Baffert winning at highest rate of his career

Trainer Bob Baffert has won a lot of races, but he’s never won them in bunches like this.

Granted, just 14.8% of the year is complete-plenty can happen between now and Dec. 31-but through Feb. 23, Baffert’s 31.2% win rate since Jan. 1, 2020, marks the first time ever that the Racing Hall of Fame conditioner has eclipsed the 30% threshold for any 3-year-period.

Aiding that gaudy ratio for now is his 39.5% strike rate this year on the heels of a 31.7% 2021 season, which just missed his record 32.5% wins in 2018. Baffert has been above 24% every year since 2016. That’s 5 consecutive seasons batting at least .240, an impressive streak considering he had only done it 6 times 1991-2015.

Of course, Baffert is getting better stock. More than a third (34.3%) of his starts in 2021 were in graded stakes races, and half (50%) of his starts in 2022 have come in those added money events. He is winning those races with similar fervor, though, notching a 42.1% win rate this year to increase his three-year run in graded stakes (2020-2022) to 30.4%.

From 2001-2008, Baffert’s graded stakes starts were 12%-19% of his total starts, but he’s been above 20.9% every year since 2010 and above 29% each year since 2017.

Perhaps most impressive is how Baffert relates relative to other trainers. Of the 751 trainers with at least 100 starts in 2021, Baffert ranked 5th in win percentage (31.6%) and 7th by wins. The top trainer by purses, Brad Cox, ranked 18th by win percentage (26.2%) while the top trainer by win percentage, Kevin Patterson (40.2%), ranked 343rd in purses.