In his Hall of Fame career, Baffert has won the Preakness in bunches. He captured back-to-back runnings in 1997 and 1998 with Silver Charm and Real Quiet, and again in 2001 and 2002 with Point Given and War Emblem.
Baffert in 2010 tied D. Wayne Lukas and Thomas J. Healey for second all-time with his fifth Preakness victory, courtesy of Lookin at Lucky, who would go on to be voted champion 3-year-old male. Last year, the Baffert-trained Bodemeister was second by a neck to I’ll Have Another.
Baffert burst onto the national racing scene with Cavonnier in 1996, and the silver-haired native of Nogales, Ariz. has rarely been out of the spotlight, or at a loss for words, since.
Baffert, 59, was born on a cattle ranch and dreamed of becoming a jockey, winning 30 races before having trouble maintaining his weight. He enrolled at the University of Arizona Race Track Industry Program and soon began training quarterhorses until convinced to give thoroughbreds a try by owners Mike Pegram and Hal Earnhardt in 1991.
In the years that followed, Baffert trained 10 horses to 13 year-end championships, including 2001 Horse of the Year Point Given; won the Eclipse Award as top trainer three times (1997-99); led all trainers in purse earnings four times (1998-2001) and was inducted in the Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. in 2009.
Baffert swept the first two legs of the Triple Crown with Silver Charm in 1997, Real Quiet in 1998 and War Emblem in 2002, but failed to win the Belmont Stakes. He also won the 2001 Preakness, Belmont, Haskell and Travers with Point Given.
He is the first trainer in history to win the Derby and Preakness in back-to-back years. Recovering from a near-fatal heart attack suffered in March while in Dubai to run Game On Dude in the Dubai World Cup, Baffert has won nearly 2,200 races and more than $175 million during his career.
