Bob Baffert is one of the most recognizable people in horse racing. It seems as if he has won almost everything -- and won it more than once. He has conditioned some of the best racehorses the sport has ever seen. He reached yet another milestone on February 1st: 3,000 wins as a trainer. To celebrate this accomplishment, here are ten facts about Bob Baffert! 1. Baffert got his start in horse racing with Quarter Horses. By age ten and eleven, Baffert was exercising Quarter Horses for his dad. He then worked as Quarter Horse jockey and later, after graduating from the University of Arizona’s Race Track Industry Program, as a trainer. He trained four champion Quarter Horses before beginning his transition to Thoroughbreds in the late 1980s.
2. Silver Charm became Baffert’s first Kentucky Derby winner in 1997. Since then, Baffert has won the Kentucky Derby four other times.
{Video: Watch Silver Charm win Bob Baffert his first Kentucky Derby]
3. Baffert trained three horses that won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness but lost the Belmont Stakes: Silver Charm (1997) was second in the Belmont, Real Quiet (1998) lost the Belmont by a nose, and War Emblem (2002) finished eighth in the Belmont. His back-to-back Derby and Preakness victories with Silver Charm & Real Quiet made Bob Baffert the first trainer to win both races in two consecutive years. 4. Baffert finally won the Triple Crown in 2015 with American Pharoah, ending the sport’s thirty-seven year Triple Crown drought. He won it again with Justify in 2018.
5. Three Horse of the Year winners have been trained by Bob Baffert: Point Given (2001), American Pharoah (2015), and Justify (2018). Baffert has also trained three Champion Two-Year Old Colts, three Champion Two-Year Old Fillies, nine Champion Three-Year Old Colts, one Champion Three-Year Old Filly, two Champion Sprint Horses, and one Champion Female Sprinter.
6. In 2010, Baffert won his first Grade 1 race with a horse he bred, Misremembered (Candy Ride - Beyond Perfection, Quack). The race was the Santa Anita Handicap. Misremembered also won races like the 2009 Indiana Derby (G2) and 2009 Swaps Stakes (G2). He now stands stud at Barton Thoroughbreds.
[Video: Watch Misremembered win the 2010 Santa Anita Handicap (G1)]
7. Burger King paid Bob Baffert $200,000 to have their mascot stand behind him at the 2015 Belmont Stakes. Baffert and his wife Jill divided the money up between four charities, giving the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, CARMA of California, Old Friends, and the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund $50,000 each. 8. Bob Baffert has won fifteen Breeders’ Cup races. He has won the Sprint five times, the Juvenile Fillies twice, Juvenile four times, Juvenile Sprint once, and the Classic three times. D. Wayne Lukas is the only trainer with more Breeders’ Cup wins (20).
9. Bob Baffert’s horses have raced a total of 13,235 times. They have won 3,001 times, finished second 2,229 times, and finished third 1,824 times. Baffert has amassed $297,286,404 in his career as a trainer.
10. Bob Baffert was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2009, joined by his horses Silverbulletday and Point Given.
[Video: Bob Baffert & his two Triple Crown winners]
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