Baffert has two for Travers Stakes

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After Triple Crown winner American Pharoah got beat in last year’s Travers – the only loss of his Horse of the Year campaign – many probably thought that trainer Bob Baffert wouldn’t return to Saratoga for many years.

Not only is Baffert back, but he is bringing four horses to Saratoga this week, including American Freedom and Arrogate for Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes.

American Freedom, the winner of the Iowa Derby, and Arrogate, a winner of three straight races, were among the 14 horses expected to be entered Tuesday night for Saturday’s 147th Travers.

In what appears to be a wide-open race, American Freedom figures to be a top-four betting choice behind likely favorite Exaggerator. Exaggerator defeated American Freedom by 1 1/2 lengths in last month’s Grade 1 Haskell Invitational, a race run over a sloppy Monmouth Park main track.

“I think on a dry track, he could have won the race,” Baffert said Monday from Del Mar. “He lost his momentum when Exaggerator cut in front of him. That was a good move on Kent Desormeaux’s part. He was race riding.”

American Freedom, a son of Pulpit purchased as a yearling for $500,000 by Gary and Mary West, didn’t make it to the races until April 9, when he won a maiden race in the slop at Santa Anita. Later that day, Exaggerator won the Santa Anita Derby.

A few races before Exaggerator finished second in the Kentucky Derby on May 7, American Freedom finished sixth as the 7-5 favorite in a 14-horse field for the Pat Day Mile. Baffert said the only reason he ran American Freedom in that race was because of how well he had trained at Churchill Downs.

“He got away flatfooted, they went real fast that day, and he was chasing,” Baffert said. “He wasn’t ready for it.”

On May 21, a few hours before Exaggerator won the Preakness, American Freedom won the Sir Barton Stakes, also at Pimlico. Six weeks later, American Freedom shipped to Prairie Meadows and dominated the Grade 3 Iowa Derby.

American Freedom has worn blinkers in his first five starts. Baffert is taking them off for this race.

“I don’t think he needs them anymore,” Baffert said. “I had a real small blinker on him anyway. He needs to relax a little bit more.”

Arrogate, a son of Unbridled’s Song whom Juddmonte Farms purchased for $560,000 as a yearling, wore blinkers in his debut June 17 at Los Alamitos but got worked up before the race and finished third. Baffert removed blinkers from that colt’s equipment, and he has responded with three straight wins, all in two-turn races at Santa Anita and Del Mar.

“We’ve been very high on him,” said Baffert, who won the 2001 Travers with Point Given. “He wants every bit of the mile and a quarter.”

American Freedom will be ridden by Rafael Bejarano. Mike Smith will replace Bejarano on Arrogate.

American Freedom and Arrogate were scheduled to ship to Saratoga on Tuesday along with Drefrong and Jazzy Times, both of whom are running in the Grade 1 King’s Bishop on the undercard.