by Daniel Berk
Before he was the most renowned horse trainer in the world with a Triple Crown to his credit, Bob Baffert was a fixture at Arizona Stadium.
From the time he was 10, Baffert, a Nogales native, used to regularly make the hour long trek north to Tucson to cheer on the Arizona Wildcats. With some mix of his six siblings, Baffert would station himself in the “Knothole”, an area for kids in the south end zone of the stadium.
He frantically cheered on the Wildcats, elated by the wins and crushed by the losses -- a requirement for anyone with the last name Baffert.
“Every one of the seven kids, we all went to the University of Arizona,” Baffert said this week via cell phone. “I remember going to games and having a blast cheering those guys on. Arizona sports was just in our blood.”
And it still is.
On Saturday, nearly the entire Baffert family will return to Arizona Stadium to watch as Bob is honored by the Arizona athletics department for leading American Pharoah to the Triple Crown this year. He will be recognized during a timeout in the first quarter.
“It’s too bad my parents aren’t alive, because they would have loved this,” Baffert said. “The fact that training horses has put me in this position is unbelievable. I used to sit in the kiddie corner and here I am now getting honored in front of a stadium full of people. To be honored like that is something special.”
Baffert’s longstanding relationship with Arizona goes far beyond the Knothole. The Triple Crown winning trainer attended the UA, studying in the Race Track Industry Program, and was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. He used to wake up at dawn to stand in line to secure tickets to basketball games at Bear Down Gym.
Once he graduated and started making his bones in the horse racing world, Baffert developed relationships with coaches Lute Olson, Sean Miller and Rich Rodriguez and athletic director Greg Byrne.
He gets showered with “Bear Down” calls as he makes his way around racetracks around the world and has plenty of cardinal and navy in his closet.
“When I think back about my time at the University of Arizona, I think about the best times of my life,” Baffert said. “I don’t tell my kids this if I don’t have to, but I think it took me about six years to get through school because I was having so much fun. It’s such a great place; such a beautiful campus. I have so many great memories at Arizona. I met so many great people there.”
Baffert developed such a rapport with Olson, he eventually named a horse “Midnight Lute” after the legendary coach. He also spoke to the coach minutes after American Pharoah won the Breeders’ Cup last month.
“He was one of the only calls I picked up right after the race,” Baffert said. “He’s one of the greatest basketball coaches ever and just a great guy. Midnight Lute is one of the top five horses I’ve ever trained. There was some pressure with that because when you name a horse after a legend, you better make sure it’s a good horse.”
Baffert has also trained “Candrea” named for storied Wildcats softball coach Mike Candrea and “Lady Regina” named for Byrne’s wife, Regina.
The Byrnes traveled to California last year to join Baffert and watch “Lady Regina” finish second in a race. Now, Baffert will be a guest of Byrne’s at Saturday’s game in the athletics director’s suite.
“When I came to the U of A, one of the people I was most excited to get to spend some more time with at some point was Bob Baffert,” Byrne said. “Any institution strives to have world class alums. It’s a wonderful representation for the University of Arizona to have Bob Baffert be an alum and be the best in the world in what he does. It’s a great reflection on our university.”
Baffert’s trip to the UA will be his second this season. He served as the celebrity guest picker on ESPN’s College Gameday when the show originated from Tucson earlier this season prior to the UCLA game. He wore a red Arizona jersey that Byrne had personalized for him and was adored by the Arizona fans that gathered for the show.
“I felt like a rock star coming in there,” Baffert said. “Everyone was so great to me. It was a lot of fun on the set. Lee Corso asked me where my notes were. I said, ‘notes? I’m a horse trainer. I don’t have notes.’ It was really fun.”
Baffert had to quickly jet after his appearance on the show to get back to California for a race that afternoon. This trip, he’ll have more time to enjoy his stay in Tucson and reflect back on the amazing season he and American Pharoah had.
“The thing is I’ve always been so close; the Triple Crown was the only thing missing,” Baffert said. “American Pharoah came at a special time. I’ve never seen a horse like him before. I was privileged to have him in my barn. When I took him to the Breeders’ Cup, I had the weight of the entire racing industry on my shoulders. It felt so great when he turned for home.”
Now this weekend, it will be Baffert’s time to turn for home and he couldn’t be more excited.
“It’s going to be like a mini family reunion for us,” Baffert said. “I get to share this special weekend with my brothers and sisters and my family to be back at the University of Arizona. When you’re from Nogales, there aren’t a lot of things bigger than Wildcat sports.”
