A big week could kick off a big year for West Coast

ARCADIA, Calif. – West Coast was scheduled to fly from California to Florida on Wednesday, and by the time he races in the Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park on Saturday he very well may have “Eclipse Award winner” as his appellation, as he is favored to be named champion 3-year-old male at Thursday night’s awards dinner.

In that regard, West Coast would mirror the champion 3-year-old male of 2016, Arrogate, and there are plenty more similarities. Both are trained by Bob Baffert, and, like Arrogate, West Coast did not race at 2 and won the Travers at age 3.

West Coast has yet to reach the lofty standards of Arrogate, who at his best was one of the top racehorses seen in the world in the last 25 years, highlighted by four straight brilliant performances in the Travers, Breeders’ Cup Classic, Pegasus, and Dubai World Cup. But West Coast still acts as though there’s plenty of blue sky in store for him.

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His best race yet, based on Beyer Speed Figures, was the Breeders’ Cup Classic, in which West Coast earned a 112 while finishing third behind Gun Runner and Collected, two of his rivals in the Pegasus. According to Baffert, West Coast has continued to progress, with all the signs one wants to see in a 3-year-old turning 4, most notably strength. And there already was plenty there on which to build.

“If he was a football player, he’d definitely be like Gronk,” Baffert said, referring to New England Patriots star Rob Gronkowski. “He’s built like a tight end.

“He’s filling out into his frame. He’s big and strong. He’s easy to spot when he’s out here. He looks like a man among boys. He’s just getting stronger and stronger. He’s really developed.”

West Coast, a bay colt by Flatter who is owned by Gary and Mary West, did not make it to the races until Feb. 18 at Santa Anita, and scored his first win in his second start, on March 12. He then finished second in the Lexington Stakes at Keeneland, his inexperience betraying him in deep stretch when he was nailed late.

The Lexington fell eight weeks before the Belmont Stakes, and Baffert circled the Belmont as a target. But his confidence was shaken just a bit when, back at Santa Anita, West Coast turned in a workmanlike effort defeating a first-level allowance field on May 20.

“He just didn’t run the right way,” Baffert said. “He won, but he took a step backwards.”

Baffert aimed lower on Belmont Stakes Day at Belmont Park, putting West Coast in the listed Easy Goer. West Coast, despite a rough start, rallied and crushed his rivals.

“The way he ran that day, I don’t know if he’d have won the Belmont, but he sure would have been competitive,” Baffert said

To that point, in five starts, West Coast had never raced farther than 1 1/16 miles, but he’d go 1 1/8 miles and 1 1/4 miles in his final four starts of the year.

“He’s a true mile-and-an-eighth, mile-and-a-quarter horse,” Baffert said.

But while West Coast was starting to put it together in his races, his pre-race behavior remained a work in progress.

“He’s tough in the paddock,” Baffert said. “He’s tough saddling. He would use himself up.”

Despite being tough to saddle before the Los Alamitos Derby, West Coast won comfortably after taking the scenic route. He was set for the Travers, and like Arrogate, West Coast won in front-running fashion, beating the winners of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont.

West Coast was on the go again a month later. Traveling to the Eastern time zone for the fourth time in six starts, he scored another overpowering victory, this time in the Pennsylvania Derby, again after being aggressive prior to the race.

“Saddling at Parx, he banged me up against the boards,” Baffert said. “He’s a big boy. He’s tough.”

In his final start of the year, West Coast was beaten 3 1/2 lengths by Gun Runner in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, his first stakes start against elders. West Coast lost a bit of position early when stablemate Collected came over on him, and neither Gun Runner nor runner-up Collected ever backed up.

“They just kept going,” Baffert said.

It is now more than two months since the Breeders’ Cup, two months during which West Coast has continued to mature physically, while Baffert has taken him often to the paddock at Santa Anita for schooling sessions. A sharp workout on Sunday morning at Santa Anita indicated that West Coast was set for another top effort.

Consider that in West Coast’s final six races of 2017, only Gun Runner and Collected finished in front of him. They will be formidable opponents again on Saturday. But with Gun Runner off to stud after the Pegasus, the late-developing West Coast is in position to take flight in 2018.