Bob Baffert Vs. Himself

It's a scene that could play out Saturday in Baltimore or, perhaps, three weeks later at Belmont Park. Dortmund has the lead as the field hits the sixteenth pole, and American Pharoah is bearing down on him. The two lock heads, go stride for stride the last few yards … and Dortmund wins by a nose. There will be no Triple Crown winner in 2015.

Plenty of things stand between American Pharoah and the Triple Crown. The list begins with the fact that it's nearly impossible for a horse to hold form when forced to run three races in five weeks; that's the primary reason so many have failed with the Triple Crown on the line at the Belmont. Then there's the luck factor. Horses have to stay healthy, and they can ill afford to get a bad trip in any of the three legs. The mile-and-a-half distance in the Belmont is another huge obstacle. A lot of these horses can't run that far.

This year, you can add a new and unusual wrinkle to that list. With all due respect to Firing Line, there's one horse out there that seems to have the talent to simply outrun American Pharoah at some point, and it's his stablemate, Dortmund.

Will it happen Saturday in the Preakness? It could.

“I don't see why I shouldn't give [Dortmund] another chance because he's a very good horse,” said Bob Baffert, who trains both horses.

Baffert said the decision whether to run Dortmund in the Preakness was left up to him by owner Kaleem Shah. Here's what a lot of trainers would have told their owners: The horse was exhausted after the Derby and needed a break, or maybe they should think about finding an easier spot, one that doesn't include American Pharoah. A rested Dortmund would be a cinch in the $500,000 Woody Stephens at Belmont on Belmont Day.
Instead, Baffert did the right thing. Ahmed Zayat owns American Pharoah, and Shah owns Dortmund. It wouldn't be right to put one owner's interests over the other's. Shah has a very good horse, and he deserves a shot in the Preakness and, possibly, the Belmont.

“In my barn, everybody gets an equal, fair shot,” Baffert said.

Baffert has been in this position once before. Real Quiet won the 1998 Kentucky Derby over stablemate–and the more highly regarded–Indian Charlie, who finished third. Baffert said Indian Charlie was “drained” after the Kentucky Derby, and he pulled him out of the Triple Crown. The horse never ran again.

Trainer Jimmy Jones faced a similar dilemma in 1948, when Citation scored a mild upset over stablemate Coaltown in the 1948 Derby. Coaltown came in second. Both were owned by Calumet Farm, and the connections went back and forth on whether Coaltown should run in the Preakness. Ultimately, he didn't. Calumet Farm said it couldn't get the horse to Baltimore because of a train strike, yet it somehow managed to get Citation there. Coaltown was not seen again in the Triple Crown, which Citation went on to win.

Angle Light was good enough to beat stablemate Secretariat in the 1973 Wood Memorial. Angle Light finished 10th in the Derby, but trainer Lucien Laurin took no chances and sent him to the sideline for the Preakness, claiming he was tired and needed a rest.

One might think Zayat might not be too happy with the fact that Baffert will be going after his Derby winner with another horse in the stable, but the trainer says that's not the case.

“We've never discussed Dortmund,” Baffert said. “He never discusses another horse that I have in a race. He knows what's going on because he's been in this position before, where he might not have the best horse, and I'll have another horse in there. This isn't something that's even brought up in the conversation.”

Should American Pharoah win the Preakness, and should Dortmund run another strong race, then it will really get tricky. When asked how he would handle that situation, Baffert said he wasn't going to look that far ahead. But he hinted that if Dortmund continues to prove he belongs in these races and stays healthy, he's not about to back off.

“With Pharoah, if you're going to be a Triple Crown-winner, you have to be a great horse to win it,” he said. “So he's going to have to beat his stablemate. He's got to beat Firing Line and probably some other horses in there.”

Baffert is doing what's best for Shah, which is his job. But he's also putting a Triple Crown at risk by running Dortmund in the Preakness. This could get very interesting.

Originally published by espn.com and reprinted here with their permission. For more articles by Bill Finley and others on horseracing, visit http://espn.go.com/horse-racing/