Baffert’s Style, Whether His Counterparts Like It or Not, Is Working, so More Than a Few... : FOLLOW THE LEADER

Trainer Elliott Walden is planning to outfit Ecton Park with blinkers when the colt runs Saturday in the 125th Kentucky Derby.

“Anything Bob Baffert does, I want to do,” Walden said.

Mock adulation, perhaps, but the truth is that all of racing is paying attention to the resourceful Baffert. The white-haired trainer, who once thought a good year would be running a string of horses on the small-time Ruidoso Downs-Rillito Park-Prescott Downs circuit in the Southwestern United States, will try to win a third consecutive Kentucky Derby on Saturday. If Baffert started feeding his stock oatmeal, a cottage industry would spring up.

A month ago, Baffert added blinkers to General Challenge’s equipment, and the California-bred gelding won the Santa Anita Derby by 3 1/2 lengths. In mid-March, Baffert introduced Prime Timber to blinkers, and he responded with a two-length win in the San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita. Suddenly, there are a lot of blinkers going around: First American wore them as he won the Flamingo at Hialeah, and a week later Adonis had that hooded look while winning the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.

Baffert doesn’t equate training horses with cancer research. “I go by instinct,” he says. “I mismanaged some good horses before this run came along. But I think I’ve learned by my mistakes. There’s been some second-guessing, but I’m proud of the job I’ve done with Silver Charm. Look at him--he’s a 5-year-old and he’s still running.”

If either General Challenge or Prime Timber wins Saturday--or if Baffert’s possible starter, the filly Excellent Meeting, wins--he’ll catch up with trainer Wayne Lukas on the Derby scoreboard. Lukas has won three Derbies and Baffert two, but the difference is that Lukas’ third win came after 15 years and 26 starters in the race. Baffert has won twice with only five starters in the last three years.

Lukas will try to upstage Baffert’s brigade with Cat Thief and Charismatic in the Derby. The barns of the two trainers are far apart on the Churchill Downs backstretch, and so are their philosophies. Lukas believes that more hours breed more success--the hands-on ethic. Baffert pays attention, sometimes through the eyes and ears of his well-paid, well-qualified stable assistants, but it’s not unusual for him to arrive at the barn about the time Lukas is getting an early case of five o’clock shadow.

Both are converted quarter-horse guys who once knocked off win after win at Los Alamitos, but they are hardly friends, and any flattery that Lukas has for Baffert is spread fairly thin.

“I guess there are a million ways to train horses,” Lukas said. “I told Buck Wheat [director of horsemen’s relations at Churchill] to get his golf cart ready at 9 a.m., because that’s about the time Baffert would be coming through the door. I’ve always thought that hard work and intensity were what mattered. I thought that getting horses to the track early was important, because the surface was not chewed up and better then. But now I’m not so sure. Maybe starting at noon is better.”

In the last 16 years, only two trainers--Bobby Frankel in 1993 and Baffert last year--have displaced Lukas as the national purse leader.

“[Baffert] gets exceptional horses,” Lukas said. “Whether they’re trained by Baffert, me or Joe Blow, they’re going to be all right. I’ve always said that the horse is the most important. Not the owner, not the jockey, not the trainer, but the horse. Those of us that win, we win in spite of what we do.”

Walden, who’s running the Blue Grass winner, Menifee, along with Ecton Park in the Derby, compares Baffert with Lukas in terms of horsepower.

“Bob’s where Wayne was about seven years ago,” Walden said. “Bob gets good horses, he’s got a good mind and he does a very good job. He’s tough to beat. But Bob’s not out there running the races. He’s only as good as his horses, no matter what he tells you.”

When Walden beat Baffert last year, it was a costly loss for the Californian in the Belmont Stakes. When Victory Gallop nipped Real Quiet at the wire, a Triple Crown sweep and a $5-million bonus slipped through Baffert’s fingers.

“I thought that Baffert did a better training job with Real Quiet than he did with Silver Charm [the 1997 Derby winner],” Lukas said. “Real Quiet isn’t the horse that Silver Charm is.”

Mixed reviews do not come from Baffert’s owners, such as Aaron Jones and Mike Pegram. Jones, co-owner with his wife, Marie, of Prime Timber, sought out Baffert when he wanted to reenter the business with some high-spending sales tactics.

“I heard about this character that trained different than everybody else and gave him a call,” Jones said.

Pegram owns Real Quiet, last year’s Derby and Preakness winner, and also races Silverbulletday, the odds-on favorite for Friday’s Kentucky Oaks here. He and Baffert raced quarter horses together, and it was Pegram’s financial commitment to thoroughbreds that enabled Baffert to switch breeds in 1991.

“Bob can read horses and he can read people,” Pegram said. “He’s equally good at both. A lot of guys couldn’t train horses from coast to coast like he does and not lose something. From a business standpoint, there’s virtually no turnover at his barn. People love working for him. He’s got a sixth sense about the animal, and that gives his owners a lot of confidence. Look at me, I’m a prime example. I might have the favorite [Silverbulletday] for the Kentucky Derby, and I’m not even running her. But no matter what happens, I won’t do any second-guessing.”

One of those people who love working for Baffert is Dana Barnes, whose name pops up almost every time one of the stars of the barn has a workout. Barnes, 35, has been the regular morning companion for Prime Timber and General Challenge as they go through their final Kentucky Derby tuneups.

“I’ve been with Bob two years,” she said. “The thing I like about him is that he’s not real intense. We get a lot of work done, but we have a good time too.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

THE DERBY DRAW

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PP Horse Jockey Odds 1. Adonis Chavez 30-1 2. Three Ring Velazquez 20-1 3. f-Ecton Park Davis 12-1 4. Stephen Got Even McCarron 12-1 5. a-Aljabr O’Donahue 12-1 6. b-Excellent Meeting Desormeaux 3-1 7. Desert Hero Nakatani 15-1 8. Answer Lively Perret 50-1 9. f-Valhol Martinez 12-1 10. f-K One King Solis 12-1 11. Cat Thief Smith 8-1 12. a-Worldly Manner Bailey 12-1 13. f-Kimberlite Pipe Albarado 12-1 14. Prime Timber Flores 7-2 15. b-General Challenge Stevens 3-1 16. First American Delahoussaye 12-1 17. Charismatic Antley 20-1 18. Vicar Sellers 6-1 19. Menifee Day 5-1 20. f-Lemon Drop Kid Santos 12-1

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a-Godolphin Racing Inc.-owned entry; b-John and Betty Mabee-owned entry; f-mutuel field.

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RANDY HARVEY, PAGE 2 THE DRAW, PAGE 10