There's No Anonymity for Baffert

By BILL CHRISTINE

May 1, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

LOUISVILLE, Ky. —

On a picturesque sunny morning at Churchill Downs, trainer Bob Baffert stood in the mostly vacant fourth-floor box-seat section of the historic track, his stopwatch having just told him that Point Given and Congaree had worked brilliantly in their final auditions for Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.

Baffert does a lot of internal churning on important prerace days but camouflages the pressure with wisecracks.

After Congaree, the second Baffert horse to work out Monday, had crossed the finish line, he turned to Janice McNair, one of the owners of the colt, and said, “That’s it for me. Think you can handle this horse the rest of the week?”

McNair just smiled. She knows Baffert’s deadpan by now.

“I’m going to put you and the prince [Ahmed Salman, owner of Point Given] in a room together,” Baffert said. “It might be the only way the two of you will survive.”

By now, McNair was unwinding.

“I’ll be all right,” she said. “Just as long as our horse is breathing.”

“We can all relax the rest of the week,” Baffert said. “Dealing with the media is the only problem between now and Saturday.”

Just then, a TV reporter came up, stuck a microphone close to Baffert’s chin, and said, “Now can you tell us which one is the better horse?”

“I wish I had a dollar for every time somebody’s asked me that question,” Baffert said.

Had Point Given and Congaree worked together Monday, they theoretically would have finished in a dead heat. The official five-furlong time for each horse was a lightning :58 1/5, although in truth Baffert had worked Congaree six furlongs and by his watch the time was 1:11 1/5 for that distance.

Dana Barnes, 100 pounds, the wife of Jim Barnes, Baffert’s right-hand man at the barn, rode both horses in their workouts. As usual, Baffert was on a two-way radio, talking to Barnes as her mounts sped around the track. The trainer didn’t have to say much. Expected to be the favorite and the second choice in the Derby, Point Given and Congaree clicked off the fractions like equine machines.

“Dana’s the best in the business,” Baffert said. “She’s got great hands on her, and she loves what she’s doing.”

A year ago, Baffert lost his No. 1 assistant when Eoin Harty left, with the boss’ blessing, to take a job with Sheik Muhammad of Dubai.

“There was one stipulation when Eoin left,” Baffert said. “He had to promise me that he wouldn’t take Dana with him.”

There was another horse on the track during Point Given’s workout. Pepe Aragon, one of Baffert’s exercise riders, was aboard Saif, a 3-year-old maiden who gave Point Given a target.

“Point Given gets a little lazy, so we like to make it interesting for him,” Baffert said. “We call Saif our punching bag. Eventually we’ll have to replace him with another horse to do this. He’ll lose interest after he does this a few times.”

Neither of Baffert’s horses worked in the saddlecloth with his name on it. Baffert remembers what happened in 1997, several days before he’d won his first Derby, when Silver Charm worked in an identifying saddlecloth.

Churchill opens the track to the public for coffee and doughnuts during morning workouts, and as Silver Charm finished his, the crowd applauded. The noise spooked another horse, which was galloping the wrong way around the track, and he nearly had a head-on collision with Silver Charm.

Monday’s strategy must have worked. There was no clapping for either Point Given or Congaree. For a morning, at least, they were anonymous. On Saturday, a crowd that could reach 150,000 will have eyes for nothing else.

On the backstretch of Churchill Downs’ one-mile oval, Point Given broke off at the five-eighths pole, giving Saif a head start, but at the wire the Santa Anita Derby winner was about six lengths in front of his stablemate. Point Given galloped out an extra eighth of a mile in 13 2/5 seconds. The track was playing fast, but these workouts were still corkers.

“They were both pretty awesome,” Baffert said. “We’re ready. They’re opposites in the mornings. Point Given is a lazy work horse, but Congaree, you have to try to slow down, because he wants to get into it right away. This is always a nerve-racking day for me. By Friday, you’ll say to yourself that you should have done this or that differently on this day. Hopefully, one or the other will win Saturday.”

The post-position draw is scheduled Wednesday night. Silver Charm won from Post 5, and the next year Baffert’s Real Quiet started from Post 3 and gave the trainer his second Derby win. In the last six years, only two Derby winners broke from the inside. Surprisingly, the winners the four other years started from Post 15 or 16. The message is that if you have the right horse in the Derby, the post doesn’t matter.

Last year, Baffert finished eighth with Captain Steve, who had the No. 7 post. Captain Steve, winner of the $6-million Dubai World Cup in March, galloped Monday at Churchill Downs, an hour before Baffert’s Derby horses worked out. Steve Thompson, the Louisville police detective for whom Captain Steve is named, watched at the barn as the colt got a bath.

“What time is the big horse [Point Given] going out?” a reporter asked.

“8:30,” Thompson said.

After the reporter left, Thompson said, “I gave him the straight answer. I should have told him that Captain Steve just galloped.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

DERBY DIARY

A day-by-day look at Bob Baffert’s barn leading up to Saturday’s race, in which his two horses, Point Given and Congaree, are the leading contenders:

COVERAGE

TINCIN OUT OF DERBY

The maiden Tincin won’t run in Saturday’s race after developing a cough. D8

THE FACTS

WHAT: The 127th Kentucky Derby

WHERE: Churchill Downs, Louisville, Ky.