The numbers say 2025 has been an outstanding year for Bob Baffert. As of Nov. 16, the 72-year-old Hall of Famer collected 28 graded stakes trophies, nine of them Grade 1, from 89 wins, and led North American trainers in winning percentage (30%) and in-the-money finishes (66%), according to Equibase.
Baffert also saved his best for last. He came up big on Breeders’ Cup Saturday at Del Mar, sweeping the Filly and Mare Sprint (G1) with Splendora and finishing 1-2 in the BC Dirt Mile (G1) with Nysos and runner-up Citizen Bull. Those victories gave him 21 in the year-end championships, tying him for first with Irish genius Aidan O’Brien.
What Baffert is all about is excelling on those days when the whole racing world is watching.
“These races are so hard to win,” he said the next morning at Del Mar. “This is once a year, and you just hope you can shine on that weekend. I feel very fortunate that we were able to win two.
“This is what we live for. We live for the big days, and we had a big day.”
For Baffert, the biggest day is always the first Saturday in May, and for the first time in three years, he was at Churchill Downs with a Kentucky Derby runner. Baffert had been banned for a medication violation that led to the subsequent disqualification of his 2021 Derby winner Medina Spirit. Besides the enforced absence, the DQ cost Baffert a record seventh Derby win, which would have broken a tie with trainer Ben Jones.
“My greatest memories are from the Kentucky Derby, and they always will be,” Baffert said eight days before this year’s race. “It’s such an event.”
Besides his Kentucky Derby scores, Baffert has a record eight victories in the Preakness Stakes (G1) and three in the Belmont Stakes (G1). But it’s been five years since Authentic gave him his 17th golden moment in the Triple Crown series. That’s a long time for somebody who’s been the face of American racing this century.
Baffert was shut out in this year’s Triple Crown, which began with Citizen Bull’s 15th-place Derby finish behind Sovereignty. The reigning 2-year-old champion was up against it after drawing the dreaded rail, which hasn’t produced a winner since Ferdinand in 1986. A wet track compounded his problems, and he became a forgotten pace casualty after leading for 6 furlongs.
“This is the first time he ran in the mud, and he didn’t like it,” jockey Martin Garcia said. “He never felt comfortable and never fired.”
Baffert also was a non-factor in the Preakness, in which Goal Oriented ran fourth following a rough trip. After bumping in the upper stretch with eventual winner Journalism, he was checked and weakened.
“He didn’t get to run his race,” Baffert said. “I wanted to see him on the lead. He wasn’t used to being behind horses, and he got intimidated.”
The Belmont was more of the same for Baffert, whose colt, Rodriguez, had no chance against the overwhelming surge of Sovereignty. Rodriguez hadn’t run since he and Mike Smith led throughout the Wood Memorial (G2) two months before. Smith tried the same tactics, going to the front after the break and staying there until mid-stretch before fading to fourth, beaten 8¼ lengths.
“Great trip,” Smith said, “but man, those horses [Sovereignty and Journalism] finished so strong.”
That’s what Baffert did at the Breeders’ Cup, and don’t be surprised if he’s a factor in next year’s Triple Crown. Despite the impressive stats, his 2025 Derby, Preakness, and Belmont performance fell far short of his standards. Ten years earlier, he swept the classics with American Pharoah, and in 2018, he did an encore with Justify. Doing that again is unlikely, but expect Baffert to remain a force on the big days.
Before the Derby, he said, “In racing, you have a lot of times when things don’t go right. You can’t change that. I never look back. I just move on.”
