Bob Baffert Stable Tour

The Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert has won four Eclipse Awards as North America’s champion trainer and has saddled Triple Crown winners American Pharoah and Justify. 

His 19 wins at the Breeders’ Cup tie him for second most with Chad Brown, the pair training D. Wayne Lukas and Aidan O’Brien by one. This year, Baffert brings 13 horses to the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar after ruling Desert Gate out of the Juvenile to an infection.

BOTTLE OF ROUGE (Juvenile Fillies, 22.25 Friday)

Daughter of BC Classic winner Vino Rosso has won two straight including the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante on September 6. Baffert said the fact she’s already run three times is one reason he didn’t run her in the Oak Leaf, a two-turn race at Santa Anita.

“The two turns is not going to be a problem for her,” Baffert said. “She’s a horse that runs better than she breezes. I didn’t want to stretch her out yet either. I don’t want to put too many runs in them, she’s had three runs.”

EXPLORA (Juvenile Fillies, 22.25 Friday)

Has won from 5 1-2 furlongs to 1 1-16 in just three starts. After getting upset by stablemate Bottle of Rouge in the Del Mar Debutante, she won the Grade 2 Oak Leaf and romped by 4 1-4 lengths.

Baffert said in the Del Mar Debutante “she got a little tired, got run down by a good filly. She’s come back from the Oak Leaf and worked well.”

BRANT (Juvenile, 23.45 Friday)

A $3 million two-year-old-in-training purchase, this son of Gun Runner won a 5 1-2-furlong maiden race by 5 1-4 lengths and came back six weeks later to win the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity by one length on September 7.

Baffert elected to just train him up to the Juvenile without a race in eight weeks.

“I don’t think he needed it,” Baffert said. “He’s the kind of horse who’s light, he’s easy to train. I can work him slow, I can work him fast, he doesn’t need company. He’s just solid.”

LITMUS TEST (Juvenile, 23.45 Friday)

Son of Nyquist won on debut sprinting at Del Mar before finishing fourth with trouble in the Del Mar Futurity. Baffert shipped Litmus Test to Kentucky for the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity where he set the pace before finishing third, beaten five lengths by Ted Noffey.

“I shipped him, I told (Flavien) Prat just get him away from there, he put him on easy lead,” Baffert said. “Prat thought he needed it, he’s still a little soft, he got beat by a pretty good horse. He ran well. He could have stopped but he hung in there. He’s come back trained well.” 

HOPE ROAD (Filly and Mare Sprint, 19.00 Saturday)

After several graded stakes placings, Hope Road got her Grade 1 victory in August at Saratoga, winning the Ballerina by two lengths. In 2018, Marley's Freedom won the Ballerina then finished fourth, beaten a half-length in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.

Earlier in the year, Hope Road got beat three times by Kopion Road, who was pre-entered for this race but who is going to run against the boys in the Sprint.

Of Hope Road, Baffert said, “she’s better now than she was then.”

RICHI (Filly and Mare Sprint, 19.00 Saturday)

Won the Grade 2 Santa Maria in April then caught a bear in her stablemate Seismic Beauty in the Clement Hirsch Stakes, finishing five lengths behind her in third. Following a second-place finish in the Grade 2 Zenyatta, Baffert elected to drop her down in trip to seven furlongs in the Filly and Mare Sprint.

“If the Distaff was a mile and a sixteenth we might have taken a shot, I think the cutback to seven will be good for her.

SPLENDORA (Filly and Mare Sprint, 19.00 Saturday)

This four-year-old filly has been quite consistent in her career but has not been a match for the division’s best. She has won her last two, an allowance race and the restricted Tranquility Lake Stakes, but will have to step up her game in this competitive field.

IMAGINATION (Sprint, 20.21 Saturday)

This four-year-old of Into Mischief was off for eight months when Baffert decided to bring him back in the Grade 2 Sprint Championship, run at six furlongs, a distance he hadn’t run since his debut two years ago.

“I just threw him in there, it was an experiment and the experiment worked,” Baffert said. “He won like a good horse.’

SEISMIC BEAUTY (Distaff, 21.01 Saturday)

This four-year-old daughter of Uncle Mo brings a three-race winning streak into the Distaff, all since Baffert stretched her out around two turns. She won the Grade 2 Santa Margarita at Santa Anita in May and then following a ten-week layoff she won the Grade 1 Clement Hirsch, earning a gaudy 110 Beyer Speed Figure on August 2. She’ll have 13 weeks in between starts.

“She ran fast and hard, gave her time, now she’s doing great,” Baffert said.

NEVADA BEACH (Classic, 22.25 Saturday)

Baffert had this horse pegged as his Travers horse but when he lost the Affirmed Stakes in June, he decided not to pursue that race (and Sovereignty) even after a dominant victory in the Los Alamitos Derby in June.

Nevada Beach stepped up against older horses in the Goodwood and beat BC Dirt Mile winner Full Serrano by 1 1-2 lengths in that race.

“A mile and a quarter is going to be all right for him, he looks like a horse that will run all day,” Baffert said.

CITIZEN BULL (Dirt Mile, 23.45 Saturday)

Last year’s Juvenile winner railed to see out the longer distances required to be a Triple Crown contender during the spring. After a 15th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby in May and a fourth in the Grade 1 Woody Stephens in June - both over sloppy tracks - Citizen Bull got back in the winner’s enclosure with a 5 1-2 length victory in the Shared Belief, a two-turn mile race at Del Mar in August.

“It was good to get him back into winning form,” Baffert said. “He likes that track down there. He couldn’t be doing better than he is right now.”

NYSOS (Dirt Mile, 23.45 Saturday)

A neck away from being undefeated in six career starts. He is a four-time graded stakes winner who finished a neck behind Mindframe in the Grade 1 Churchill Downs Stakes, his first start off a 15-month layoff.

He won the Grade 2 San Diego at Del Mar on July 26 and was being pointed to the Pacific Classic in late August, but had to miss that race due a badly bruised foot.

“I preferred to run in the Classic, but when I missed the Pacific Classic, it wouldn’t be fair to run him in that race,” Baffert said. “We’re going to run him again next year.”

GOAL ORIENTED (Dirt Mile, 23.45 Saturday)

Won his first two starts and then into the Preakness where he finished fourth behind Journalism. Was beaten by Journalism in the Grade 1 Haskell before finishing third to Baeza in the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby, a race Baffert thought Goal Oriented was going to win.

“He looked like a winner every step until the last eighth of a mile,” Baffert said. “He looked like he was full of horse turning home, I thought he was going to open up, but he runs that way, he’ll just go there and sort of simmers there at the end. I thought maybe shortening him up might be the thing to do.”