2018 Eclipse Awards: Bob Baffert

Highlighted by his development of Justify from an unraced 3-year-old to the 13th winner of the Triple Crown, trainer Bob Baffert has been recognized as an Eclipse Award finalist for 2018.

Justify put Baffert, a Hall of Famer and already a four-time Eclipse Award winner, in select company with the late Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons as the only trainers to have won the Triple Crown twice. Baffert’s first Triple Crown came with American Pharoah, the eventual 2015 Horse of the Year who would cap his career by winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic that fall.

There were no such year-end accomplishments for Justify in 2018, having been retired over the summer after a stud agreement was reached and a minor ankle injury discovered. Yet Justify’s absence did little to slow his trainer.

Baffert concluded 2018 by winning with 113 of 348 starters in North America, a win rate of more than 32 percent, with earnings of $17,017,899. That tally rose to more than $20 million with earnings included from Dubai, where West Coast and Mubtaahij ran second and third in the Dubai World Cup.

Among Baffert’s wins were 15 Grade 1 victories, second behind Chad Brown’s 20. Justify accounted for four of those Grade 1’s, taking the Santa Anita Derby before the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes, though he was not Baffert’s only stable star. Another top-class colt rose to prominence over the second half of 2018, this one a 2-year-old, Game Winner. He would win the Del Mar Futurity, American Pharoah Stakes, and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile over an unbeaten season.

Other horses to win Grade 1’s for Baffert in 2018 were Abel Tasman (Ogden Phipps, Personal Ensign), Chasing Yesterday (Starlet), Improbable (Los Alamitos Futurity), Marley’s Freedom (Ballerina), McKinzie (Pennsylvania Derby, Malibu), and Vale Dori (Zenyatta).

Six Baffert trainees – Abel Tasman, Game Winner, Improbable, Justify, Marley’s Freedom, and McKinzie – are Eclipse finalists.

Baffert, who turned 66 on Jan. 13, was dominant in the 2-year-old division in 2018, demonstrating a proficiency with first-time starters, a category with which he won at a 61 percent rate. He trained 21 individual 2-year-olds to win races in 2018, leaving him well armed for the spring classics in 2019.

Justify did not have such juvenile foundation heading into 2018, though his talent rendered that inexperience moot. In giving Baffert his fifth Kentucky Derby victory, he became the first Derby winner since Apollo in 1882 to have been unraced at 2. He did not debut until Feb. 18, when he won a maiden race by 9 1/2 lengths at Santa Anita Park, and wrapped up his career less than four months later June 9 with a front-running score in the Belmont.

:: 2018 Eclipse Finalists: Profiles and photos for all categories