Preakness 2023: Baffert makes his return to Triple Crown

Baltimore

As one media gaggle would end Friday morning, Bob Baffert would shuffle his feet, look around, chat up a familiar face, and another gaggle would begin. It happened once, twice, three times.

In that way he was like the Baffert of old, the one who was a go-to interview at any Triple Crown race. But it was not completely like past years at the edge of the stable area at Pimlico. That was where the Hall of Fame trainer returned for the first time in two years, now looking after National Treasure in Saturday’s running of Preakness 2023.

“It feels good to come here,” he said. “We have some live horses. I mean it feels good if you have live horses, that’s the whole key. It’s always been one of my favorites. Of the (Triple Crown) tour, this is the best one, because it’s all about the Derby winner. People are here to have a good time and watch the Derby winner, because he’s America’s celebrity horse now.”

Try as he might to heap praise on Mage and work the edges of strategy about his colt National Treasure, Baffert himself was a story Friday. A 90-day suspension took him completely away from the 2022 Triple Crown. The final days of his Churchill Downs banishment sidelined him from this month’s Kentucky Derby. The forced absences centered on Medina Spirit, whose failed drug test after a first-place finish in the 2021 Derby led to his disqualification and Baffert’s exile from the U.S. classics.

In his answers for reporters Friday, Baffert left the controversy far away in his rear-view mirror. The theme of the day was the return of the prodigal trainer who could set a record Saturday with an eighth Preakness victory.

“If you can come with a good horse, you miss it,” Baffert said. “But if you don’t have one, and you don’t think you can win it, you don’t miss it. It’s like any race I go to. You want to go there with a horse that’s live. There’s nothing worse than going somewhere where you know you don’t have a chance.”

National Treasure is not even the best of Baffert’s four horses on this trip. Faiza, whom Baffert insisted is pronounced “fy-za” and not “fay-za,” brings a 5-for-5 record from California into Friday’s Black-Eyed Susan (G2). The $725,000 Girvin filly was made the 7-5 favorite on the morning line.

“She’s been running against the same horses, and now she’s taking on a different group,” the 70-year-old trainer said. “I’m really looking forward to watching her run. You know she’s really smart. She handles everything really well. I think a mile-and-an-eighth is going to be a good distance for her. In all her races she’s handled two turns really well.”

Asked if Faiza were his best 3-year-old regardless of gender, Baffert merely said, “She’s my best 3-year-old filly.”

Before National Treasure goes in the Preakness, Baffert has two other 3-year-old colts racing as program favorites on the Saturday undercard. Lexington Stakes (G3) runner-up Arabian Lion is 2-5 in the 1 1/16-mile Sir Barton black-type stakes, and Saudi Derby (G3) runner-up Havnameltdown is 8-5 in the six-furlong Chick Lang (G3).

“Havnameltdown, he’s a sprinter,” Baffert said. “I mean I took him to Saudi. He ran hard. He drew the 1, and he’s an extremely fast horse, so I got him ready really quick for this, and I brought him along. And I have Arabian Lion. He ran really well in the Lexington Stakes. It looked like he was just going to win by open lengths, and he got caught.”

Then it was vintage Baffert, who offered some more about what he has seen from Arabian Lion.

“I don’t know what it is about that horse,” he said. “I don’t know if he just stopped running. I’m trying to figure him out, his distance. He’s a heavy, strong horse, but hopefully he’ll run well. I want to give him another chance at a mile-and-a-sixteenth. I was almost thinking of running him in the Preakness. If the (Sir Barton) hadn’t filled, I probably would have thrown him in the Preakness. But a mile-and-a-sixteenth I thought maybe is a good distance for him.”

Five of Baffert’s seven Preakness winners also finished first in the Kentucky Derby. He has not won at Pimlico with a Derby also-ran since Lookin At Lucky in 2010. He will try to do it again with National Treasure, a maiden winner who finished fourth for stand-in trainer Tim Yakteen in the Santa Anita Derby (G1). This weekend the Quality Road colt will have blinkers added.

“He’s a horse that runs in spurts,” Baffert said. “We thought with the blinkers, maybe he’ll focus a little more. I talked to Johnny Velázquez, the jockey, about it. I asked him, ‘I was thinking about putting a little blinker on him and working with a blinker.’ He thought it wouldn’t hurt him, because when he gets in between horses, he’s still immature. He still hasn’t filled in. He’s tall for his frame, so we’re trying something a little bit different.”

Baffert would not give away whether he expected Velázquez to send National Treasure out of post 1 in a bid for the early lead.

At 4-1 on the original morning line, National Treasure presumably would move up to second choice after the scratch Friday morning of Lexington winner First Mission, who was 5-2. But Baffert said the Preakness still revolves around Mage, whose Derby bona fides fueled his 8-5 program odds.

“I really think that Mage is the horse to beat,” Baffert said. “He ran a big race, and he’s getting better. He’s lightly raced, and what he’s done in just a short, few outings is pretty impressive. He’s definitely the horse to beat.”

Baffert is lying in wait, though, perhaps with National Treasure leading the whole race and delivering him the win that would break his tie with 19th-century trainer Wyndham Walden for most Preakness triumphs.

“I really don’t think about records,” he said. “If it happens, it happens. More importantly I like to see all my horses run really well.”

Baffert thought about that for a moment before amending his last thought.

“I like to see them all win.”