West Coast and Collected were headed back to California on Monday from Florida’s Gulfstream Park, and while immediate plans for both were not yet mapped out, trainer Bob Baffert on Monday offered a general outline. West Coast was a strong second behind Gun Runner on Saturday in the $16.3 million Pegasus World Cup, and with the retirement of Gun Runner, West Coast emerges as the ante-post favorite for Horse of the Year in 2018. He was last year’s champion 3-year-old male, and on Sunday, though beaten 2 1/2 lengths by Gun Runner, he was more than 10 lengths clear of everyone else. “It looked like at the quarter pole he had a chance to swallow him up, but Gun Runner just kept on going,” Baffert said Monday morning from Santa Anita. “It was a great performance by both horses. West Coast made him work a little bit.” Baffert said he wanted to see how West Coast bounces back from the race before mapping out concrete plans. He did say that West Coast is nominated to the Dubai World Cup on March 31, but said he needed to talk with owner Gary West about an overall 2018 campaign. “We nominate everything to Dubai,” Baffert said. “I haven’t really planned anything out with Gary West yet. I want to get him home, wait a couple of weeks, let the horse tell us.” West Coast scored the biggest victory of his career in the Travers, and Baffert said a return trip to Saratoga is likely this summer. West Coast also won races last year at Belmont Park and Parx Racing. “He likes those East Coast tracks,” Baffert said. His overriding goal, Baffert said, is the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 3. The Breeders’ Cup this year is at Churchill Downs, where West Coast has yet to race. Collected, who faded to finish seventh of 12 in the Pegasus, is “going to be freshened up for a few weeks,” Baffert said. Collected was second to Gun Runner in the Breeders’ Cup Classic last November at Del Mar, but since then was third as the odds-on favorite in the San Antonio before the Pegasus. Baffert said there was a chance Collected, a son of City Zip, could return to the grass later this year. He began his career on turf, with a win and a second, but has raced on dirt his last 12 starts. Baffert had nothing but admiration for Gun Runner. He won’t mind not facing him again. “That horse cost me a lot of money,” Baffert said.