NTRA National Media Teleconference, July 28, 2015

Guests:
Trainer Bob Baffert – Haskell Invitational
Trainer Dallas Stewart – West Virginia Derby & Governor’s Stakes
Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin – Jim Dandy

Operator:                              Good day, ladies and gentlemen.  Welcome to the NTRA 2015 Countdown to the Breeders’ Cup World Championship Conference Call.

 

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mr. Jim Mulvihill.  Please go ahead, Mr. Mulvihill.

 

Jim Mulvihill:                        All right.  Thank you, John, and welcome, everyone, to this week’s NTRA National Media Teleconference.  We’ll be here more Tuesdays than not over the next three months leading up to the Breeders’ Cup.  This week we’re focused on three key three-year-old stakes: the million dollar William Hill Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park featuring the Triple Crown winning rock star American Pharoah; the $750,000 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer; and the $600,000 Jim Dandy at Saratoga.

 

Now we’ve got a new rule on these calls that trainers of Triple Crown winners earn a lifetime exemption from having to sit through introductions and announcements.  So without further ado, I’d like to welcome in Bob Baffert.  Bob, Jim Mulvihill in Lexington here.  Thanks for joining us.

 

Bob Baffert:                         That’s a nice introduction.  It’s quick.  I like that.

 

Jim Mulvihill:                        Well, we do what we can.  We know you’re a busy man, so we want to get right to the questions, and I’m going to turn things over to the media in just a moment, but first I just wanted to get your impressions of American Pharoah’s work this morning.  It was just a couple of hours ago.  I believe the official time was 48 and 4 for a half, so just tell us what you thought.

 

Bob Baffert:                         Yes, he went really nice.  He just basically looked more like an open gallop for him, and he went out in 1:01; just looked like the Pharoah that he is.  I didn’t want to do anything too much with him this week because his last couple works were pretty stiff.  So he looked great and he’s moving beautiful, and he’s holding his form really well.  It’s amazing what he’s been through is still right there just holding his form.  So it makes my job a lot easier, and plus I’ve got a great staff that we work with here.  So he’s ready to ship out tomorrow and hopefully get some racing luck and the Pharoah will show up.

 

Jim Mulvihill:                        Very good.  Well, we’re happy to hear the work this morning went well, and now I’ll just turn it back to John and we’ll let the media fire away.

 

.com.  Please go ahead.

 

Danny Brewer:                    If you could look into the soul of American Pharoah, what would you see?

 

Bob Baffert:                         That’s a pretty heavy question.  I don’t know about that.  That’s too heavy for me.  I can give you some trainer answers, but that’s way too heavy.

 

Danny Brewer:                    It’s a little too far reaching?  Well, everybody asks you about his work and all that stuff that you’ve answered 10 million times, so I was just trying to go, you know, with…

 

Bob Baffert:                         I would like to know…

 

Danny Brewer:                    You’re closer to him than anybody else, so what do you think?

 

Bob Baffert:                         He is a horse that—he poses a lot of—there’s just something about him and he’s got a certain aura about him; his confidence, that—and plus he’s a very kind, very smart animal, and to most people he’s become like a pet around the barn.  He likes interaction with people.  So he’s just a different type of horse I’ve ever had of this caliber.  You know, Game On Dude was a very sweet horse and kind like that, but this guy the way he moves, there’s just something genetically that—something just hit just perfectly when he was made, and that’s what makes it so much fun and he makes my job so much easier, and to have him around it’s pretty exciting.  I know we’re not going to have him around until the end of this year, but it’s going to be sad, you know, because we’ve all gotten pretty close to him, and I think he has so many fans and people.  Every morning it’s like a crowd in front of the barn, and then there’s people watching him gallop and they cheer for him every time he—and so it’s a pretty different kind of feeling.  Now with social media, people know what he’s doing every step so they can, you know, before—I remember having Silver Charm and all those good horses, social media wasn’t around really but people knew what was going on every minute of the day.  So now everybody knows where he is, so I might as well put a GPS on him.  But he enjoys it and so it’s fun to really share him with the fans.

 

Danny Brewer:                    Last from me, the Del Mar dirt, what’s your impression of it?  I know it’s just a couple weeks in the meet, but what do you think about the Del Mar dirt?

 

Bob Baffert:                         It’s soft; it’s deep.  I think he’ll get a lot out of it.  I mean it’s a good track if you want to get your horses really fit.  It’s pretty demanding.  It’s a little dead and loose, but it’s new so it’ll probably settle down, but right now it’s pretty demanding.

 

Don Jensen:                        It’s been almost two months since you won the Triple Crown.  How has it changed horse racing for 2015, and especially interest level?

 

Bob Baffert:                         I think the interest level probably came up there’s a lot of people that come up to me and they say, hey, congratulations or I saw it, and, you know, I never really watch horse racing and now I seem to be watching it.  So, you know, everybody thought what’s it going to do?  Is it going to help racing or whatever?  I think, we have the same gamblers we had before, but  picked up—it think it’s brought a lot of interest because I think this horse really inspired a lot of people when he won that day, and he made them feel–you know, it was a big lift just in their lives,  no matter what they did.  I hear that a lot.  I think it’s like that’s why everybody that I knew, and I had people tell me that I was watching and then we started crying, and a lot of emotion.  I think when anything like especially animals and horses are so beautiful and something like that, he just mixes—he made everybody feel really good that day when he won.  If you watched it, it was, it was pretty—the story—people come up to me, strangers, and tell me where they were or what they did.  I’ll never forget we were here and then we were watching on this little television, and they were doing this; the place was going nuts.  You know, my wife where she gets her hair done in Beverly Hills, she was telling me the whole place stopped and everybody was watching on a little TV.  It was like going crazy.  You would never think that would even tune into something like that.  So there was a lot more people tuned in than you can imagine.

 

 

Debbie Arrington:              Hi, Bob, and, you know, congratulations again on just an amazing accomplishment.  Well, we talked a little bit about, you know, how racing may have changed, but how has the Triple Crown impacted you?  How has it changed your life?

 

Bob Baffert:                         Well, I don’t know if it’s changed my life, but I’ve had a lot of people that want to take pictures, and they come up and congratulate me and they want to have pictures taken with me, and people are excited about the horse. I still go to work every day, the same thing, but I’ve noticed there’s a lot of—I can just imagine what John Shirreffs was going through with Zenyatta.  Whenever he was stabled next to me and he always had a crew and people wanted to— the horse can’t talk so I have to be his voice piece.  So everywhere I go people they just want to make sure that they let me know that we saw the race, and thank you so much for—that horse made us, mainly thanks for the horse; for having a horse like that, which I didn’t, the Zayats are the ones that bred him and raised him he’s the one that made it happen.  So that’s the thing, he bred that horse and raised him, he just did it the old fashioned way, it’s a pretty incredible story.

 

Debbie Arrington:              Do you think we’ll see him race again here in California?

 

Bob Baffert:                         I don’t know.  It’s one race and then when he runs we’ll assess; see what he—how he does, and so I’m not going to give beyond the Haskell.

 

Larry Stumes:                       In the weeks after the Belmont, did you have a feeling just of really self-satisfaction of doing a really good training job, or was there something special and extra in your step for those weeks after the Belmont?

 

Bob Baffert:                         Well, I mean I think, you know, being that I’d gone through it I was fortunate to go through it three times before, I really knew what to expect, and always had a game plan, and, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.  But, you know, I really didn’t do anything differently than I did with my other ones, —this horse —he got it done.

 

I’m proud of my team, my staff, and we just treated it like we treated any—lucky enough and fortunate enough of—we’ve run in these big races and everything went really smooth.  But, I never like felt like I was second guessing myself or am I doing the right thing.  I just felt confident going in every race that I felt like I was doing the right thing and everything was working —the plan was going well.  It’s difficult to win the Triple Crown, but I didn’t sit there at night thinking what I should do, you know.  I just had it in my mind I knew what we had to do and how I was going to train him, and once in a while I’d change up a lot, and I would change maybe work days; what I was going to do galloping him.  So basically just watched the horse and see.  He would let me know what he was going to do that day, and a lot of it was just by feel.  That’s what training is.  You’ve just got to go by feel.

 

Tim Wilkin:                           Hey, Bob.  Now that the Haskell’s on top of us, is there more pressure now when he runs because he’s the Triple Crown winner and so many people expect that he should win?

 

Bob Baffert:                         I think there was more pressure for the Kentucky Derby.  To me, I felt a lot of pressure for the Kentucky Derby, because we couldn’t let that race get away. So I don’t feel that pressure now.  I think he’s doing well, and we know how good he is, and now he just needs racing to get around there.  But the way he’s prepared, he’s ready for this race.  So the pressure was the Kentucky Derby.  You’re dealing with a field of 20 horses.  It’s crazy.  There were so many little factors, and now we’re just enjoying it.  This is the icing on the cake, and it’s going to be fun to watch him run, and to me, if he’s on that plane he’s doing exceptionally well. If he wasn’t doing exceptionally well then he wouldn’t be on that plane.  If he’s on that plane, then that means he’s doing exceptionally.  So I feel confident that he’s going to run a big race, and that’s all—as a trainer, that’s all we can do is just have them ready and whatever happen, happens.

 

Tim Wilkin:                           Yesterday, Justin Zayat came out and said, and I know you don’t look ahead, but he said if he comes out in the Haskell and he’s just Pharoah, he goes I see no reason why he shouldn’t run in the Travers.  When you hear something like that do you cringe?

 

Bob Baffert:                         No, I didn’t hear it, I don’t keep up with that. I think that we just assess it one race at a time.  Hey, I’d like to run him every week.  I’d love to watch him run every week.  I’d like to hit them all.  Pharoah will let us know what he’s ready and, the main thing is that, we’re going to do right by Pharoah, and he lets me know if he can handle it.  It just depends how hard the race is, you never know—I have him prepared for a hard, tough race.  So that’s one thing I’ve always done.  When I took him to Arkansas, he was ready for a tough race.  He didn’t get it, but he was ready.  So we have him ready for a battle just in case.

 

Paul Daley:                           I’ve covered the Triple Crown since the Belmonts that haven’t gone your way, and a couple of them could have, and, you know, you’ve always done a great job, and I know you don’t want to look past the Haskell.  I guess my question is, because I know you just want to take it one race at a time, but my question is just supposing that, you know, you want to keep other options open, just like Todd Pletcher has a lot of really good horses, and Chad Brown, and a lot of other trainers, are there any other horses that you would consider for the Travers, you know, in addition to American Pharoah that—so you would have a horse in the Travers?

 

Bob Baffert:                         Well, I mean not today.  I don’t know if things change.  I don’t think so.  I mean we have Dortmund, but he’s just getting back going right now.

 

Paul Daley:                           Okay.

 

Bob Baffert:                         So it would probably be a little tough on him.  I think the Travers, you need a prep.  Ideally the Travers is to run in the Jim Dandy and then get a race over the track, because at Saratoga, it seems like that’s what they do.  They run in the Jim Dandy and then run in the Travers; you know, give them a race.  I think it’s probably a big plus for some horses.

 

Paul Daley:                           Yes, if Mr. Zayat decides that he wants to go to the Travers, would you ship him back to…

 

Bob Baffert:                         We’re thinking Haskell.  This call is all about Haskell.

 

Paul Daley:                           Yes.  No, I understand that.  I’m–yes, good point.  .

 

Bob Baffert:                         I’m talking Haskell.  That’s it.  I’m like I want to get him to Haskell first.

 

Tom Pedulla:                       You had made a comment that he seems to be getting I think it was almost faster.  May I ask you to just expand on that a little bit?

 

Bob Baffert:                         I was just excited.  This track is pretty heavy, but just the way he’s just holding his form.  Mainly I meant by that he’s holding his form, which is pretty incredible that a horse what he’s been through is holding his form like that.  He just does everything effortlessly, and I think he’s getting stronger, he’s maturing, and, most older horses like to get better as they get older, and I see that he’s getting better, as he’s just maturing.  He’s always been fast, but he’s just maturing.

 

Tom Pedulla:                       Okay.  If I may just with a second question.  I know clearly you can’t say what’s after the Haskell.  Could you say at least is there a plan to ship him back to California?

 

Bob Baffert:                         The plan is to ship him back to California.

 

Tom Pedulla:                       Okay, just because you want him under your eye every day I guess?

 

Bob Baffert:                         Yes, and it’s cooler here.  It’s nice and cool, and it’s relaxing.  It’s good to have him here in Del Mar.

 

 

Bobby Klatt:                        I wanted to ask you about Monmouth Park itself.  You’ve won the race seven times.  What does Monmouth Park and the Haskell itself mean to you personally?

 

Bob Baffert:                         Well, the Haskell to me, when I first got in the business, I mean we were—it was part of the history, and it has a lot of history to it; a lot of good horses.  I remember the first time I went there and I remember being by the paddock—outside the paddock there was a little bar there and it had all the trophies; I mean the Jockey Statue and the names of the Haskell winners, and you saw these names and there was just something about that. I think winning the Haskell has always been big for the summer (phon) if you have a good three-year-old.

 

Every year, I’m always thinking, who is going to be my Haskell horse, because I want to make sure that I go there and have a nice horse for it.  So if I have a Haskell horse, that means I have a really good horse for the Classics.  For some reason we’ve done well.  I’ve been at Monmouth Park, when we had the Breeders’ Cup there and I did well.  Unfortunately, the weather was horrible but we still were lucky to win a couple.  We’ve had a lot of luck there.  But, you know, the reason I’ve had a lot of luck there, I’ve taken my best horses there, so that’s why we’ve had luck there.

 

Will Springstead:                Bob, considering Pharaoh’s whole campaign and the timing of the Haskell, would you prefer to see a small field or a larger field?

 

Bob Baffert:                         For the—for what race is that?

 

Will Springstead:                For the Haskell.  For the first race after the Triple Crown.

 

Bob Baffert:                         Oh no, I  don’t even know how many horses are going in there.  I have no idea.  Todd Pletcher—I read another there’s about—I know like four or five are going in there, but I just worry about Pharaoh.  As long as  I can keep him at the top of his game then, the rest is, you know, that’s Victor’s (inaudible).  You know, he still needs to break well and he’s going to be forwardly placed, I don’t really worry about how many or whatever.  I want to be able to ship there and everything goes smooth in the shipping, because he’s going from a nice, cooler atmosphere.  I know it’s probably going to be 90 degrees there so whatever, so that you just don’t know—I remember watching the Haskell one year and it was Curlin and Rachel or was it—and you could tell the heat was getting to them, you know, you could tell.  So you just don’t know how it’s going to affect them, so hopefully it won’t affect them.

Dana O’Neil:                         I just—I’m sure you don’t think necessarily in these terms, but is it fair to define Pharaoh as a super horse, whatever that might be?  And as you plan out the end of his racing career, are you conscious of, you know, burnishing his reputation or preserving it or worried about hurting it?

 

Bob Baffert:                         No, I think that what he’s done, I’ve had a lot of people ask me, I remember getting out at the airport and Cheech and Chong were on our flight, and Cheech asked me, why are you running him again; you know, like why would you want to run him again?  He’s done enough, you know.  A lot of people don’t understand that because as long as he’s healthy and the horse loves to run, he loves to train, he enjoys it, that’s why we run him.  We’re not doing it for, his reputation.  He’s done a lot.  But I think as long as he’s trained and he shows me that he’s at that level, the minute I don’t see that, if he’s not training like he usually does, then he won’t run.  So that’s why every race it’s one race at a time.  There’s no guarantee where he’s going to run next because he has to tell me, hey, I’m ready; I’m sitting on gold.  As long as he’s sitting on gold he’ll run.  If I see him backing up a little bit or he just doesn’t look as—you know, these horses will tip you off.  If I see something in the morning —he doesn’t want to train, then, you won’t see him in the races.  As long as he’s doing well, you’re going to see Pharaoh.  That’s why it’s very important that every time he runs that you make sure you get to watch him run.

 

Dana O’Neil:                         Just along that concept of, you know, where he sits in the landscape of the great horses, you know, winning a Triple Crown obviously it took a long time because horses are different.  Does that put him at that level then?

 

Bob Baffert:                         I’ve been fortunate—I’ve had a lot of nice horses; good horses, and I think the definition of great is when—it’s not when you say it, it’s when everybody in the world tells you that you have a great horse.  So I think Pharaoh is probably sort of a different horse that I’ve ever trained.  He just does it.  I’ve had some really good horses, what makes him a great horse is he can sustain his form.  There’s a lot of horses I’ve had that are really good horses, but they just cannot sustain that form for a long period of time.  He seems to hold it, and that’s what makes him great is that; he’s getting stronger.  He’s a really special horse.  You know, I don’t like to use the word super horse (inaudible).  I remember Cigar and I remember, you know, we’ve seen a lot of good ones.  They all get beat.  But as long as he’s on my watch, I’m not going to lead him up there unless; he’s got to be 100%.

 

 

Jennie Rees:                       Following up on Dana’s question and what you said, I take it he’s sitting on the (inaudible).  Is it important to you that he’s one of 12 now, but given the chance—these few remaining chances to see how far up of that 12 he could climb I mean to where people talk about him with say, Secretariat and Citation?

 

Bob Baffert:                         Well, I think with Secretariat I don’t think we’ll ever be able to—like the Belmont, he ran with the same horses in all the races, and they were like—I remember, you know, that race, I mean what Secretariat did that day,I don’t know if we’ll ever see something like that.  That was pretty incredible.  But I think, the times have changed now, and I don’t see horses winning by 30 lengths or whatever.  I’m just going to be—you know, the tracks might’ve been a little bit faster then or whatever, but I would never try to compare him to Secretariat or Seattle Slew.  He’s just American Pharoah.  He’s his own—I think you can only compare him in with his own group.  You know, he’s like the best three-year-old.  , Secretariat was the best three-year-old.  I mean running him with the older, I wouldn’t have a probably running with older horses, but—I think he could handle that.  But he’s just Pharaoh.

 

I’m in a situation where I’ve never had a horse like this, you know, so he’s pretty special to me, and like I’ve been around some good ones and he’s pretty good.  I think Point Given was probably the closest to him.  Point Given just missed run in the—and then he never got beat after that.  But this horse the way he moves, Jennie, I’ve never had a horse that just moves as effortlessly and jumps as far as he does, and yet he has so much speed and yet he enjoys it so much.  He really enjoys his job, and that’s what makes it a lot easier for me.

 

Jennie Rees:                       Well, one real quick follow-up I’ll try and sneak in here.  You were talking about how it’s amazing how he’s able to hold his form considering what he’s done.  Obviously Silver Charm had been real quiet; go the next—pretty much the year off.  He’s had six works including three in 10 days.  I mean have you ever been able to do that with a horse; gone through what he’s gone through?

 

Bob Baffert:                         We’ve backed off him a little bit but not totally.  But he probably lost more weight—he lost weight during the time when we were bringing him out and showing everybody, he was eating a lot of carrots and bringing him out.  That got him tired.  He was starting to get a little bit tired.  That’s why when we go to Monmouth Park, he’ll be shut off for that.  Nobody will be able to come to him, he just needs rest and to get there.  But he enjoys people but you can tell it was getting to him a little bit; he was getting a little bit tired.  So now he’s back to work, but I wanted to make sure that when I take him up there it’s a mile and a eighth and there’s always some good horses in there running.  There’s always a fresh horse or two.  I owe it to the horse to have him at his peak performance for that race, because I don’t want him getting tired or anything. I wanted to make sure he’s ready—if he gets asked a question, I want him to be able to answer it.

 

Jim Mulvihill:                        All right, Bob.  Thank you so much for your time today, although I do have to ask one last question.  Is there anything more you can tell us about Cheech Marin’s thoughts on how to handle American Pharoah?

 

Bob Baffert:                         He just couldn’t believe we were running him again.

 

Jim Mulvihill:                        Good, and I’m sure you took his thoughts under serious consideration.

 

Bob Baffert:                         Hey, they saw the race.  They were excited about it.

 

Jim Mulvihill:                        That’s great to hear.  Well, Bob, thanks once again for joining us here.  We really appreciate the time and we wish you luck on Sunday in the Haskell.

 

Bob Baffert:                         All right, thank you.

 

Jim Mulvihill:                        All right, Bob Baffert making his fourth appearance on an NTRA National Media Teleconference so far this year, and we suspect and hope that there will be more of those to come throughout the fall.

 

But there are several other top three-year-olds running this weekend and we’ve got to talk about those ones, too.  Understandably most of them don’t want to face American Pharoah.  Three of the ones that we’ve—that are going to be running this weekend in major stakes have already run second to Pharaoh at some point this year.  There’s a lot of money out there to be had in the three-year-old division, so you can’t really blame folks for going in these easier spots.  We’re going to talk about the Jim Dandy at Saratoga in a little bit, but first let’s take a look at Mountaineer Casino’s signature event, the Grade 2 West Virginia Derby.  That’s on Saturday.  They’ve got an all-stakes Card; an afternoon card starting at 2 p.m.

 

We’re going to bring in now Dallas Stewart.  Dallas, are you with us?

 

Dallas Stewart:                    Yes, sir.

 

Jim Mulvihill:                        All right.  Thanks for joining us, Dallas.  We’re always happy to hear from you.  Well, let’s first start talking with the West Virginia Derby specifically as far as choosing the spot.  Based on his Preakness finish, Tale of Verve belongs in pretty much any top three-year-old race.  There’s the Grade 1 at M