Standing outside his barn on the Oklahoma side of Saratoga, Bob Baffert holds court with the media and smiles. He talks about Midnight Lute's victory in the Forego (gr. I). About how rewarding it is to win a race like that at a track like this. About how good it is to be back.
"Yeah, Midnight Lute, I told you before that he was in my top 10 favorite horses," he says. "Now he's in my top eight. A few horses got bumped down a couple notches after yesterday's win, that's for sure."
Back in May, Morning Line featured a segment on the top trainer and his lack of a Kentucky Derby starter. We called it "Bob Who?"
Funny how quickly things can change. Maimonides, More Happy, J B K, others... quite a showing in the past few weeks, right Bob?
"Absolutely. We're on a good roll right now but things can change overnight, I know how this game is."
Over behind the fenceline, 2-year-old Bode Baffert is running and jumping in little circles.
"The parks here are awesome!" Bob says. "We took Bode to one of those places where they have the little sprinklers in the ground; he had a blast."
Baffert calls on Bode.
"Hey, do you want to go to the beach or the sprinklers?"
"Sprinklers!" Bode replies.
Seems like both Bafferts like the Spa.
Can't say that we blame them.