Baffert won't have a horse in Kentucky Derby

What if they held a Kentucky Derby and Bob Baffert didn't come? Does that mean it's not an official race? Do they reduce the prize money?

Many sports have signature figures. Jerry West is the NBA logo. Golf is Tiger Woods, 24/7. Baseball is a syringe.

Horse racing's signature is a head of shocking white hair and a pair of Hollywood sunglasses. They both belong to Bob Baffert.

Since Baffert stormed onto the national thoroughbred scene in the mid-1990s, accompanying the large group of highly successful horses he trained and showing a quick wit and an eye for fun, the sport has never been quite the same. The bluebloods and stuffed shirts may not have liked him, but for a while, they sure couldn't beat him.

But after years of feast, there is now semi-famine for Baffert.

On Saturday at Churchill Downs, they will run for the roses without Baffert being anywhere nearby. That will mark the first time that has happened since 1996.

"Not sure where I'll watch from," he says. "Probably at home. Maybe we'll go to Vegas. That has always sounded like fun."

He really doesn't have a choice. His stable currently has no horse either ready or able, not even for a run in Friday's Kentucky Oaks or on the undercard on Derby Day.

"It's kind of an empty feeling," Baffert says.

Baffert was only a few years out of quarter-horse training in 1996 when he took Cavonnier and Semoran to Churchill Downs for his first-ever big race on the first Saturday of May. Cavonnier finished second, Baffert was hooked, and so was horse racing.

Since that time, Baffert has sent 16 3-year-olds to the Churchill starting gate and won the Derby three times, with Silver Charm in 1997, Real Quiet in 1998 and War Emblem in 2002. In many ways, he has been the king of the Triple Crown. Four times, he has won two legs of it and three of those times he sent horses into the Belmont with a shot at the ever-elusive Triple, not achieved since Affirmed in 1978.

In 1998, Real Quiet was edged out so closely at the wire in the Belmont that Baffert measures the margin of loss with thumb and forefinger, an inch apart.

"I still watch the film," he says, "and I still think he's going to win."

After War Emblem in 2002, Baffert's personal Derby slide began.

In 2003, his Indian Express finished 14th. In 2004, he didn't even get a horse into the starting gate because he had to scratch Wimbledon at the last second. His Sort It Out did not in 2005, finishing 17th. And in 2006, despite Baffert's having three entries, his horses ended up ninth, 16th and 17th.

Last year, he was there with horses on the undercard but had nothing in the Derby.

This year, he won't even be a wallflower at racing's biggest dance.

"My goal has always been to win it," he says, "but it is also nice just to be there."

So, like Rick Neuheisel and Charlie Weis, Baffert is rebuilding. His absence at the Derby is symptomatic of a bigger problem and a deeper feeling about how and where he has been doing business.

Soon, Baffert will be taking most of his saddles and going East. Barn 1C at Santa Anita still will be a Baffert headquarters, but for the foreseeable future, the most active Baffert stables will be at Belmont and Saratoga. For a while, their gain will be California's loss.