. Please go ahead.
Byron King:
Hi, Saffie. I was hoping we could talk about Tonalist’s Shape a little bit. I noticed that she has been really working much faster than I seem to recall her working in the beginning part of the year. And I was hoping you could talk a little bit about that. And also, I’m not certain and I was hoping you could expand on this. I think you might’ve talked about maybe adding blinkers to her equipment. And I’m curious if she’s been working with those and if she will indeed race with those.
Saffie Joseph:
Hi Byron. Yes, she has — she’s never been a flashy workhorse, but recently one of the owners recommended he would like to try blinkers on her and I wasn’t opposed to it because I thought we need to find a couple more links to be at the top tire horse. She’s already proven she’s a nice Filly, but to get to jump another level to be one of the Oaks’ top, she needs to improve. We put blinkers on her one morning to work and she worked phenomenal at gold stream. I mean the question — she works so good, it’s almost scary how good she worked in the blinkers. The next week we took them off, she went a little quicker than ideal. We put them back again, I was just blown out. Yesterday at Saratoga, we put them back on and again, she did the same thing.
I mean, sometimes as a horseman, you question yourself like, is it for sure? Are we seeing right? But I even asked some of the respectable caucus that I respect like Mike Wallace, even for DRF, I asked him his view, and everyone seems to think she’s much better in the blinkers. And that’s what I think too. I mean, in the back of your head, it’s always, have the blinkers made her to keen? I was just like going as fast as she can for as far as she can. Doesn’t give you that appearance. She’s relaxed. But that is a question mark that as a trainer you always have when you’re making a change, and any change is a bit different and you never know until they do it. But the blinkers seem to have made all positive notes. I wish I could tell you for sure, but I’ll tell you for sure on Saturday.
Byron King:
Very good. Thank