West Coast shows Baffert he's ready for Dubai World Cup

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Bob Baffert walked over to the Meydan Racecourse apron, stopwatch in hand, to get an idea of how fast West Coast was working about a half-mile Monday morning. He walked back a few minutes later without a lot of knowledge.

“I didn’t really get a time,” Baffert said. “You can’t see from there. He went nice. He was just cruising around there, probably in 50 or so.”

There’s no official clocker at Meydan, but the time wasn’t especially important. West Coast did his major work for Saturday’s $10 million Dubai World Cup before leaving California. The important thing is that the World Cup favorite has traveled well and is training to his connections’ satisfaction.

“He shipped well, but he’s always shipped well,” Baffert said. “He’s a big, strong horse, so he can handle a lot. He’s dealt really well with all of it here. When he was going back to the barn today, I went to take the tongue tie off him and he was just a bear. That’s the way Arrogate was last year, too – they can handle it.”

West Coast also may be the best dirt horse in the world, and he will get a chance to show that Saturday night as Baffert tries to win his fourth World Cup and second in a row following Arrogate’s dazzling performance a year ago.

West Coast never has been as brilliant as Arrogate, but his star has risen steadily over the last year. Last April 15, he made his stakes debut in the Lexington at Keeneland and looked like a winner in the homestretch before putting his feet in the ground, losing focus and finishing second. Baffert told Gary West, who owns West Coast with his wife, Mary, that he would point West Coast to the Belmont Stakes, using a first-level allowance race May 20 at Santa Anita as a means of getting there. West Coast won, but only by three-quarters of a length in a grinding effort.

“Gary West said to me, ‘If you think that’s a Belmont horse, you need to have your head examined.’” Baffert recalled. “I said, ‘I knew you were going to say that.’ So we went another route.”

Instead, West Coast won the Easy Goer Stakes on the Belmont undercard, went back to California and won the Los Alamitos Derby in convincing fashion, and got his chance on the big stage in the Travers Stakes. He went to the lead and won by more than three lengths, rising toward the top of his class, and after a Pennsylvania Derby romp and a fine third in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, West Coast took down an Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old.

Baffert surely is looking forward to Saturday night’s race. Getting a saddle on West Coast and sending him out to the walking ring? Not so much.

“His biggest problem is in the paddock,” Baffert said. “Saddling the horse is so tough. He’s big. He doesn’t get hot, but he will push you around.”