Bob Baffert hoping for a break with Lookin At Lucky
There may have been times when Bob Baffert has wondered whether the name of his star horse was tempting providence just a little too far.
Lookin At Lucky goes into the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs as the second-favourite behind the mighty Zenyatta with just three defeats to his name but it is a moniker that has come back to haunt his trainer more than once.
Bad post-positions draws conspired for a second place in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last season and a sixth place in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in May and, even when the luck of the draw has not taken a hand, the colt’s health did not make life any easier for Baffert. Either side of those runs Baffert felt that Garrett Gomez was culpable for the ride he gave the colt in the Santa Anita Derby in April, when Lookin At Lucky finished third to Sidney’s Candy.
After Lookin At Lucky had turned potential into solid formbook fact, when he won the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico two weeks after the Derby, Baffert had to back off for a work when the horse succumbed to a temperature. And it was a déjà vu this weekend for Lookin At Lucky and Baffert when ran in the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth park in August.
A stall one draw was not the greatest start to his plans so Baffert and Lookin At Lucky’s jockey, Martin Garcia, devised a strategy to work around that problem with Garcia opting not to try and rush Lookin At Lucky from the gates as First Dude and Our Dark Knight led to the first turn. Garcia elected for a wide run around the first turn and down the back stretch, making his move three wide at the top of the home stretch as he came home to win by four lengths.
Baffert’s luck did not appear to have got any better when his horse was drawn 12 of 12 for the Classic but he was putting the best look on it he could. "Well, I didn’t want the one hole,” he said. “I don’t like being down the inside with him. He’s the kind of horse that his best races have come when he’s been on the outside. He doesn’t like dirt in his face too much.
“I think he’s out of harm’s way. He’s not one-dimensional – he’s not a speed horse – so he’s probably going to place himself in the second wave behind the speed so I think it’s a good spot for him. If he had drawn the one again I’d have just thought that there’s no luck for this horse.”
“He’s got a big hurdle running against Zenyatta. And this whole Breeders’ Cup is about Zenyatta because when she came off the van there must have been 500 reporters and photographers waiting at the barn. And when Lucky got off the van there wasn’t a soul,” he said with a laugh that could not disguise his competitive streak.
“But you know what, she deserves that kind of attention because she’s such a great mare and I think she’s going to make it such an exciting Breeders’ Cup.”
Little excites Baffert more than a big winner and he has two other runners at the meeting, neither of which he was ruling out. AZ Warrior was something of a surprise when she beat R Heat Lightning in the Grade One Frizette Stakes at Belmomt – coming off the back of two defeats at Del Mar – but Baffert believes that she is simply a better performer on dirt and a good shot for the Juvenile Fillies’ on the first day.
“I was really excited by her when I started her at Hollywood Park and then we got to Del Mar and we had to change her style because of the track,” he said. “If you want to win there you cannot put them on the lead. So we were trying to change her style so that she’d break well, then we’d take her back five, seven lengths and then she’d make a run but wouldn’t finish.
“But once we got her back on the dirt we just let her run and that’s the way she wants to run. She’s a true dirt horse, she’s got a great mind – my little five-year-old could lead her up to the paddock – and I think she’ll run well. She won one turn going a mile and you don’t know what they’re to do going two turns until they do it. But I think, in her last race, she handled it well.”
Gabby's Golden Gal handled her last race well enough when she beat Proviso in the Grade One Santa Monica Handicap. The problem is the race was back in January but Baffert was making all the right noises about her ability to handle the 278-day break when she runs in the Filly & Mare Sprint.
“She is doing just really well,” he said with an emphasis that suggested that the markets could be wrong “and she’s going to run a huge race. If you can get 20-1 you’d better load up.”
Baffert may have won three Kentucky Derbys but he will be hoping that Lookin At Lucky can fare better than the seven runners he has loaded up for America’s richest race of which Silver Charm got closest when second to Awesome Again at Churchill in 1998.
“He’s going to run huge,” Baffert said. “I don’t know if he’s good enough but I love the way he’s coming into this race. He does not like to lose – he knows where that wire is and he runs hard every time.”
A little luck in running would not go amiss either.
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