BREEDERS' CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

October 26, 2002

Bob Baffert

Satish Sanan

BOB BAFFERT: All these horses, everybody, have been training just tremendous coming in here and I really felt great about it. I thought the fillies ran great; I was going to have a great day. It's hard to take them apart. Everyone keeps asking me which one do you like but it's tough when they're all training well. I was just glad to see that VINDICATION when he broke and he got the lead, I left the riders all to themselves. I was worried about BULL MARKET, very fast horse, and VINDICATION, I didn't want him to go out there 22, but they were both just sort of cruising out there, but I think then KAFWAIN coming in at the end like that, he was really closing well. VINDICATION, when he got the lead, he was just by himself out there. He'll do that, get on the lead and sort of look around. It looks like a mile and eighth is not going to really bother him, so that was really bothering him.

BOB BAFFERT: He's been so nervous these last couple of years. It's tough when you have this horse and you get the hype, and everybody expects him to win so there's more pressure on you when you're expected to do it, but everything went smooth and Satish and his wife, they've been great with me. They haven't second-guessed me. I didn't run the horse, I kept him fresh and explained to him why we're going to do it, why did we go to Turfway Park off the beaten path, but there's actually nothing wrong with Turfway Park. It's a very good place to -- I've run most of my good horses there and I consider it a very safe track, but horses learn things at Turfway Park because if things are going to go wrong, they usually go wrong there. He didn't break that day, got behind horses, came flying late. He showed us that day like POINT GIVEN did when I ran him there, this is my two-turn race. I thought let's keep him fresh and happy. They're fragile horses. Look what happened to poor SKY MESA. You hate to hear that. When you have a really good talented horse like that you've just got to keep them sound and happy and he'll do the job.

SATISH SANAN: I did and Bob said I did exactly the same thing with POINT GIVEN. He said this horse has a tremendous amount of talent, he didn't need to run every three weeks and as a matter of fact he said -- I called him up and I said there's an awful lot of people second-guessing us as to why we're not running him. He said Michael Jordan, you don't take him to pickup games, you take him to the big ones.

BOB BAFFERT: Actually -- he asked me that and I said Michael Jordan doesn't play in the pickup games, he waits and plays on Saturday nights. Today was the race we were looking at. When you have experience with young horses you just know -- I've made mistakes through the years with horses and you come away from the Breeders' Cup or the Derby and you say maybe I shouldn't have done that, so this time I brought all my horses in here the way that it all fit -- the way they were coming around, and so he's a horse that doesn't need a lot. He works fine, he's not a lazy horse. POINT GIVEN I had run him a few more times, SILVER CHARM, I couldn't have done that, some horses can take it, some can't. He's talented, he's fast. Mike wasn't going to get in his way and it was a nice smooth -- it was nice to cheer him on there that last 50 yards and not worrying about some horses coming to nail him.

SATISH SANAN: I'll let Bob comment first.

BOB BAFFERT: Well, it's one of those things where we'll just freshen him up. He doesn't need to run again so we're just going to back off him a little bit, just keep him in light training. We've had a lot of bragging rights until the first Saturday in May or until the first time we run him. I want to make sure he's got -- we know he's talented and good enough, I've just got to keep him sound. That's the hardest part of this game. It's hard to get a good one like him but we'll try to keep him sound so we'll take our time with him and brag on him.

SATISH SANAN: Yes, we do. Yes, we do. You know, I've said it often enough that we got into this game about five years ago and we love this game. I love it with passion and you guys have seen that both in the sales arena and at the racetrack. We had a tremendous amount of success the couple of years when we started. We had some bad times, and in this game you've got to stick with it. There was a lot of people second-guessing us, a lot of Monday morning quarterbacks in this game. We stayed with it. We continued to invest and we're going to continue to invest. Every now and then you need a big one and this is the one and we do feel vindicated. Thank you.

SATISH SANAN: Well, as the article in the Daily Racing Form said it was purposefully selected. The team, of course, Bob's done just a tremendous job. I don't second-guess him. We often talk about it and he does what he wants to do with the horse. When you hire the best in the world you don't second-guess them and he knows what to do. He's been there. When we bought this horse there was a tremendous amount of second-guessing that day that he's not going to pass the wedding and he'll be lucky if he leaves the training track and gets to the racetrack. I want to thank my team Randy and Bruce and Nadia (phonetic) who selected this horse, and we went back and we again wetted him. I was told not to spend $1.4 or $1.5 million. I stayed with it. Thank God I did and bought the horse for just over $2 million, and I think it's very good for the team. It's good for the package I can't team. They've done a tremendous amount of work with a lot of horses and you need a success like this and I want to thank Bob and his team. They've just done a tremendous job.

SATISH SANAN: I can't remember exactly, but I think they were saying --

BOB BAFFERT: It was something we never heard of. He had a deal here and a deal there. It sounded very like -- once the word gets out that a horse doesn't vet, and usually the ones that spread the rumors are the guys that can't afford him, and so that's what happens, like I wouldn't buy that horse, he wouldn't vet. You have to take into consideration these veterinarians are under a lot of pressure and these horses bring a lot of money, so they're just reporting what they say. So the vet said he's got something here and all that, and I wasn't really worried about it. Right after he bought the horse I called him up and I said don't worry about what the vet said. I said that's the best horse that I've seen here all year and you've got him so don't worry about what everybody says. Most of the guys or the guys that talk about it are the guys that can't afford him and those are the worst ones. The horse, they broke him, did a masterful job of getting him to me. I got him at Churchill Downs. I got him during the Derby. He knows how to handle the paparazzi and everything else and he was training there. It's going to be very exciting to know that you've got a really good two year old and he's the kind of horse that the fans can follow and get on a bandwagon. You always need a new star, so we're just fortunate that we have him.

BOB BAFFERT: It was something to do with a leg or something.

SATISH SANAN: I think they were explaining about his ankles. We had it wetted the second time and I called Bob and said there's some wetting issues. We talked to Bob and Bob said don't worry about it. You will love the horse and Bob loved it and our team loved it.

BOB BAFFERT: It's hard to find a good one.

BOB BAFFERT: We can't tell you those secrets. We bought the two best mares in the country. They ran second and third. We just couldn't buy the winner.

BOB BAFFERT: He'll go back to California.

BOB BAFFERT: We ran him for 62 5 one time. I don't know why they put that in there. If you want to run -- to fill the race if you have a claim in there you can run. They do that so they can fill the race, but we were lucky to get those two races into him. I mean, his first time we all knew we had it. His second out was a little sluggish because he gets the lead by himself and he plays around. Delmar is a very deep track, very loose and cuppy this year and that's why I didn't want to run him back there a third time. I thought let's take him to -- the thing is about this when you have the experience like that and when I told Satish what I was going to do was take him to Turfway Park, he said, well, let's go to the Champaign because he's worth money. I said believe me, he's worth money. It doesn't matter, he's worth a lot of money right now, we've just got to keep him sound. I don't let things like that -- when you have a starter like that you just take him the right way and shoot for races like this, so everything worked out, there was no bumps, he never got sick, he never got hurt, and so he's just like an athlete. I've had a few SEATTLE SLEWS but never one like him.

BOB BAFFERT: Hopefully because I've never won it. It's one of those things I think -- when it's a mile and a 16th -- sometimes a sprinter can get you. Today a mile and an eighth, it really stretches them out pretty good, so the cream rises to the top, and if it would have been a mile it would have been closer or whatever, but a mile and an eighth sort of -- I have to keep this horse very happy and sound.

BOB BAFFERT: I don't believe in it. POINT GIVEN a couple years ago, it was bad, we outthought ourselves and we thought we needed to be close and we beat ourselves. That's racing. You take it with a grain of salt. I hope he makes it that far; that's the thing. These horses are so fragile. Look at poor SKY MESA. The first people I ran into were the Oxleys and they're devastated because they've got a really good horse and he gets hurt, hopefully he'll be able to make it back, but these horses it's hard to brag on him anymore because they get hurt.