Baffert, Silverbulletday inducted to Hall of Fame

Wednesday | August 19, 2009

Eclipse Award-winning trainer Bob Baffert and his champion filly Silverbulletday were honored for their respective careers and contributions in the horse racing industry on August 14th, as both were part of the class of 2009 to be inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, NY.

Baffert, 56, is a three-time winner of the Eclipse Award as outstanding trainer, capturing the award three consecutive years beginning from 1997-99. To date, he has compiled eight victories in Triple Crown races and seven in Breeders’ Cup races. Baffert has also campaigned some of racing’s brightest stars in the last two decades, including 10 champions.

“I never had a plan. The horses have taken me places I never thought of being,” said Baffert at his induction Friday. “I’ve had quite an interesting journey. I wanted to be a jockey. I never wanted to be a trainer. I wanted to go to Los Alamitos and win the All-American Futurity. My mother was totally against me riding. We had to keep it secret.

“It all started for me with my dad and my uncle in Arizona,” he said. “I went everywhere with them. I was just a kid of 10 or 12, but I went. Later on, when I was about 14, my dad decided to train quarter horses as a hobby and I did all the stuff with him; groom, exercise and all the rest. We self-taught ourselves. It was kind of trial and error, mostly error. Our horses weren’t great horses, but we thought they were pretty great.”

Silverbulletday, one of the greatest fillies trained by Baffert, was voted Champion Two-Year-Old Filly in 1998 after winning that year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, and the following year won the Eclipse Award as Champion Three-year-old Filly after winning such prestigious races as the Kentucky Oaks. The brilliant daughter of Silver Deputy won an astonishing 13 graded stakes in her career, including five Grade 1 wins and earnings of $3,093,207.

“After you win the Derby (Kentucky Derby), you think you’ve hit the top and then a filly like her comes along,” said Mike Pegram, owner of Silverbulletday and longtime friend and client of Baffert. “She was a gift from heaven. I was able to sit back and enjoy it. You always dream of getting another filly like her, but she was the ultimate. She was the best horse I ever owned.”

Baffert and Pegram teamed to win the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes in 1998 with Real Quiet.

“That was one of my biggest accomplishments, winning the Kentucky Derby with Real Quiet,” stated Baffert. “That was huge, to be able to thank Mike with the grandest prize of them all. Mike and those guys put me in there—they had the confidence in me.

“Mike used to tell me, ‘I can get you to the plate, but you’ve got to swing the bat.’ I had to go through a crash course in training Thoroughbreds. I told them how much stuff I had to learn, and they let me claim some horses and piddle around until I could get a handle on it.”

Now Baffert is recognized as one of the greatest Thoroughbred trainers of all time, and he’s got plenty left in the tank.

“I love it to death,” he stated. “I think that’s why I’ve been successful. I just love going there every day. You’ll never hear me complain about working seven days a week. (Wife) Jill gets upset sometimes; it’s tough being married and raising a family while you’re also doing this. But no sacrifice, no victory.”

View All News