Arrogate's Travers Win Wows Baffert

SARATOGA SPRINGS, New York – Bob Baffert turned his Sunday morning GI Travers S. victory press conference into a show-and-tell performance featuring his newest star, Arrogate (Unbridled's Song).

Just like he did last year following American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile)'s stunning loss, Baffert brought Arrogate out of his stall in Barn 25 on a shank for a photo and video session. The mood was far more upbeat this time, though, about 14 hours after the gray with a distinctive mix of color and markings on his face broke the 37-year-old track record of 2:00 with a 1:59.36. Baffert said he wanted to introduce the fastest horse to race at Saratoga and acknowledged that he was blown away by Arrogate's performance.

“After he ran like that, I was like everyone else, like a fan,” Baffert said. “I was like, 'Wow, what did we just witness?' Man, this is a terrific horse.' When I saw the time, 1:59, I was like, 'That is smoking.' I did not know that was a track record until later on.”

Under Mike Smith, Arrogate knocked more than three-fifths of a second off the track and stakes record set by General Assembly on a sloppy track in 1979. His 13 1/2-length victory in his stakes debut was the third-best since Travers margins were first recorded in 1880. The first two were set on sloppy tracks: Damascus won by 22 lengths in 1967 and General Assembly by 15.

Arrogate came out of the race in fine shape, Baffert said, and is headed to the Nov. 5 GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita. His path to America's richest race is yet to be determined.

“I think the way he ran, I will probably go easy on him. I could wait,” Baffert said. “That's one thing about training for Juddmonte Farms, they sort of let you do what you want to do. I could change my plan, but right now I would say I would just run him fresh into the Breeders' Cup. After a race like that, there's no rush.”

Whether he gives him another race or not, Baffert is confident that Arrogate–who wasn't ready for the Triple Crown races–belongs in the Classic against the likes of California Chrome (Lucky Pulpit), Frosted (Tapit), Nyquist (Uncle Mo) and Exaggerator (Curlin). Baffert has at least four other Classic prospects: Hoppertunity (Any Given Saturday), Cupid (Tapit), Dortmund (Big Brown) and Travers runner-up American Freedom (Pulpit).

“I have trained all these horses and I sort of know where I stand with all of them. I can tell,” Baffert said. “I knew this horse was probably a really, really good horse, but we had never set him down. He can run with those kind of horses.”

Arrogate, American Freedom, GI King's Bishop winner Drefong (Gio Ponti) and Jazzy Times (Discreetly Mine), who was scratched from the King's Bishop, are scheduled to fly back to California on Monday.

After Arrogate won his first-level allowance race at Santa Anita in late June, Baffert considered taking a bold approach and running the colt in the GII San Diego H. and GI Pacific Classic at Del Mar against older stars California Chrome and Beholder (Henny Hughes). He scrapped that plan when Arrogate was sick for two or three days and decided that the Travers would be the goal. He brought along American Freedom, the GI Haskell Invitational runner-up. Jockey Rafael Bejarano, who had been aboard for Arrogate's three wins, rode American Freedom in the Travers and Mike Smith picked up the mount on the heralded but barely tested Arrogate.

When Arrogate ended up on the rail just to the inside of American Freedom, there was no need for a long discussion of the tactics.

“Once we drew the 1-2, we knew we were not going to take back,” Baffert said. Arrogate led be a half-length in :23.23 and was a length in front of his stablemate through a half-mile in :46.84.

“I told Mike he is probably going to like this horse because he is pretty fast, but he's a big, long-striding horse,” Baffert said. “I think Mike was sort of surprised. He didn't realize he was going that fast. So, down the backside, when I heard :46, I thought, wow, he is either a super horse or he is going to cave and it will be ugly turning for home.

“At the top of the stretch, I could tell he was opening up there and I knew he was a winner turning for home and I was just watching the other one fight on. He fought on hard to run second.”

Baffert noted the irony that Triple Crown winner American Pharoah was upset at Saratoga and a year later a relatively inexperienced colt demolished what had been regarded as a talented and balanced Travers field. He said the comparisons end there.

“A lot of people say it's redemption, I didn't feel that way,” Baffert said. “I just came here to win a horse race. I came here to win the King's Bishop and see how good these horses were. Last year was a total vibe. It was more like we were showing off American Pharoah to Saratoga and let the fans get to see him run. He is such a great horse. Then when he got beat, I felt I let the crowd down, and the horse. I felt bad about him. Those couple months around the barn were pretty quiet because the horse had gotten beat. We were just trying to get him ready, fresh enough to go back. We still miss him.

“Maybe this horse will take some of the sting of not having him around. What we saw yesterday, gives us a little hope. When I have a horse like Pharoah, when he left, I though. 'Man, I'll never, never have anything close to him again.' Then this horse does that and I thought, 'wow.' I not gonna crown him yet, but at least he has us excited and gives us something to think about. There will never be another Pharaoh.”