2020 Eclipse Awards: Bob Baffert

Even a global pandemic that warped the 2020 racing season couldn’t stop Bob Baffert training the winner of the Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve.

Baffert gets the biggest, strongest, fastest colts to train. He gets them because he has won the Derby so often and twice swept the Triple Crown.

In the spring, hot 3-year-olds Charlatan and Nadal emerged. Each won a division of the Arkansas Derby, though Charlatan’s victory was stripped away when he tested positive for lidocaine. All along, however, Baffert seemed to believe his best 3-year-old was an Into Mischief colt named Authentic. Authentic was soundly defeated in the Runhappy Santa Anita Derby and struggled to win the TVG.com Haskell. But Baffert was right.

The knock on Authentic supposedly was his ability to stay the Derby’s 1 1/4 miles. He saw out the distance like a champion, kicking clear to a 1 1/4-length victory, Derby win No. 6 for Baffert.

Baffert led the land in Grade 1 wins during 2020 with 16. He finished third in earnings with $18.9 million. Brad Cox, who is an Eclipse finalist, had 903 starters during 2020. Steve Asmussen, another Eclipse finalist, had 2,278. Baffert started just 323 runners, winning with 94 of them. Twenty-eight of those 94, an incredible proportion, came in graded stakes.

:: Full list of 2020 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories

Authentic lost the Preakness by a neck but came back with a tour de force, romping in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic. He’s likely Baffert’s fourth Horse of the Year, while Gamine, the fastest filly in the land, is front-runner for champion female sprinter.

Baffert and Co. also did masterful work with Improbable, a cauldron of unfilled potential in 2019 but likely champion older male of 2020 after three Grade 1 wins and a second in the Classic.