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Bob Baffert out of Dubai’s big horse race

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert is back in Dubai but this time around he isn’t getting top billing.

The American has no horses in the $10 million Dubai World Cup, which he has won twice, and has only one racing the entire day — Euroears in the $2 million Dubai Golden Shaheen on Saturday.

Baffert had planned to have Game On Dude in the world’s richest horse race but the 4-year-old picked up a leg injury after his controversial win in the Santa Anita Handicap. Baffert considered sending Misremembered but felt he needed additional time to get him ready.

Baffert said Game On Dude cracked a hoof the day before he was to be shipped to Dubai, a relatively minor injury but serious enough to persuade him to hold the horse back. He said his cautious approach was partly inspired by Silver Charm, who “ran flat” at the World Cup in 1999 a year after winning the big race.

“It’s one of those things. I would have loved to have brought Game On Dude. He would have been a good fit for this track,” Baffert said. “When he popped the quarter, it was sort of like someone was telling me, ‘you know what, maybe you shouldn’t go.’”

Even without a World Cup contender, Baffert said he wanted to make his first trip to Dubai since 2001 to recognize the work of Dubai ruler Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum and see the $2 billion monument to the sport — Meydan Racecourse — which opened last year.

“It’s amazing how the whole city has changed and grown,” said Baffert, who admitted he had skied at one of the Dubai malls during his stay. “I’m just glad to be back. I wanted to come back here because Sheik Mohammed has been good to racing and Bob Baffert.”

Even though he isn’t in the World Cup, Baffert couldn’t help but relive some of his greatest triumphs in Dubai — winning the race with Silver Charm in 1998 and then again in 2001 with Captain Steve. He said the most thrilling win of the two was with Silver Charm who won it by a nose over Swain of Ireland.

“He was a derby winner. There was a lot of pressure because you hate to see a derby winner get beat,” Baffert said. “It was an exciting race. I remember it looked like he would get beat at the top of the stretch and I thought he would run third or fourth. Then he came back.”

Baffert joked that he still wasn’t sure of the victory because it was a photo finish and didn’t know at the time “whether they had a photo finish camera.” He got some confidence when his jockey, Gary Stevens, pumped his fist as he crossed the finish line but it was the thumbs up he got from Mohammed who was sitting just below him that convinced him his victory had been secured.

“Then the photo came out and it was like an inch. That was really, really exciting,” he added.

Baffert said his two World Cup wins were among his most cherished memories in a career that has earned his Hall of Fame status.

He won the Kentucky Derby three times with Silver Charm in 1997, Real Quiet a year later and War Emblem in 2000 — all three of which went on to win the Preakness. Baffert also won the 2001 Preakness and Belmont with eventual Horse of the Year Point Given, and last year’s Preakness with 3-year-old champion Lookin At Lucky.

While the Kentucky Derby is about history, Baffert said the World Cup is more international in scope and tests trainers like no other race.

“The World Cup is really special,” he said. “You stand up there and you have won something like that, and you’ve brought your horse halfway across the world.

“As a trainer, it’s more difficult when you come here. You can train a certain way and you have to change. You have to read your horse every day. He tells you how much he can take. That’s why I came here. If he gets beat, I can just blame myself.”

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