Baffert registers 2,000th victory

Some of Baffert's leading performers have sported the Pegram colors --

two-time champion Silverbulletday, who was voted into the Hall of Fame along

with her trainer in 2009; champion Real Quiet, who missed sweeping the Triple

Crown by inches in the 1998 Belmont S. (G1); Captain Steve, winner of the 2001

Dubai World Cup (UAE-G1); and last year's champion

two-year-old colt Lookin at Lucky, who is a lock for another Eclipse Award as

champion three-year-old colt.

Besides Real Quiet's agonizing near-miss, Baffert won two legs of the Triple

Crown on three other occasions: with Hall of Famer Silver Charm (1997 Kentucky

Derby [G1] and Preakness [G1]), Hall of Famer Point Given (2001 Preakness and

Belmont) and War Emblem (2002 Kentucky Derby and Preakness).

Baffert's three Kentucky Derby trophies put him in a tie with "Sunny Jim"

Fitzsimmons and Max Hirsch, behind only Ben Jones (six winners) and "Dick"

Thompson and D. Wayne Lukas (four apiece), on the all-time Derby list.

Lookin at Lucky became Baffert's fifth Preakness winner this spring. Thus

Baffert is tied for second in number of Preakness victories, with Lukas and T.J.

Healey, two behind leader R.W. Walden.

Baffert has also trained champions Indian Blessing, Vindication, Midshipman,

Midnight Lute and Chilukki. Other notable pupils include Indian Charlie, General

Challenge, El Corredor, Excellent Meeting, Officer and Thirty

Slews, who handed Baffert his first big Thoroughbred win in the 1992 Breeders'

Cup Sprint (G1).

The winner of three straight Eclipse Awards (1997-99), Baffert also led in

national earnings four straight years (1998-2001). Ranked sixth on the all-time

list of trainers by career earnings, Baffert has sent out the earners of a grand

total of $155,142,769 through the conclusion of Sunday's races.

Born on January 13, 1953, in Nogales, Arizona, Baffert was the fourth of

seven children. He spent his childhood on a cattle ranch near the Mexican

border, which at the same time gave him an opportunity to groom and gallop his

father's Quarter Horses. Baffert initially hoped to become a jockey, and plied

that trade for a year following his graduation from high school in 1971.

Although he won 30 races, he found it difficult to maintain his riding weight,

and decided instead to pursue studies at the University of Arizona's Racetrack

Industry Program. A year after graduation, he began training a small string of

Quarter Horses at Rillito Downs in Tucson, later shifting his base to Los

Alamitos in 1983.

Baffert enjoyed success in the Quarter Horse game, training four champions in

that discipline, but Pegram, along with Hal Earnhardt, prevailed upon him to

turn his attention to Thoroughbreds, and the rest is history.