Baffert returns to his racing roots

Long before trainer Bob Baffert was inducted into the racing Hall of Fame, saddled a Triple Crown winner in American Pharoah, and won the world’s richest Thoroughbred race with Pegasus World Cup hero Arrogate, he spent the occasional weekend at Sunland Park in New Mexico.

The teenaged Baffert soaked in stories told by prominent horsemen Bubba Cascio, Walter Merrick, and J.B. Montgomery during visits from Arizona. He would later return to Sunland as a trainer in his own right and experienced a life-changing win at the track in a derby for Quarter Horses.

In the years since, Baffert has won the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Derby for Thoroughbreds three times, and he has the probable favorite for Sunday’s renewal in Bronze Age. The horse is part of an overflow field of 16 that were entered Wednesday for the 1 1/8-mile race. The maximum the gate can hold is 12, so four horses were excluded.

The field from the rail with riders is: Shareholder Value, Javier Castellano; Hedge Fund, Jose Ortiz; Bronze Age, Martin Garcia; Oxford Lane, Richard Eramia; Irap, Mario Gutierrez; Dilettante, Gary Stevens; Kimbear, Joe Talamo; Wine N Divine, Miguel Perez; Hence, Alfredo Juarez, Jr.; Balandeen, Channing Hill; Total Tap, Florent Geroux; and Conquest Mo Money, Jorge Carreno.

Bronze Age, who races for Arrogate’s owner, Juddmonte Farms, comes into the Sunland Derby off a maiden special weight route win at Santa Anita for which he earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 93.Iron Fist eyes New Orleans

On the same card, Baffert has the probable favorite in the $200,000 Sunland Oaks with Grade 1 winner Noted and Quoted.

“I’ve always had a soft spot for Sunland,” Baffert said. “I used to go there with my dad when I was 14. It was a fun trip driving there. It took us about five hours. We’d go to the races, buy tack. We’d go to Johnny Bean’s Tack Shop. They had everything – saddles, equipment, bandages. We loaded up.”

Baffert eventually made his way back to Sunland as a trainer and in 1982 won the track’s West Texas Derby for Quarter Horses with Love N Money. The horse raced for M.R. Goodman. Love N Money was by Easy Jet and was ridden by Bobby Adair.

“It was my first $100,000 stakes win,” Baffert said. “After that, I went from driving a pickup to a BMW.

“I finally hit a lick!”

The Sunland Derby is the final 85-point race for the Kentucky Derby, and the first four finishers will earn points on a scale of 50-20-10-5. The Sunland Oaks has the same points schedule for the Kentucky Oaks.

The Sunland Oaks will be the first start of the year for Noted and Quoted, who is expected to face Ghalia, Kell Paso, Mattie Ross, Soft Cheese, and What What What.

Sunday’s card of seven stakes will be an all-Thoroughbred program featuring 10 races. The card starts at 1:30 p.m. Mountain, with the Sunland Derby slotted as the ninth at 5:28 p.m. There will be a free ontrack handicapping seminar at noon featuring Tom Dawson, Robert Geller, and Julie Farr.

The Sunland Derby is back after a one-year absence. It was replaced in 2016 by the $400,000 Sunland Festival of Racing Stakes due to an outbreak of the equine herpesvirus earlier in the meet. Baffert won the Sunland Festival with Collected. His winners in the Sunland Derby are Wanna Runner (2006), Govenor Charlie (2013), and Chitu (2014).

The forecast for Sunday calls for sunny and windy conditions with a high of 83 degrees, according to The Weather Channel.