Arrogate will train toward the Pegasus World Cup after Mother Nature reared her ugly head on New Year’s Day at Santa Anita. The track was off and trainer Bob Baffert did not want to take any chances with his runner in the San Pasqual Handicap. A pair of storms hit Santa Anita ending 2016 and the surface was just too dangerous to test the budding superstar Arrogate.
After the son of Unbridled’s Song won the Travers Stakes at Saratoga in a record-smashing performance even Baffert was nearly at a loss for words. He talked about how he could not believe the way the runner just kept rolling. When training horses, conditioners always hope for the best and they know when they have a good horse. Often times, they don’t quite know that they are handling one of the best horses in America and that is what Baffert found out.
The love affair between Arrogate and Baffert started when the Hall of Fame trainer picked him out of the Keeneland September Sale as a yearling for $560,000. After cleverly putting Arrogate through his conditions, Baffert shipped 3,000 miles to face the best sophomores in the country in the Travers Stakes. The racer responded with blistering fractions dominating by 13 ½ lengths. His final time of 1:59.36 broke a track record that stood for 37 years.
Arrogate also played the revenge card for Baffert. The trainer’s Triple Crown winner American Pharoah lost his only race in the Travers in 2015 when he was compromised by a phony pace and it stung Baffert greatly.
This is not the first time that Arrogate will train up to a big encounter. When bettors are looking at Arrogate on his journey toward the Pegasus World Cup, fans should draw a comparison to how Baffert trained him before the Breeders’ Cup.
Baffert gave Arrogate a slight rest after his Travers win. He started the racer back about a month after the event with a comfortable :48 1/5 four-furlong workout. About 9 days later, he stretched him out a furlong getting five furlongs in 1:00 4/5. Eight days later, Baffert let out another notch in the seven-furlong drill when he was caught in 1:25 2/5. Just 6 days later, he bested that work going 1:24 2/5 and it was time for the runner to get serious. Arrogate’s 2nd to last work before the Breeders’ Cup Classic was a best of the morning 6-furlong work of 1:11 1/5. That set him up for a speed tightener of four furlongs in :46 4/5 just 5 days before the Cup.
Training a star up to a race is one of the things that Baffert does best. American Pharoah won his 2015 debut off a 6-month layoff. The runner also won the Grade 1 Haskell after winning the Belmont Stakes two months prior. Maybe one of Bafferts’s best performances came when he trained American Pharoah up to the Breeders’ Cup Classic to win on Halloween in his final career race.
For years, Baffert was surrounded by controversy and jealousy. He didn’t deserve it as he paid his dues in the quarter horse game and knows exactly what to do with a good horse.
He has trained by instinct for the most part in his career. With quarter horses, he knew that the key to success was getting a horse to qualify in trials without squeezing the lemon. In that way, the runner had something left in the tank when the big money was down.
Baffert trains his horses hard because he learned early that if he runs a short horse, it could hurt him in the long run. A talented horse may win even though short and not fully fit but it takes a lot out a horse to recoup.
Like all successful people, Baffert learned from the great trainers that can came before him. He adored the way trainer Charlie Whittingham put a premium on fitness and then sent his horses a quick 3-furlongs a few days before a big race. And he learned from Bobby Frankel that he didn’t have to train grass horses as hard as dirt horses because they only have to accelerate for a quarter-mile in the stretch.
Some may discount Arrogate in the Pegasus World Cup on January 28 because of the missed race in the San Pasqual. That would be a big mistake.
Arrogate Will Train Toward Pegasus World Cup
