Bob Baffert says he learned from his Breeders’ Cup mistakes

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Bob Baffert says he learned from his Breeders’ Cup mistakes
Someone like Bob Baffert would have been looking forward to this year’s Breeders’ Cup World Championships, with 10 horses to run in the 2-day event, must be a confident booster, but it all came down to nothing for the veteran horseman, as he drew a doughnut,
and not one of his runners were able to down a single Breeders’ Cup race this year.
Even though, it was hard going at this year’s Breeders’ Cup World Championships, Bob Baffert had his chin up, and never looked dejected after getting beat at his homebase, with runners, who have an emphatic record there.
Take Game on Dude for instance, the monster horse seldom turns in a bad stride at Santa Anita, but he was nowhere in contention in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic when the field turned for home, apparently he had lost it way before the field rounded off
the turn.
Baffert was asked if he could see any sort of key or pattern to what went wrong with all of his 10 runners.
"They all got beat in the first quarter-mile," he offered. "It was all about position. If you don't get position, you are in trouble. And none of my horses seemed to get that.”
Baffert was right in pointing that out, because in the Classic, same happened with Game on Dude, as Rafael Bejarano was unable to grab a good spot early on for the gelding to build up for the finale.
He further went on to say, that the Classic field reeled in some real good horses, and maybe it was Game on Dude’s lack of exposure against such a quality field that got the better of him, which included the likes of Fort Larned and Mucho Macho Man.
Apart from Game on Dude going flat in the Classic, Baffert’s biggest disappointment was Executiveprivilege, who failed to win her race, the Grade 1 Juvenile Fillies, and then the Power Broker, who was the outside post number 9, and with such an advantage
the colt never switched leads.
"Game On Dude for sure," he said. "And Executiveprivilege, I thought she'd win. But maybe the biggest of all was Power Broker. That was a huge disappointment.”