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Robert A. Baffert (born January 13, 1953) is an American racehorse trainer who trained 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. He also train in 2018 for Triple Crown winner Justify. Baffert’s horses have won six Kentucky Derby bets, seven Preakness bets, three Belmont bets, and three Kentucky bets. With his victory in the 2020 Kentucky Derby, he broke the record for most Kentucky Derby. He is one of America’s most well-known. Baffert is a rich horse trainer, having acquired a multi-million dollar fortune through his complicated work and talent in the industry.
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Bob Baffert’s biography–Early life
Bob Baffert’s biography starts with his early life. His family raised him on a ranch in Nogales, Arizona, where his family grazed cattle. Baffert’s father bought Quarter Horses for him to train racing on a dirt track when he was ten years old. This was when he demonstrated his early enthusiasm for horses.
Baffert earned $100 a day as a jockey throughout his teenage years. He was competing in unofficial Quarter Horse races held outside of Nogales. Then switched to legalized tracks at 17 and won his first race in 1970.
He graduated from the University of Arizona Race Track Industry Program and Baffert became one of the top trainers in Quarter Horse racing, being responsible for four champions. Then, he transitioned to thoroughbred racing in the late 1980s.
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His last step into that new world came in 1991 when Baffert quit his Quarter Horse division. It then only took a few years for him to become one of the best trainers in the Thoroughbred race.
Bob Baffert’s biography–Career
1996
With Bob Baffert’s biography, his career is one of the peak moments of his life. Baffert’s involvement in the American classic races dates back to 1996 when he trained Cavonnier. This is a three-year-old horse who finished second in the Kentucky Derby. Silver Charm, a gray colt trained by him, won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes in 1997, placing second in the Belmont Stakes.
The next year, Baffert returned to the Derby with two top colts, Real Quiet and Indian Charlie. That year, Real Quiet won the race, while Baffert’s Indian Charlie finished third. Real Quiet, like Silver Charm, won the Preakness but was denied a Triple Crown win when he finished second in the Belmont Stakes by a nose. However, Baffert made history by becoming the first trainer to win the Derby and Preakness in consecutive years.
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1997
He was named the 1997 Big Sport of Turfdom Award. Between 1997 and 1999, he won the Eclipse Award for outstanding trainer three years in a row.
2001
Baffert never won another classic race until 2001, when he and eventual Hall of Fame member Point Given swept the Preakness and Belmont Stakes. This is also something quite remarkable in Bob Baffert’s biography. Despite being denied a Derby victory that year, he finished third with Congaree in the race. The next year, with War Emblem, Baffert won the Derby for the third time.
The colt won the Preakness Stakes, giving the trainer a chance to win the Triple Crown for the third time. After a terrible start, the horse finished second in the Belmont Stakes. After that, Baffert did not have another Triple Crown winner until 2009, when Pioneer of The Nile finished second in the Derby.
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2007
In 2007, they honored Baffert in the Hall of Fame at Lone Star Park, and in 2009,then nominated him for and inducted into the Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Racing. Finally, they elected Baffert elected alongside Silverbulletday, one of his best fillies. Point Given was nominated in 2009, but was elected and enshrined into the Hall of Fame in 2010.
2010
Baffert has won thirteen American Classic Races, fourteen Breeders’ Cup races, three Dubai World Cups, and the inaugural Pegasus World Cup with his horses. In 2010, Baffert won his first Grade I race as a breeder when Misremembered, a horse he bred and owned by his wife Jill and their friend George Jacobs, won the Santa Anita Handicap.
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He also has seven Santa Anita Derby victories, eight Haskell Invitational Handicap victories, and thirteen Del Mar Futurity victories, including seven consecutive victories from 1996 to 2002, while the race was still a Grade II event. Baffert also won the race as a Grade I event in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, and 2016. He has three Kentucky Oaks victories: the first in 1999 with Silverbulletday, who was later inducted into the Hall of Fame, the second in 2011 with Plum Pretty, and the third in 2017 with Abel Tasman.
After an eight-year wait, Baffert finally trained Lookin At Lucky to win the Preakness Stakes in 2010, co-owned by the longtime client and dear friend Mike Pegram. Although the colt did not run in the Belmont Stakes, he was the champion three-year-old colt that year. In 2012, Baffert rode Bodemeister to second-place finishes in the Derby and Preakness, named after the trainer’s youngest son, Bode. Later that year, he entered Paynter in the Belmont Stakes, but the colt finished second, just like his stablemate Bodemeister.
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2012
In late March 2012, while in Dubai for a world-class race at Meydan, Bob had a heart attack.
2014
Baffert trained champions Chilukki and five-time Grade I winner, Congaree for a variety of owners, including The Thoroughbred Corporation (Prince Ahmed bin Salman), Golden Eagle Farm (John C. Mabee), the late Bob Lewis and his wife Beverly, Robert and Janice McNair, and his good friend Mike Pegram, for whom he trained champions Real Quiet, Silverbulletday, Captain Steve, Midnight Lute, and Lookin At Lucky.
He won his first Breeders’ Cup Classic with Bayern in 2014, working with the owner Kaleem Shah. Baffert’s most recent horses for Zayat Stables include Pioneer of The Nile, Zensational, Bodemeister, Paynter, and American Pharoah, as well as Arrogate for Juddmonte Farms.
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2015
In 2015, Baffert trained American Pharoah, the 2014 champion two-year-old horse, to win the Triple Crown for the first time in 37 years. He won the 141st Kentucky Derby, giving him four wins in the event; Baffert also rode Dortmund, the previously undefeated horse who finished third. Following that, American Pharoah won the 140th Preakness Stakes, giving Baffert six wins in the race.
Dortmund finished fourth. When American Pharoah won the 2015 Belmont Stakes, it was Baffert’s fourth effort at the Triple Crown, and he became the second-oldest trainer to do so at the age of 62.
2018
They also knew Baffert to have trained the 2018 Triple Crown Winner, Justify. The Preakness Stakes (by ½ length) and the Belmont Stakes (by 1 ¾ length) were run in rain and mud, respectively. Baffert became only the second trainer in history to win the Triple Crown twice (after Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons). He also passed D. Wayne Lukas for the most Triple Crown race victories (15).
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2020
With the victory of Authentic in the Kentucky Derby in 2020, Baffert tied Ben Jones for the most victories in the race. However, this occurred while Baffert faced mounting cheating suspicions. Nearly 50 of his horses had tested positive for illegal substances during his career, and he was serving an Arkansas Racing Commission penalty at the time of his record-tying victory. He apologized and expressed his desire to “have a constructive influence on the sport of horse racing.”
2021
Baffert created history in 2021 when Medina Spirit won the Kentucky Derby, giving him an unprecedented seventh win. Baffert was restricted from competing in the event for two years after the horse tested positive for a banned drug. The New York Racing Association also issued A temporary ban, causing him to miss the 2021 Belmont Stakes; however, the punishment was eventually reversed by a federal court.
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2022
The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission disqualified Medina Spirit from the Kentucky Derby the previous year and suspended Baffert for 90 days in February 2022. Baffert announced he would file an appeal.
Bob Baffert’s biography–Personal life
Another interesting thing about Bob Baffert’s biography is his personal life! Baffert had four children with his first wife, Sherry. Bob and Sherry divorced in August 2001 because they didn’t have enough time, she admits, so she filed for divorce.
Bob married Jill Baffert, a former television reporter, in 2002. Baffert’s divorce from Sherry left several of his brothers “uncomfortable,” according to the Los Angeles Times because it bonded them.
Bob Baffert has four children from his first marriage: Taylor, Canyon, Forest, and Savannah, and Bode Baffert from his second marriage. Except for his eldest brother Bill Baffert Jr., Bob Baffert is thought to have six siblings about whom little is known.
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In 2012, while in Dubai to watch his horse run in the world’s richest event, Baffert suffered a heart attack. He survived, thankfully, and even showed off some of his characteristic wit in a hospital bed video.
“When the Sheikh comes to visit you in hospital, you know you are being well taken care of,” Baffert joked, referring to Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed.
Body measurements
Baffert stands at an average height of 5 feet and 7 inches (171 cm) and weighs 70 kilograms (154 lbs)
Controversies
Bob Baffert’s biography will not be complete without his controversies. Baffert’s horses had failed drug tests over 30 times. Baffert has paid out over $20,000 in fines, while his lifetime earnings total $321 million. He contests most sanctions regularly, usually agreeing to accept fines but opposing suspensions vehemently. “He’s Mr. Teflon,” says horse owner and racing reform advocate Barry Irwin.
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The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission banned Baffert for 90 days and penalized him $7,500 in February 2022. The suspension would have last from March 8 through June 5. They granted Baffert a stay of execution until April 4 in order to file an appeal. On April 1, the Kentucky Court of Appeals dismissed Baffert’s appeal.
Because of a rule eliminating any trainer under a 60-day or greater ban from all CHRB facilities beginning April 4, they banned him from all California Horse Racing Board facilities. Although Baffert’s horse Shaaz won the sixth race at Santa Anita on April 2, this included Baffert’s home track. All 38 racing states were expected to honor Baffert’s 90-day suspension. Baffert had already sent four 3-year-old colts to different trainers before the April 1 judgment.
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Baffert’s prescription offenses were mostly for exceeding allowable amounts of prescribed substances such phenylbutazone. This is a pain medication regularly given to horses. His breaches for using illegal drugs, however, have generated debate.
Bob Baffert’s Life Story—Net worth
Bob Baffert rose to prominence in American classic races in 1996. He then became one of the wealthiest and highest-paid trainers in the country. The man won the “Belmont Stakes” in 2001 and 2015. Winning made him a “Triple Crown” winner, with horses like Silver Charm and Real Quiet. This gave him four wins in the Kentucky Derby and six Preakness Stakes. Since he originally entered the game, winning these races has obviously increased his net worth significantly.
Bob has also won the “Breeder’s Cup” several times, which has paid off handsomely for him because the inaugural award was $1 million in 1992. As the trainer of the 2015 “Kentucky Derby” winning colt “American Pharaoh,” Baffert is currently enjoying his domination in his industry. His winning streak does not stop at national triple crowns; in 1998 and 2001, he stunned the world by winning the “Dubai World Cup” twice.
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Bob and his wife Jill Baffert are enjoying their present net worth of $15 million as his winning streak continues to grow. Bob Baffert has five children, four of whom he shares with his ex-wife Sherry and one with Jill. For his extraordinary service to the horse racing industry, this super-successful trainer has been admitted into the “Lone Star Park Hall of Fame.” He was also admitted into the “US Racing Hall of Fame.” Bob, on the other hand, is a philanthropist who supports retired and disabled jockeys and horses. So, that is the end of Bob Baffert’s biography.