ARCADIA, Calif. — Trainer Bob Baffert — after a disheartening two days of the 29th Breeders’ Cup World Championships over his home track at Santa Anita in which his horses went 0-for-10, with only one hitting the board — was walking alone with his bulldog Tank along the track apron yesterday morning when jockey Rafael Bejarano jogged by on one of Baffert’s horses.
The day before, Bejarano had botched the ride aboard 6-5 favorite Game On Dude to finish seventh in the $5 million Classic. He stopped, turned to Baffert with a hang-dog look, and said, “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry, we’re not going to whip you,” Baffert replied with a smile, then said to a reporter: “That’s the first time I talked to him since the race.”
Before the Classic, Baffert told Bejarano the worse-case scenario would be if Game On Dude was squeezed early in the race, taking the one-dimensional speed horse out of his game, and that’s exactly what happened.
“It was over in the first 100 yards,” he said.
Another thing Baffert was right about: Before the Breeders’ Cup, he said there was no such thing as a home-court advantage, and California-based horses won just two of the 15 races.
Horses shipping in from New York and Kentucky dominated this year’s Breeders’ Cup, in sharp contrast to previous years when it was held at Santa Anita. That development, along with the perfect weather, the combined attendance of 89,742 over the two days, and the fact that Hurricane Sandy would have forced the cancellation of this year’s Cup if it had been held at Belmont Park or Monmouth, made the case that the Breeders’ Cup should make its permanent home in southern California.
New York-based trainer Todd Pletcher disagrees, saying, “I think it’s unfair to assume a hurricane or big storm. I remember that (at Santa Anita) in 2003, it was 105 degrees and there were fires everywhere.
“It’s my understanding that the Breeders’ Cup was meant to move around, and in that spirit, it’s time for it to be back at Belmont.”
But Shug McGaughey, also based in New York, said, “I’ve always been a big advocate of moving the Breeders’ Cup around, and I do think Belmont deserves it. But I’m beginning to wonder if maybe this isn’t the best place for it. You’ve got the weather, the star power, and the people watching on TV seeing the track in good condition.”
The Breeders’ Cup is already set to return to Santa Anita in 2013.