In his words: Bob Baffert on his return to Kentucky Derby 2025

Bob Baffert, wife Jill, family and friends arrived Thursday on their flight from California to Kentucky, just in time to experience an evening thunderstorm that barked worse than it bit Louisville. 

A wet Friday was in the forecast for Baffert to make his morning return to Churchill Downs for the first time since November. Back in his familiar barn 33, Kentucky Derby 2025 will be his first since 2021, when Medina Spirit failed the drug test that was heard around the racing world.

Flatter Pod: Derby talk with Baffert, Musburger, Shutty.

For a Hall of Fame trainer with a record-sharing six Derby trophies, this trip is less about putting the last four years out of mind and more about retracing steps he has taken 21 times in the last 29 years.

Grade 2 Wood Memorial winner Rodríguez and last year’s champion juvenile male Citizen Bull represent him and the big ownership group led by SF Racing, but neither will be the post-time favorite for Kentucky Derby 2025.

In anticipation of his return to Churchill Downs, Baffert did a telephone interview Wednesday with Horse Racing Nation. The whole thing is on the Ron Flatter Racing Pod. The highlights are written here.

This is sort of like for you a routine now. You’ve come to a million Derbies, and now you’re coming back to the Derby. Do you feel like you know what to pack on this day, and we fly on this day, and then we check into this hotel, and we go to the track? Does it feel like it’s that kind of a routine?

Yes. We’ve been doing this for such a long time, since 1996, and so we know what works, what doesn’t work. This is going to be the first time that we, you know, we used to go in through Tex Sutton (Equine Air Transportation), where it was just so much easier on the horses. They’d pick them up in Ontario (Calif.) and fly them straight directly to Louisville. It would be like a four-hour trip, whatever it was. Then they were about 20 minutes away from the barn. Now we have to take them to the LAX, and they sit there in the vans. You don’t know when they’re going to leave. Then they load them up in (FedEx) cargo, and then they lift them up there. Then they take them to Indiana, then they’ve got to van down to Louisville. I think it’s about five hours. So there’s a lot more to getting them, and you’re just hoping that there’s no delays. Like (Tuesday) they were delayed a little bit, and they got there a couple hours later, but they got there in good shape.

What about for you and Jill? Do you go to the same hotel? Do you go to the same restaurants? Do you have the same routine for yourselves?

We stay at the same hotel. I’ve been staying there forever. When I first went there, we stayed right by the airport. ... I actually had a little suite there that I would get for the whole meet, a little two-bedroom suite. It was great. It was 50 bucks a day until Derby time, when it went 50 to 700 bucks. ... The Derby used to be much more affordable. Then I moved to downtown, and I upgraded, and my owners said let’s go up there. I know I can get in there, I know the manager there, and she helps me with people if you need a room. I get my folks in there, everybody in there, and we go to basically the same restaurants. Jeff Ruby is the hangout where you’ll see all the jockeys and stuff, and we go in there, and he’s a good friend of mine. I go where I can get in. Sometimes I’ll call and say excuse me, table for four, Bob Baffert. “What’s your name, sir? How do you spell that? We can’t get you in until 10 o’clock.” All right, never mind. I go where I can get in.

Let’s talk horses. Let’s talk first about Citizen Bull. I remember you have said for a long time that first, second or a troubled third (in the final prep), you go to the Derby. You don’t go worse than that. But here he comes in off a fourth (in the Santa Anita Derby, G1). What made you make an exception to your rule?

Well, he didn’t get a very good trip. Going into it, I didn’t have him as tight as I could have had him, and so I think he really needed it. There was a lot of speed in there, and (jockey Martín García) grabbed him, tried something different, and the horse got tired. He came back, and he was really exhausted. The track was deep and loose that day. He ran the race he did (Sept. 8 finishing third) in the Del Mar Futurity (G1), which I thought he would win. It just got a little heavy on me, but we’ve come back, and he’s been working really well. He worked (seven furlongs in 1:24.2 Wednesday). He worked well, so I’m just going to draw a line through that one.

Rodríguez with the Wood Memorial win, did he show you more in that race than you expected even if your expectations were high? To me it was a loaded race the way it turned out, and he comes out at the top of it.

We knew when he broke his maiden, he was so impressive. He beat Baeza by seven lengths, and we said wow, this guy is really always showing us he could run. But then we tried to tweak him. Let’s take a hold of him. Let’s do this. When (Flavien) Prat rode him (to a distant third in the San Felipe, G3), I could tell in the paddock he just wasn’t relaxed. He just used himself up going to the gate. We just worked with him, and then I took the blinkers off. We trained him differently a little bit, got him relaxed, just really schooled him. I’ve got a great team. We just really put a lot of time into him, extra time, and finally got to make him relax. I knew that the New York race was going to be a perfect spot for him, but we’ve always thought he was a good horse. He’s like his sire Authentic. He’s a free-running kind of horse. He’s not going to go 21 and change. He’s going to go 23 and change. You don’t grab him, but unfortunately, a lot of my horses are that way. Jockeys, that’s their problem. He came back, he’s doing well, he trained well. He shipped into Kentucky. (Assistant trainer) Jimmy (Barnes) said he shipped well. He went to the track (Wednesday). He looks happy, and that’s all you can ask for.

There were a lot of people saying Baffert is going to have five horses in the Kentucky Derby. And I kept saying just wait a minute. We’ve got a long way to go between now and then. You heard all that, I’m sure. Were you disappointed you didn’t get five in the Derby?

I actually had four qualified for it (including Getaway Car and Madaket Road), but I’m only running two. I could have had five, maybe or six or whatever, but it just didn’t happen. The Derby horses, they bring you along. They get you there. You can’t force the issue. They get you there, and you want to go there with horses that have a chance. You don’t want to go there with a horse just because he qualified and he has no chance. That’s not fun. When you do it once, you go like, wow, I’m not going to do that again, because you have the Preakness, and you’ve got the Belmont. All three races are exciting.

You also have the Kentucky Oaks (G1) with Tenma. How do you like how she is going right now, heading into that race?

She’s doing well. It’s going to be a tough race. Her last race she won (the Santa Anita Oaks, G2), it wasn’t really a fast time. The track was pretty deep that day. It was a hot, loose, deep racetrack. She’s going to have to improve. What I like about her, the distance, the mile-and-an-eighth, is going to be OK. Is she good enough? I don’t know. I think Brad Cox’s filly (Good Cheer), there’s some nice fillies in there that look really tough. It’s just like the Derby. Journalism, I think it’s his race to lose. He’s a really good horse. It’s not wide open. If you go down through there, usually one of the top five horses gets it done.

You have a couple who you’re going to put in the Pat Day Mile (G2) with Madaket Road and Gaming. How do you think they’re looking?

They’re looking. (laughs)

Was that too much of a crutch question for me?

You want me to handicap the race for you? I don’t do that.

Well if it’s a winning ticket, hell, yeah.

I just want to get there.

I just want to know how the horses are doing.

They’re doing well. They’re training well. Gaming was sort of a disappointment. After (finishing second in the) Breeders’ Cup (Juvenile), I thought for sure he had Kentucky Derby written all over him. That (distant third in the) Los Alamitos (Futurity, G2), he took a step backward, and he kept taking more steps backwards, and then he’s fine. I think a lot of it with him is just a little mental. His last race, it looked like he was going to run last at Oaklawn (in the March 30 Hot Springs Stakes), and all of a sudden he just came up and ended up running second. It’s just these horses, they’ll just disappoint you.

Do you have your answer rehearsed for all the times you are going to be asked what it’s like being back at Churchill Downs?

It’s going to be like I never left, because when I went back there in November, it was normal.

Anything else I should ask you?

We’re looking forward to it. The Derby is a lot of fun. For all my clients, I wish I could have had more horses in there. I would have loved to have had Barnes in there. He was a horse that I brought around at the right time. He’s fine, but he wasn’t quite ready for it. That happens. You want to go in there with a horse that’s doing really well and has a chance. We have two nice horses in there, but you need a lot of luck. I know it. I’ve won it with the best horses. I’ve gotten beat a few times with the best horses. You don’t know until they turn for home. You’re just hoping as a trainer that when they turn for home, you have a chance to root. There’s nothing like that. That’s a great feeling that when they turn for home, your horse is right there. That’s what you’re hoping for.