BAFFERT PUSHES THE WRONG BUTTON.Byline: KEVIN MODESTI Horse Racing horse racing, trials of speed involving two or more horses. It includes races among harnessed horses with one of two particular gaits, among saddled Thoroughbreds (or, less frequently, quarterhorses) on a flat track, or among saddled horses over a turf course with It began as a professional disagreement between Bob Baffert Bob Baffert (born January 13, 1953 in Nogales, Arizona) is an American horse owner and trainer. He graduated from the University of Arizona's Racetrack Management Program with a Bachelor of Science degree. , the nation's leading horse trainer In horse racing, a trainer is responsible for preparing a horse for races. As such, he takes responsibility for exercising it, getting it race-ready and determining which races it should enter. , and Scotty McClellan, Santa Anita's most influential jockeys' agent. It got a little loud. It got a little physical. It was all over in five minutes, shortly after 8 o'clock Tuesday morning in the normally tranquil gathering spot known as Clockers' Corner. But by then, rumors of the altercation had spread like a barn fire and the Santa Anita Santa Anita may refer to:
This is how Saturday's Santa Anita Derby The Santa Anita Derby is an American Grade 1 thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds run each April at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California and carries a purse of $750,000. acquired its juiciest subplot sub·plot n. 1. A plot subordinate to the main plot of a literary work or film. Also called counterplot, underplot. 2. A subdivision of a plot of land, especially a plot used for experimental purposes. . Call it the shove heard round the world. The controversy began 24 hours earlier, when Baffert broke some bad news to jockey Chris McCarron Christopher John "Chris" McCarron (b. March 27 1955, Boston, Massachusetts) is an American thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame retired jockey. He was introduced to the sport of thoroughbred racing by his older brother, jockey Gregg McCarron. as a small group of horsemen eavesdropped at trackside track·side n. The area near a track, especially a racetrack. . McCarron, who expected to ride General Challenge in the $750,000 race, was being replaced by fellow Hall of Famer Gary Stevens
McCarron was angry but didn't make a scene. That's what his agent is for - to play the bad guy. Tuesday, as Baffert stood on the grandstand steps preparing to clock a workout, McClellan approached him to complain. McClellan opened with a joke, but Baffert didn't see the humor. Voices were raised. McCarron might be stuck without a mount in the West's leading prep for the May 1 Kentucky Derby Kentucky Derby One of the classic U.S. Thoroughbred horse races. It was established in 1875 and run annually on the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs track in Louisville, Ky. With the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes, it makes up U.S. racing's coveted Triple Crown. , McClellan pointed out. He'd already turned down a couple of offers to ride in major races out of town on Saturday. Baffert argued that unique circumstances justified the switch: Stevens, the barn's No. 1 jockey and General Challenge's regular rider, had been scheduled to accompany 1998 Kentucky Derby winner Real Quiet to the Oaklawn Handicap in Arkansas on Saturday. But Baffert had withdrawn Real Quiet in disappointment over weight assignments. Now Stevens was free. Besides, Baffert pleaded, hadn't he always been lenient when jockeys or their agents asked to back out of riding commitments for better opportunities? When McClellan turned to walk away, Baffert followed him, still shouting. And as they walked in front of Clockers' Corner, Baffert reached out and gave McClellan a right-handed shove, before assistant trainer Eoin Harty stepped between them, witnesses said. McClellan kept walking. Baffert later denied shoving McClellan: ``Oh, hell no, we were just talking. I'm not a fighter, I'm a lover. . . It's gotten a little blown out of proportion.'' McClellan, not wanting to fan the flames, said, ``I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. what he did.'' But the horsemen and track employees who were there were sure what they saw. What they saw was two men under pressure, with a month to go before the Kentucky Derby and places in the Churchill Downs starting gate up for grabs. What they saw was the inevitable result of the casual racetrack approach to contracts, in which a million dollars or more can turn on a handshake or less. Baffert's commitment to McCarron was delivered verbally at the trainer's barn on March 17, the day Exploit, then both men's top Kentucky Derby prospect, was retired with a knee injury. ``I'm sorry,'' McClellan remembered saying to Baffert. ``In the next breath, he said, `But I'll put you on General Challenge.' I said, `That's great!' '' Now it's not so great. The agent said one annoyance is the way the trainer made the change - telling McCarron instead of asking him. McCarron is left in a no-win situation: If he petitions the three-man board of stewards to enforce the verbal contract verbal contract an agreement made verbally for the provision of goods or services in return for a consideration, in veterinary practice usually in the form of money. , he risks alienating the powerful Baffert. ``Chris is a smart guy,'' Baffert said. ``I don't think he wants to burn any bridges.'' Get out the fire hose. Later Tuesday morning, steward George Slender's phone rang. It was McCarron, on a golf outing in San Francisco. Slender told reporters it sounded as if the jockey planned to press the issue, the kind of thing that lands on stewards' desks about once a month in Southern California. McCarron and Baffert could be called into the stewards' office today to offer their versions of events. The stewards prefer to mediate such a dispute, often by getting the trainer to promise the rider an attractive mount in the future. But that might not help this time, because Baffert said he has already offered McCarron ``a future draft pick'' for his trouble. ``If we can't (resolve the matter), we'll make a decision one of them won't like,'' Slender said. Push has come to shove. |
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