Baffert is taking it ‘week by week’ with Ky. Derby hopefuls

Bob Baffert has pointed Citizen Bull and Barnes to the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby and Rodríguez to the Wood Memorial (G2). Those Saturday plans are as concrete as they can be in horse racing. But the big picture for his Kentucky Derby 2025 contenders is a work in progress.

“I’m not going to make that call today,” he said Sunday in a phone conversation from California.

First Look: Likely fields for 15 graded stakes.

The Hall of Fame trainer who has six Kentucky Derby trophies stayed true to his method of staying in the moment and taking the races one week at a time.

For starters Baffert is making an equipment change with Rodríguez, who would clinch a Kentucky Derby bid with a first-, second- or maybe even a third-place finish at Aqueduct in the Wood.

“I’m going to take the blinkers off of him for this race, and hopefully he’ll relax,” Baffert said, harking back to Rodríguez’s fade to a distant third in the March 1 San Felipe (G2) at Santa Anita. “I think he’s a very talented horse. He’s just immature, just like his sire (Authentic) was at this stage of his life. He’s got a lot of quality. His last two works have been great. He just loses it. Mentally he’s just too busy. I’m just trying to keep him as chill as possible.”

Baffert is sending Mike Smith east to ride Rodríguez from post 1 in the field of 12 for the two-turn, 1 1/8-mile Wood.

“Better than the 12,” Baffert said.

Back home in Southern California, the field for the Santa Anita Derby is likely to come up light when entries are taken Monday. If fewer than six start, the Kentucky Derby qualifying points will be reduced. That is not a worry for Citizen Bull, who already clinched his berth, but Barnes probably needs a top-two finish and maybe a flat-out, reduced-value win to get to Louisville.

“It’s going to be a short field again,” Baffert told Horse Racing Nation. “I just leave it in the hands of the jocks. That’s all you can do.”

Martín García won the Feb. 1 Robert B. Lewis (G3) with Citizen Bull, the Eclipse Award winner who had a bullet workout Saturday. Southern California’s leading jockey Juan Hernández has been paired with Barnes, the $3.2 million colt who finished second March 1 in the San Felipe (G2) and was scheduled for a workout Monday morning.

Baffert has said he is not worried about any points reduction in the two-turn, 1 1/8-mile Santa Anita Derby.

“I run to win the race,” he said last week. “I’m not thinking about the points. The points come with the wins, right? I’m entering these races trying to win them.”

For years Baffert also has held firm to his credo that a horse needs to finish in the top two or a troubled third in a final major prep to be worthy of the Kentucky Derby. But he stopped short of a decision about Madaket Road. The maiden winner might have enough points to go to Louisville despite his fade from first to fourth Saturday in the 1 1/8-mile Florida Derby (G1).

“He just ran his race at the distance that was a little bit (of a factor) there,” Baffert said. “He didn’t get a breather. That horse (Neoequos) was on him the whole way.”

With only two starts, Cornucopian does not have any Kentucky Derby options. Sent off as the 4-5 favorite with John Velázquez riding Saturday in the Arkansas Derby (G1) at Oaklawn, he and Speed King blazed through early fractions of 22.46 and 45.21 seconds before he melted down to a fourth-place finish.

“I was asking a lot, and we just didn’t get the trip,” Baffert said. “He needed one race around two turns before that. Unfortunately, when he got over (from post 9), it looked like he was going to control the pace. We knew the 5 (Speed King) was going to be up there. I don’t think the 5 broke, but all of a sudden he just shot up there. Once they hooked up, there was nothing Johnny could do. They were just off to the races. He came back well, and that happens. He’s still green. We’ll figure it out, get him back and freshen him up.”

With his Kentucky Oaks (G1) contender Tenma ticketed for Saturday’s Santa Anita Oaks (G2), the draw for Saturday’s card in California will have his attention Monday. So will Barnes’s last breeze before the Santa Anita Derby.

“We just go week by week,” Baffert said. “May the chips fall wherever.”