THEY'VE GOT A REASON TO BELIEVE; BAFFERT, LEWIS MAKE IT A WINNING COMBO : TODAY'S LINEUP.

Byline: Kevin Modesti Daily News Staff Writer

If Silver Charm wins the Belmont Stakes and the Triple Crown today, the celebration will begin in a four-seat box with a hug between two very different men named Bob.

Then they'll dash through a Belmont Park crowd expected to approach 50,000, and find the winner's circle, where the personalities of owner Bob Lewis and trainer Bob Baffert will go on display.

Lewis, a beer distributor from Newport Beach, will make a stilted, schmaltzy but charmingly enthusiastic speech to the TV cameras, calling everything and everybody connected with his colt's accomplishment ``delightful'' and taking the opportunity to tout the nation on the Sport of Kings. All the while, Beverly Lewis, his wife of nearly 50 years, will clutch his arm and stare adoringly.

Baffert, 44, the prematurely silver-haired son of an Arizona rancher, will do a dance, lift the trophy not only over but onto his head, and say he's going to . . . Hooters.

This is just a guess, of course, based on their behavior in the weeks surrounding Silver Charm's gritty victories in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

They may be the oddest owner-trainer pairing to form a winning rapport since the elegant Louis and Patrice Wolfson and the colorful Cuban Laz Barrera won the most recent Triple Crown with Affirmed 19 years ago.

Baffert is a class clown; the Lewises as prim and proper as grade-school principals.

Baffert is the one who walked off the plane that carried Silver Charm to New York waving double ``V's'' - ``the Nixon deal,'' as he called it. He's the one whose horses, the ones owned by friend and soulmate Mike Pegram, sometimes have racy names like Isitingood, Straight to Bed and Love on the Rail. He's the one who said he majored in ``campus wildlife'' at Arizona. (And whose brother, Bill, jokes that he earned an ``AA degree.'')

Baffert, who trained quarterhorses at little Los Alamitos until '91, is the irreverent one who remembers little about the 11 Triple Crown winners, cracking: ``I'm used to names like Easy Jet and Dash for Cash.''

The Lewises seem not to have a sarcastic bone in their energetic bodies.

Baffert recalled Friday how their conversations went during the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, in which Silver Charm and jockey Gary Stevens won photo finishes.

``I'll tell him (Bob Lewis), `He got away good! He's right there!' '' said Baffert, whose vocal patterns might be described as Cowboy Surfer.

``He'll say, `Excellent, Robert!' '' Baffert said, approximating Lewis' stentorian baritone.

``In the Preakness, I thought we'd won, but with the cameras on, you don't want to act like you won and get embarrassed, like with Cavonnier in the (1996) Derby.

``Bob (Lewis) was sure we'd won. Here's a 72-year-old man with glasses telling me I won. He turns around and asks (trainer) Nick Zito, `Did we win?' Zito said, `You won.' Bob said, `Well, tell him (Baffert).' ''

Woody Stephens, the hardboot trainer of five straight Belmont Stakes winners in the '80s, called Baffert ``a different character.''

Funny - Baffert thinks Lewis is the ``different'' one.

``He's very conservative,'' Baffert said of Lewis, whom he met through relatives in '91, when the Lewises were just getting into thoroughbred racing themselves. ``I'm probably more entertaining to Bob. He knows I have fun in this business.''

Baffert said the two men have ``bonded'' during Silver Charm's campaign. Winning can have that effect.

Imagine if they win the $5 million Triple Crown bonus.

``It's neat,'' the trainer said of the Lewises' success. ``They're a couple who, what you see on TV is how they really are.''

``Bob Lewis is a very, very nice man - too nice,'' said Vince Baker, a veterinarian and racehorse owner. ``He wants to have a good time with this.''

And the Lewises seem intent on helping everyone around them enjoy the moment, starting by flying 110 friends and relatives from Los Angeles to New York on a chartered L-1011 emblazoned with a green and yellow Silver Charm logo.

``They're just great for the sport,'' said Tim Yakteen, a former Baffert assistant trainer who works for Hall of Famer Charlie Whittingham. ``When's the last time you saw someone give like this?''

Baffert said Lewis isn't the meddling kind of owner who wants to ``move in with the horse.''

``I talk to him every three days or so,'' Baffert said. ``I'll call him if there's a problem.''

Lewis modestly said he admires Baffert because he has to ``contend with an old man.''

``I like his style,'' Lewis said. ``He's kind of laid back. I like his sense of humor. I like the fact the Bob Baffert is home in the afternoon with his wife and (four) children. He's the kind of accomplished person that brings a breath of fresh air to the thoroughbred industry.''

Bill Baffert thinks his brother has ``loosened up Bob Lewis a little bit.''

An official-looking sign outside Baffert's Santa Anita barn says, ``No Parking.'' Then, in smaller letters, ``Except for Bob.'' That doesn't keep people away.

Unlike some trainers, who take the necessity of barn security to unpleasant extremes, Baffert is welcoming. He gets a lot of visitors.

``It may look from the outside like a loose atmosphere,'' Yakteen said. ``He has this theory that if your help isn't happy, your horses won't be happy. But when it comes down to it, Bob is like any other professional. Bob has always tried to hire good help. If they don't work out, they're sent down the road.''

Baffert trains 75 to 90 horses, nine of them owned by the Lewises, who spread their prospects around to several barns, most of them starting with D. Wayne Lukas.

Actually, it's the trainers who pick out the young horses at sales and suggest them to the Lewises. In Silver Charm's case, Baffert saw a tape of the colt's quarter-mile workout before an Ocala, Fla., auction in April 1996. The Lewises wound up buying him privately for $85,000.

After winning the Del Mar Futurity in August, Silver Charm was put away for the winter after Baffert told Lewis he ``might be a great horse'' and should be rested for a Triple Crown classic campaign.

Silver Charm got sick, missed some training time, but finished second to Free House in the Santa Anita Derby, setting him up for the classic races Baffert had targeted.

Today, in weather expected to be cloudy and in the 60s but dry, he'll try to turn back Free House, Touch Gold and Crypto Star again, with Wild Rush a new threat, and Mr. Energizer and Irish Silence filling out the field.

In their Belmont Park box about 2:30 p.m. PDT, Baffert and the Lewises, who seem to have little in common, will share the biggest moment of their sporting lives.

``We look at each other,'' Baffert said, ``and say, `Can you believe this is happening to us?' ''

Silver Charm, chasing the Triple Crown and a $5 million bonus, faces six other 3-year-olds in the 129th Belmont Stakes, scheduled for 2:30 p.m. PDT today. Channel 7 coverage starts at 1:30 p.m. Distance: 1-1/2 miles. Purse: $721,000, $432,600 to the winner. Weights: Each horse carries 126 pounds.

Post Horse Jockey Odds

1 Touch Gold Chris McCarron 2-1

2 Silver Charm Gary Stevens 6-5

3 Crypto Star Pat Day 6-1

4 Wild RushJerry Bailey 2-1

5 Mr. Energizer Manuel Ortega 30-1

6 Free House Kent Desormeaux 5-2

7 Irish Silence John Velazquez 50-1

(x) - Coupled for wagering purposes because of common ownership.

TRIPLE CROWN WINNERS

1919-Sir Barton

1930-Gallant Fox

1935-Omaha

1937-War Admiral

1941-Whirlaway

1943-Count Fleet

1946-Assault

1948-Citation

1973-Secretariat

1977-Seattle Slew

1978-Affirmed

RACE BY RACE WITH SILVER CHARM

Date Track Result

1996

Aug. 10 Dmr Led, finished 2nd to Deeds Not Words

Aug. 24 Dmr Led wire to wire in 5-1/2-furlong race

Sept. 11 Dmr Won Futurity by head; first stakes victory

1997

Feb. 8 SA Wins first meeting with Free House

March 16 SA 2nd to Free House in first route race

April 5 SA Loses photo to Free House in Santa Anita Derby

May 3CD Wins Kentucky Derby by head at 4-1 odds

May 17 Pim Wins Preakness by head as 3-1 3rd choice

Totals: 8 starts, 5 wins, 3 seconds, $1,632,300 in purses.

Tracks: Dmr - Del Mar; SA - Santa Anita; CD - Churchill Downs; Pim - Pimlico.

Source: Daily Racing Form 

THE BIG DAY

A look at the Belmont Stakes favorite's schedule today, approximated by assistant trainer Eoin Harty:

6:30 a.m.: He is woken up, has his protective leg bandages removed, and is walked in the barn for about 45 minutes.

7:30 a.m.: He is fed a meal of grain, then spends most of day resting in his stall.

3:30 p.m.: He is cleaned up in preparation for the race.

4:30 p.m.: He is led to the saddling paddock.

5:20 p.m.: Jockey Gary Stevens mounts up, and they head to the track to warm up.

5:30 p.m.: They're in the gate - and they're off

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos, 3 Boxes

Photo: (1--color) Silver Charm trainer Bob Baffert has his eye on the trophy that goes with winning the Triple Crown.

Associated Press

(2) Bob Baffert, right, leads Silver Charm and exercise rider Larry Damore to the track for a Friday workout.

Box: (1) TODAY'S LINEUP (see text)

(2) RACE BY RACE WITH SILVER CHARM (see text)

(3) THE BIG DAY (see text)