NTRA National Media Teleconference, August 25, 2015
Guests:
Trainer Bob Baffert – Travers Stakes
Jockey Gary Stevens – Travers Stakes
Trainer Tony Dutrow – Forego Stakes
Operator: Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the NTRA 2015 Countdown to the Breeders’ Cup World Championships Conference Call. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mr. Jim Mulvihill. Please go ahead, sir.
Jim Mulvihill: Thank you very much Michelle and welcome everybody to this week’s teleconference. This week we’re focused entirely on Saturday’s historic day of racing at Saratoga with six Grade 1 stakes topped, of course, by the $1.6 million Travers. All eyes will be on the Triple Crown winner, American Pharoah, and we’re delighted now to be joined by his trainer Bob Baffert. Bob, are you with us?
Bob Baffert: I’m here.
Jim Mulvihill: All right. It’s Jim Mulvihill in Lexington. Thanks for joining us once again. Now just to set the stage a little bit, you and Mr. Zayat have both talked extensively about the legacy of American Pharoah. Can you just tell us a little bit about what the Travers offers that none of the other races could have in terms of prestige and enhancing his place in history and such?
Bob Baffert: I think a lot of it is just the horse is really doing well and we just wanted to let the horse just, you know, tip us off. We’re just following the way he’s feeling and so it looks like he’s worked really well. If he worked well then we’d run him in it, and the Zayats—you know, since he got in the business The Travers has always been a major race to run in and to win, so we thought as long as we give him, Pharoah, his best opportunity to be doing on top of his game, doing well, then we’d give him a run at it.
Jim Mulvihill: Very good, Bob. Well, we’ve got a lot of media on the call so I’m going to send it to Michelle for their questions.
Operator: Our first question comes from Don Jensen of the Tampa Bay Times. Please go ahead.
Don Jensen: Yes, Bob, good luck Saturday. I’d like to go back to Pharoah’s first race. What were your feelings about him going into the race and did you think he would take you on such a wonderful tour like he has been?
Bob Baffert: Well, we had high expectations for him, but he’d worked with blinkers and I remember the first time and he wasn’t really comfortable. He used to be a little—he’d try to run off a little bit, was a little bit out of control and wasn’t really the perfect—he just wasn’t really quite as relaxed as he is now, but I think that first race going in we thought he’d run well but I was worried about the way he acted in the paddock; I didn’t like the way he acted in the paddock. He was overly tough to control. He was just tough and all the way going to gate with the pony he was trying to get away from the pony, then he got in the gate and he was acting up in the gate. He was just not a—I think a lot of it was he had the blinkers on and he wanted to be able to see. Then we put the ear plugs in him after that and he relaxed, he was perfect. That one day, he was just a problem child that day and he just used himself up going to the gate and in the race he just flattened out, but that really—he came back and worked wonderful and that’s why we decided to run him in the Futurity because he’d worked—you know, after that he was just perfect from that day on.
Don Jensen: Did you think, Bob, that he would give you such a wonderful summer?
Bob Baffert: Well, I mean he was pretty disappointing after that first race. I thought, well, even if he was a great horse he’d still overcome all that and still come running, but the race was won by a horse that really freaked that day. Om ran really, really fast, and if he would have run as fast as he did and beat him it might have cooked him pretty well. In the long run, it was probably better that he just didn’t run his race that day.
Don Jensen: All right. Well, good luck to you Saturday, Bob.
Bob Baffert: Sure.
Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from Ron Flatter of RSN Australia. Please go ahead.
Ron Flatter: Hi Bob. We know three-year-olds grow, certainly from their two-year-old season. When you look at Pharoah, where do you see his most remarkable physical growth and what you would really say, okay, this horse, this is where he has grown?
Bob Baffert: Yes, he’s actually—he was always a little on the short—he had a short back—and about February, March I could tell he was changing. He started lengthening out and he got longer and longer and just maturing. You know, the older they get they start maturing, and I can still see it. He’s still maturing. He’s about 16.2; he’s not a little horse, but he’s got a beautiful neck, shoulder, hip. Just a really—I mean really, he looks the part. I’ve seen horses that are really, really good horses that are built a little bit funny or whatever but they can still run, but he is a picture.
Ron Flatter: With the new shoes you just put on him, is there any difference from the old shoes? Do you still have that—I guess you could call it like a shock absorber in the left front frog.
Bob Baffert: Well it’s not a—it’s just a plate, just a protective plate that protects the frog on his left front foot. I’ve left that on him. He’s had it on there for such a long time that I didn’t want to change anything up. Actually, very rarely you’ll see horses run with that but he handles it really well and it doesn’t change his stride or anything. If I thought it did I would take it off.
Ron Flatter: Thank you, Bob. Good luck.
Bob Baffert: Thanks.
Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from Tom Pedulla of America’s Best Racing.
Tom Pedulla: Yes, Bob. I wanted to ask you about all the shipping that Pharoah has needed to do. I mean I understand why it took place but has it ever shown an effect on him and could you discuss why it was necessary?
Bob Baffert: Well it was necessary because I was in California when he first shipped to Arkansas. I didn’t want to leave him there so I brought him back. Then we trained him, took him back. Then we shipped him to Kentucky. He had to go there, and then he shipped back and forth to all these tracks. That’s what makes this horse so different, and that’s why, you know, it’s been 37 years. It’s that most horses can give you a great performance but he’s the only horse I’ve ever had that’s given me just six great performances right in a row and he’s shipping back and forth. I mean, the mileage, it’s unheard of for a racehorse. The closest horse I had like that was Point Given. He could ship and ship and ship and it didn’t—he was tough. He could handle it, and this horse is really tough and he can handle it.
So, it’s not ideal to do that. I’d like to have more time in between but we haven’t had the—you know, during the Triple Crown we had to get him ready. We had to give him those prep races so we really didn’t have a choice. Now, you know, he’s winding down his three-year-old career and he’ll be leaving so as long as he’s showing that he still has his game, he’s still ratcheted up and his shipping is not bothering him, the racing is not bothering him, you’re watching him run. Mr. Zayat always has told me the minute you see that starting to get to him a little bit then we’ll have to think our situation out, but until then, as long as he’s happy and he wants to run, he loves to train, as long as he’s showing us that he loves what he’s doing he’ll keep running.
Tom Pedulla: Bob, in keeping bringing him back to, say Del Mar, or wherever your home base was, what’s the overriding factor there? Just the idea that you can eyeball him every day? Is that the essential part of that?
Bob Baffert: Well we’re here in Del Mar. Our base is here and I’m set up here and it’s cooler here. We’re not dealing with any rain and so the horses are really relaxed down here and it has the chilliness—I mean Saratoga is that way also, so. But we’re sort of set up here and I didn’t want to take him up there and be there. If I went up there I know I would have been forced to run up there, so I just wanted the horse to sort of—I didn’t want any outside pressure. I just wanted the horse to let us know that, hey, I’m ready. I’m ready.
Tom Pedulla: Thank you very much.
Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from Tim Wilkin, the Albany Times Union.
Tim Wilkin: Hey Bob, you were talking about trying to find an excuse not to run and you couldn’t find one. Was there a part in the back of your mind that didn’t want to come to Saratoga before he showed you he was ready?
Bob Baffert: No, I said that because I was getting that question asked 100 times a day and everybody wants to be the first one so they can tweet it out. I was just letting people know, look, if I see something, you know, this horse doesn’t owe us anything, but if I see something that is just not—there’s something about the work that I don’t feel that or something—I just didn’t want to say yes, we’re going to come and then let people down. I didn’t want people spending their summer savings to go up there to watch him run and he wouldn’t be able to show up. So I wanted to make sure that that horse was—I didn’t want to just throw it out there. You know, there’s a lot of great fans up there in New York and I don’t want them to spend their hard earned money if the horse isn’t going to be there, so I just wanted to make sure.
Tim Wilkin: What kind of reception do you think this horse will get at Saratoga?
Bob Baffert: Well, he got a pretty strong reception when he went to Monmouth Park. I’m sure it’s going to be pretty strong because he’s done most of his racing on the East coast. I think a lot of people, they want their kids to see this horse. It means a lot to them. You know, with the history involved and winning the Triple Crown, he can still—the noise factor at Monmouth Park was incredible. It was just as loud as Del Mar. I never thought I’d hear that again. I think it’s really—you know, he’s a unique horse that he can ship like he can. Even my wife keeps asking me because I’m always telling her they can only ship so many times and then finally it catches up to them. So far we’re looking good, and I think the fans, they want to get—I notice that when we bring him up he gets really quiet because everybody has their phones out, videotaping him, which is good because we don’t want them too loud but I think it’s really—I mean for racing he’s really—racing needed some good news and he was the good news. So hopefully he’ll continue it. It’s like the Pharoah tour. Unfortunately he’s not going to be around as a four-year-old so we’re just enjoying him all we can, just like—I remember when Zenyatta was running. I made sure that I took Bode to see all their races so he would know that so when he gets older he can say he saw a great mare run. He was here. We saw Beholder run the other day. I mean that was—what a great performance she had. So little things like that, I think for your children, you were there and you saw it. Just like I was there when Kirk Gibson hit the home run for the Dodgers in the World Series. I was there. I’ll always remember that. I think in sports it’s very important if we’re involved in sports, everybody wants to see something special, a home run record or whatever. We all want to be able to say that we witnessed it.
Tim Wilkin: Okay. Thanks Bob.
Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from David Grening of Daily Racing Form. Please go ahead.
David Grening: Hey Bob, just your opinion on Texas Red. Last year when you ran him in the Frontrunner Stakes and to now and how formidable a foe he might be on Saturday.
Bob Baffert: I think he’s a very nice horse. I mean he won the Breeders’ Cup. He looked very impressive. I think they’ve done a great job getting him back. He’s going to be tough. He’s always tough and so—you know, it’s not an easy race. We’ve got Frosted in there. There’s other horses. There’s always young shooters coming up and so we’re prepared. I go in there prepared for a tough race and so the Travers, it’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be an exciting race.
David Grening: What do you recall about the Frontrunner, if anything? I know you had a pretty easy lead in that race but is there anything about that race that you recall?
Bob Baffert: I know that the horse that ran second, Calculator, he was up-and-coming and he ran second to him twice and then unfortunately he got injured. I mean the Pharoah there, that’s when he was showing us that he was such a dominant horse that day and that’s why when he got injured for the Breeders’ Cup it was a devastating blow to us.
David Grening: Thanks. Good luck. See you soon.
Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from Art Wilson, the Los Angeles Newspaper Group. Please go ahead.
Art Wilson: Morning, Bob.
Bob Baffert: Hey Art.
Art Wilson: You won the 2001 Travers with Point Given and no winner of the race has run a faster Travers since. Can you just kind of compare as far as personality-wise, similarities, differences in their makeup between Point Given and Pharoah?
Bob Baffert: Point Given, he was a big, sort of a big slab-sided horse, you know. When he was on the track and he’d pull his little stunts, he liked to rear up like the day before and do things like that, but around the barn he was pretty quiet. But the thing that makes Pharoah so special is that he’s got a great personality. He loves people. He likes attention. You know, you couldn’t spoil Point Given. You couldn’t get in there—you couldn’t bring an infant up to the stall and let him nuzzle where Pharoah will nuzzle an infant. He won’t bite it. He’s just very—he has a very kind, sweet temperament, but when he gets on the track he’s just wants to take over. They’re two different kinds of horses but they are two great horses. I mean Point Given, what he did is to travel back and forth and then he could put in a big race and come back and put in another big race. The Derby is still—we’re still amazed that he got beaten at the Derby.
Art Wilson: Right. You mentioned that Pharoah has just turned in one powerful effort after another. Any of those six or seven wins that he’s turned in, any of them stick out as the most powerful, or do you kind of just—are they all similarly powerful?
Bob Baffert: I think they’ve all been pretty powerful. I mean he had a powerful gate work before I ran him in Arkansas that really—that’s when he really stamped himself as like—he wowed me one morning. He turned in a ridiculous work and then his races in Arkansas were really powerful and then the Arkansas Derby. His Kentucky Derby, he lost a little bit—he got a little hostile in the paddock but he still gutted it out but he wasn’t really that tired. I think he really needed the race and after that it really tightened him up and I didn’t have to do much with him after that. But, you know, he was going :22 early in the Preakness and he just kept on going. All his races basically have been pretty powerful, I think.
Art Wilson: All right. Okay. Best of luck Saturday, Bob.
Bob Baffert: Thank you.
Operator: Our next question comes from Jennie Rees, the Louisville Courier-Journal. Please go ahead.
Jennie Rees: Hey Bob, following up on Tim’s question, right after the Belmont you didn’t discount anything but you also said how tough the Haskell-Travers parlay is for a horse and that you really probably needed to go in the Jim Dandy if you’re going to win the Travers. Now that you’re going to the Travers, any second thoughts and could you just sort of put it in the perspective of those comments?
Bob Baffert: Well I really think it is. I think you’re better off running the Jim Dandy coming back. I think Del Mar is sort of the same way; you should run both. If he was just a different kind of horse I would do that but with a horse like Pharoah I think you can get away with it, when you have a horse like Point Given or a Pharoah. They’re extremely talented, and hopefully you can get away with it. I mean the toughest that probably that’s really gotten to him is when after the Belmont we were showing everybody for a couple of weeks there and that wore him out a little bit. Once I got him back home that’s probably been the toughest on him.
Jennie Rees: You also said after the Belmont when you were back at Churchill you were looking at two preps before the Breeders’ Cup. Does this kind of complicate the timing of that? Are you going to look at sneaking in another race?
Bob Baffert: Well I think the timing for the Breeders’ Cup, preferably, would have been the Haskell and Parx. It gives you that extra time, but Ahmed and told me and Justin, he says, hey, if he tells you it’s okay to go there I’ll make it, because they would love to run in that race. So right now we’re just—as long as he’s doing well we’ll run him there and so we’ll see what happens.
Jennie Rees: They didn’t have to talk you into it?
Bob Baffert: No. No, they just left it up to me. Basically he’s been really good. He said, no, if he’s not 100%, don’t run him. We can wait.
Jennie Rees: Okay. Thanks Bob.
Bob Baffert: All right.
Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from Tom Pedulla of America’s Best Racing.
Tom Pedulla: Yeah, Bob, just one more question if you would about the shipping. When he gets off the plane and arrives at a new setting, can you tell it’s taken a little something from him, or does he still have that bounce to his step?
Bob Baffert: Well, I mean, he’s pretty used to shipping. So far it hasn’t affected him. But he ships really well. I mean Smokey probably doesn’t ship as well as he does. Smokey has more trouble shipping than he does.
Tom Pedulla: Okay. Has shipping gotten easier over the years, Bob? Is just the way that’s handled better than it used to be?
Bob Baffert: It’s always been the same. We have a routine the way we ship horses and we’ve had a lot of success shipping horses in to races and we really—we just follow our own little way we do things. The only time I’ve had a problem was I shipped a filly to Keeneland earlier in the year and when she got off the plane, she got upset in the van and she got down in the van and she got a little scraped up. Things like that might happen, so little things can go wrong. But with Pharoah, I mean, if I shipped him and then we didn’t like something then we wouldn’t run him, but so far it’s been really good.
Tom Pedulla: Thank you again.
Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from Kellie Reilly from Brisnet.com. Please go ahead.
Kellie Reilly: Hi. I just wanted to ask about the meeting with Gai Waterhouse and what it was like to show Pharoah off to such a legend of Australian racing?
Bob Baffert: Oh, she was a character. She’s got a great personality and she’s just so much energy, and it was really—actually, I’d seen them at dinner the night before, ran into her and she was just—I mean I wish I had that much energy. So, we had a nice talk and I showed her Pharoah and she looked at him and it’s great when you see different American-style type of horses and she loved him. She saw the way he was built and we went over his conformation and she was looking at him. It was really nice. We didn’t talk training techniques or anything like that but she was just really excited to see him. I brought him out, watched him walk. She just loves the way he walks. His walk is—he’s got a tremendous walk and so I was showing her. That’s probably his thing is his stride is really, you know, really what gets it done. He just covers so much ground when he’s running. That’s why it looks so effortless.
Kellie Reilly: Absolutely. Well, thanks so much and best of luck.
Bob Baffert: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from Karen Johnson, the Blood-Horse. Please go ahead.
Karen Johnson: Hi Bob. Do horses have a certain tell and are easier to read than others, and how does American Pharoah fit in that? Is he easy to read and are other horses more difficult?
Bob Baffert: Well sometimes he can be hard to read if he has his—he’s a different horse when he has his earplugs in. Without the earplugs he’s happy, he’ll be jumping—he would come into the paddock springing and jumping. You put the earplugs into him and he’s quiet, he’s focused. So if you see him in the paddock he’s just really serious, quiet. You won’t see him jumping around or doing anything, so you have to really know that with those earplugs in how focused it keeps him. But we’ll know watching him gallop and the way he struts around. He’s a pretty proud horse.
Karen Johnson: Thanks Bob. Good luck.
Bob Baffert: Sure.
Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from David Grening, the Daily Racing Form. Please go ahead.
David Grening: Bob, I was wondering does the surface at Saratoga present any more challenges than say the other five tracks that he’s shipped to so far this year?
Bob Baffert: The challenges? I don’t know. I mean that’s why we’re going there. I mean they’re all a challenge everywhere you go. I think that every race is—I mean Saratoga, you know, he’s used to the big crowd. It’s a different—he has to go through a lot of people there to get to the paddock, so, you know, how he handles that. I mean being that he’s—it’s pretty incredible. I feel like I’m bringing The Beatles to town, you know? He’s learned to handle it pretty well. He’s a really intelligent horse so hopefully we’ll handle the paddock well and the race well. Our main concern is to give him every opportunity to—he looks good, he looks healthy, he’s fit, he’s ready and so we just need some racing luck.
David Grening: Yeah, I think I meant more just the surface, if there’s anything from either talking to people here or your observations from how the track has played gives you any—if you’re happy or concerned about it?
Bob Baffert: You know what? He actually prefers a deeper, soft surface. He doesn’t like a hard, hard surface. So that’s why he’s handled those Eastern tracks really well.
David Grening: Thanks.
Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from Ron Flatter of RSN Australia. Please go ahead.
Ron Flatter: Bob, I know Pharoah’s defied a lot of statistics already this year but Victor hasn’t raced at Saratoga in 12 years and he’s only got four rides I think on the track. What do you suspect he will do or what does he need to do just to get ready for this race?
Bob Baffert: Oh, I mean, the same thing was said about him running in the Belmont. Whatever. I mean, the quarter pole is still set up in the same place, so it really doesn’t matter. As long as the horse is running, he’ll know. If the horse is running, he’ll be comfortable. If he’s not running then he’ll know if he’s empty.
Ron Flatter: Very good. Thanks Bob.
Operator: Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. Please continue.
Jim Mulvihill: All right. Bob, thank you so much for joining us again on this call. We really appreciate the time and we wish you luck on Saturday. We look forward to seeing you up at the Spa.
Bob Baffert: And it’s raining at Del Mar. I can’t believe it. It just started raining.
Jim Mulvihill: Perfect time to go to Saratoga then.
Bob Baffert: Exactly. All right. No beach day today.
Jim Mulvihill: All right. Thanks Bob.
Bob Baffert: