THE HEART OF A CHAMPION
Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert never imagined American
Pharoah, his Triple Crown winner, would be followed the
next year by a horse of such magnitude. But he was.
According to Baffert, his two horses of a lifetime must be
classified the same way. "I call them superior racehorses,"
he said. Baffert thought he had another good horse when
he sent Arrogate into stakes competition for the first time
in the Grade 1 Travers. Garrett O'Rourke, racing manager at
Juddmonte Farms, had told the trainer to take as much time
as necessary to develop the $560,000 yearling purchase
for Prince Khalid bin Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. That led
Arrogate to go unraced at 2. He was never a candidate for
any of the Triple Crown races, for Baffert was reluctant
to ask him for too much too soon. He ran a modest third
in his debut on April 17 at Los Alamitos. He was coming
off a 1 ¾-length victory in a 1 1/16-mile allowance race at
Del Mar when he stepped into the starting gate with Mike
Smith aboard for the $1.25 million Travers. They went off
at 11-1, odds befitting such lofty placement for only his
fifth career start.
Rafael Bejarano, who had previously ridden Arrogate but
was committed to stablemate American Freedom, had told
Smith that the 3-year-old possesses blistering speed. With
that in mind, Smith sent him to the lead after they brushed
the gate in breaking from the rail.
Arrogate flashed the speed Bejarano had spoken of,
covering the opening half-mile in a crackling 46.84 seconds.
Baffert's wife, Jill, was alarmed. She leaned over and told
her husband, "I think they are going too fast."
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