There’s No Race, but Baffert Gets Another Winner Anyway

Even though he’s the man who seems to have everything, trainer Bob Baffert picked up yet another Triple Crown prospect Sunday when Prosperous Bid was transferred to his barn.

The morning after Baffert ran 1-2 with Indian Charlie and Real Quiet in the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby, trainer Wally Dollase took a phone call from Rick Taylor, racing manager for John and Betty Mabee’s Golden Eagle Farm, and was told that Prosperous Bid would be sent to Baffert.

A shocked Dollase had no inkling of the switch, which came a month before the Kentucky Derby and a week before Prosperous Bid’s probable appearance in the $500,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct. Dollase, who said that Taylor gave him no reason for the transfer, preferred not to speculate.

Prosperous Bid didn’t run as a 2-year-old, but came out firing this year. He won a maiden race by 7 1/2 furlongs, moved into allowance company with a two-turn win going a mile and then finished a well-beaten third, behind Artax and Real Quiet, in the San Felipe Stakes on March 14.

Recovering from a bruised foot, Prosperous Bid was headed for the Wood this Saturday. Dollase said last week that he would skip the Derby and then shoot for the Preakness, the second leg of the Triple Crown series, at Pimlico on May 16.

Before Taylor’s call, Dollase had called off a Sunday workout for Prosperous Bid at Santa Anita, where the track was still wet from Saturday’s rain.

Baffert said that he would evaluate Prosperous Bid, work him today at Santa Anita and then decide about the Wood, which is New York’s major prep for the Kentucky Derby on May 2. Prosperous Bid has a couple of strikes against him in the Triple Crown: He’s a June foal, which makes him younger than virtually any of his rivals; and no horse since Apollo in 1882 has won the Derby without racing as a 2-year- old.

When Baffert arrived at his barn Sunday, his right-hand man, Eoin Harty, reported that Indian Charlie and Real Quiet appeared to rebound quickly from Saturday’s race. Between them, they accounted for $600,000 of the $750,000 pot. The week before, Baffert and Indian Charlie’s jockey, Gary Stevens, won the Dubai World Cup with Silver Charm, who earned $2.4 million for just over two minutes of racing.

Indian Charlie and Real Quiet will be flown to Louisville on April 15.

“I won’t have to train these horses as hard as I did Silver Charm,” Baffert said. “Silver Charm is lazy and you’ve got to pull out all the stops to get him to work hard in the mornings.”

Undefeated in four starts, Indian Charlie and the Bay Meadows-based colt, Event Of The Year, have identical records. An undefeated horse hasn’t won the Derby since Seattle Slew swept the Triple Crown in 1977. Indian Charlie will try to become the first California-bred to win the Derby since Swaps in 1955.

Event Of The Year, a son of Seattle Slew, is trained by Jerry Hollendorfer for the Mabees. Winner of the Jim Beam Stakes on March 29 at Turfway Park, which is about 100 miles from Louisville, Event Of The Year had his first Churchill Downs workout Sunday. With Donna Barton aboard and Hollendorfer on hand, the colt finished a half-mile in :49 4/5, which was the fourth-best time of 30 horses working that distance. Russell Baze will ride Event Of The Year in the Derby.

Artax, a disappointing third Saturday, more than nine lengths behind Indiana Charlie, will be shipped to Kentucky on Tuesday, but trainer Randy Bradshaw isn’t sure he’ll run in the Derby. Sunday morning, Bradshaw didn’t sound as enthusiastic about the Derby as he had immediately after the race.

Old Trieste, who has run well against top horses in most of his races, hasn’t won a stake, but he ran a 1:34 3/5 mile Saturday to win an allowance race by 10 lengths. Old Trieste will be one of 15 horses that trainer Mike Puype ships to Churchill Downs on April 14.