Baffert hits 2,000 win milestone

Sunday, Dec. 5 marked the 2,000th victory of Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert’s career. He reached the milestone when Free Pourin went gate-to-wire in the third race at Hollywood Park, a $38,400 race for 2-year-old maidens.

Owned and bred by Mike Pegram, one of the driving forces behind Baffert’s successful transition to thoroughbreds from quarter horses, Free Pourin won by three-quarters of a length. He was ridden by Joe Talamo.

“Two thousand wins doesn’t sound like that many, but I must have had 3,000 seconds,” Baffert joked.  Somewhat ironically, Baffert also trains Tokubetsu, the runner-up to Free Pourin in Sunday’s landmark race.

“I’m glad I got it today. It couldn’t have happened on a better day with all the Zenyatta fans here. (Hollywood Park had a special retirement ceremony for the 6-year-old mare). So at least more than 500 people will know it.”

“Mike Pegram got me started in the business and I got number 2,000 for Mike,” Baffert told TVG after a winner’s circle ceremony. Baffert trained Eclipse Award champions Lookin At Lucky, Real Quiet, and Silverbulletday for Pegram.

In addition to his Pegram-owned champions, his other Eclipse winners are Midshipman, Indian Blessing, Midnight Lute, Chilukki, Point Given, Silver Charm, Vindication and War Emblem. Point Given won Horse of the Year in 2001.

Baffert began his career training Quarter Horses, switching over to Thoroughbreds in the late 1980s mostly due to the encouragement of Pegram and fellow owner Hal Earnhardt. He won three consecutive Eclipse Awards as the nation’s top trainer from 1997-99 and led all conditioners in earnings from 1998-2001. He was inducted into Thoroughbred Racing’s Hall of Fame in 2009.

Baffert, 57, has had 9,354 starters in his career. The Arizona native ranks sixth all time among trainers with stable earnings, through Dec. 4, of $155,109,369. He’s won nine Triple Crown races, seven Breeders’ Cup events and has 29 victories worth $1 million or more.