NEWS
Dominating the Derby
Posted: Saturday, April 29, 2000
With very different management styles, trainers D. Wayne Lukas, Bob Baffert, and Nick Zito won seven editions of the Kentucky Derby in the 1990s
Baffert. Lukas. Zito. No serious student of horse racing and particularly the Kentucky Derby (G1) could have traveled through the 1990s without being keenly aware of the three most prominent American classics trainers.
Like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig of the 1920s and '30s New York Yankees or Larry Bird and Magic Johnson in the National Basketball Association during the 1980s, Bob Baffert, D. Wayne Lukas, and Nick Zito dominated the 1990s Derby scene to such an extent that first names were optional. Just call them Baffert, Lukas, and Zito.
Between them they found the winner's circle on Derby day at Churchill Downs seven times during the 1990s, a record of accomplishment few other groups of trainers can match. In the 1990s, Lukas won three-his first winner was Winning Colors in 1988-while Baffert and Zito won two each.
For practically the entire decade, Lukas was talking about competing with Zito, or Zito was focused on what he had to do to defeat Baffert, or Baffert was casting a gaze toward Lukas's well-manicured barn. To collect their seven Derby trophies, the trio generally had to beat each other to do it.
With everything that can happen-anticipated and unexpected-on the road to Churchill Downs, it is amazing that Lukas is on the verge of saddling a starter in the race for an unprecedented 20th consecutive year.
The record is just as impressive for Zito, who sent out starters in eight Derbys in the 1990s, and for Baffert, the late starter of the bunch who nonetheless has sent out eight runners in the last four races. However, both Baffert and Zito are looking at being secondary players in this year's race.
Getting to the Kentucky Derby just once is a significant accomplishment for any trainer. To do it on a regular basis is indicative of a stable's hard work, a consistent base of talented young horses, and a master plan that is followed to the letter from the time Derby contenders arrive at the trainer's barns as green two-year-olds.
That is what Baffert, Lukas, and Zito have achieved. And they have done it with different management styles. In corporate terms, Lukas's barn is the steady blue-chip corporation, Baffert's is the upstart technology company, and Zito's is the classic hands-on entrepreneurial company.
The three hope to carry the competition on into the new decade. But the competition could have a few new wrinkles.
The corporate blueprint
Lukas arrived at the Derby for the first time in 1981 with an undistinguished field horse named Partez. That he finished third despite jockey Sandy Hawley misjudging the finish line was a precursor of two decades of dominance for the always quotable, often controversial Lukas.
Lukas's Derby performance, winning the race four times-equal to Herbert J. "Derby Dick" Thompson and second only to Ben A. Jones's six victories-is no accident. Lukas long ago developed a program that was built around weeding through a stable of expensive, well-bred prospects until the logical Derby candidates emerge.
"We're not trying to go for a longevity career of being in (the Derby); we are trying to go for winning it more than anybody else," Lukas said. "And we think that's a possibility. My health is good and has been. Our clientele base is second to none. We have great people who are focused on the Derby."
Lukas, 64, has won one Derby apiece in the 1990s for three of his major clients-Overbrook Farm (Grindstone in 1996), Michael Tabor (Thunder Gulch in '95), and Robert and Beverly Lewis (Charismatic in '99). He said owners such as these are one of the keys to his operation because of their willingness to breed or purchase yearlings at the high end of the market and their hunger for classic success.
"You have to be focused on the Derby, but you also have to have a clientele base that says, 'Look, I want to be in the Derby,' because some people take the position that they feel like the Derby is hard on (three-year-olds)," he said. "They say it comes up too early; it's too grueling a race; it compromises them later in their careers. So you've got to hold hands with your clients, and they've got to believe that you're doing the right thing, and they have to want it as bad as you do, or you're in trouble.
"Bill Young said, 'I'm old, I'm a Kentuckian, and that's my favorite race.' If I can get there, he wants to be in it; whereas, you might get some clients who say, 'Don't press for the Derby.'
"I trained for one: John Nerud never wanted to run in the Derby. I ran (Tartan Stable's) Muttering for him, but he was reluctant. When Codex wasn't nominated (in 1980), he thought that was great. He told me that took all the decision right out of it; he said: 'We're not in it, we'll go to the Preakness.' "
Codex won the 1980 Preakness Stakes (G1) in a controversial but clear-cut victory over Derby-winning filly Genuine Risk. (Lukas maintains that they never bumped.)
Sales strategy
Lukas has the clients. He also has a set strategy when he goes to yearling sales, stressing conformation first while looking for pedigrees that suggest classic potential.
"You may love a horse on conformation that does not appeal to your competition in the sales ring, but pedigree is very easily identified," he said. "Conformation is an individual taste. Pedigree is cold black and white right there in front of you; it's either good or it's bad. When you get the combination of the two, you should be prepared to step up and pay for it."
The final piece in Lukas's operation is personnel. Lukas is the chief executive officer, the driving force and guiding spirit of the operation. But his corporate structure, with its emphasis on satellite operations, is dependent on the ability of Lukas's assistants to work within the system and implement his plans.
It is a system that stresses Lukas's philosophy of working his horses hard, racing them often, and finding out which ones have true classic potential.
"We don't entrust any of the Derby prospects with anybody that hasn't been with us for a great deal of time," he said. "Of course, I stay on top of it as much as I can, but I can't be at every work. I am very comfortable with our staff, and most of them are geared to the thinking that we have to get to the Derby. I think you'll find that the guys that have been in our organization, in the years to come, will be in the Derby. They know how to get here."
Several, such as Dallas Stewart and Mark Hennig, have already sent out Derby starters. Todd Pletcher could saddle as many as four starters this year.
"He's set the standard for a lot of things," Stewart said. "He's got good vision. He gets pumped up. He gets himself up at 4:30 a.m. and he works his tail off. He's a smart man."
"I think you can win a Derby without a lot of preparation and planning and months of setting yourself in a position to win one," Lukas said. "You can wake up with a good horse, and history has shown that you can come over and pick one up. But I don't think you can show any kind of consistency of winning more than one or hitting the board without planning it. (Zito, Baffert, and I) plan it."
Baffert's approach
Baffert was standing along the fence at Churchill Downs one cloudy mid-April morning when it was suggested to him that his rise from nowhere and his spectacular early performance at the Kentucky Derby was akin to the success of many Internet start-up companies.
Baffert, aware of the tech-heavy NASDAQ index's record drop on April 14, could not help but smile. "I just hope I don't end up like them," he said laughing. Of course, the NASDAQ index recorded a record rise on the next trading day.
But Baffert could understand the comparison. In 1996, his first year at the Derby, Cavonnier lost by a nostril, and Baffert was gutted, thinking his best chance to win a Derby had passed him by. Then he won the race the next two years, erasing the memory of Cavonnier with Silver Charm in 1997 and then running first and third with Real Quiet and Indian Charlie, respectively, the next year.
"With Real Quiet and Indian Charlie, I knew I had the winner," he said. "I just didn't know with which one."
But Baffert is feeling somewhat humbler these days. Last year, he sent out a talented trio in Prime Timber, General Challenge, and Excellent Meeting. None of them hit the board, with Prime Timber not being good enough to handle the 19-horse field and the other two suffering from bad trips.
This year, he arrives with Captain Steve, who was one of last year's leading two-year-olds but who has drifted to the ranks of the outsiders by Baffert's own admission.
But Baffert does not expect to travel over the ruts on the road to obscurity that will be the fate of many Internet companies. Instead, he sees a future where the lessons he is currently learning will transform him into the master of Derby understanding.
"Every time I come here, I leave here more knowledgeable about what I need to do when I come back," he said. "You don't want to do too much with them, but again you don't want to do too little for them. They have to be fit, they have to be ready.
"I watch other people and the way they train their own horses. Sometimes they get here, and they change their whole style of training. They get away from what got them here, and their horses don't run. You have to focus on your horse and don't be overwhelmed by all the media and all that stuff."
Sales and staff
Like Lukas, two of Baffert's strengths are selecting quality racing prospects at sales and arming himself with experienced, instinctive horsemen. But there are differences in Baffert's methods.
For one thing, he has only recently been in a position to buy horses at the top end of the market, something Lukas has had access to for nearly two decades. Baffert, working with brothers J. B. and Kevin McKathan, has had to develop a sharp eye for finding quality bloodstock at Big Lots prices. They have become adept at picking out horses with scope to grow and physical flaws that can be worked around. Real Quiet, nicknamed "the Fish" because of his narrow chest, was bought for $17,000 as a Keeneland September yearling.
But Baffert's success has come at a price. People watch him at sales, and he has to be more subdued in his enthusiasm for a sales prospect. And with the sales market experiencing a growth cycle similar to the untamed exuberance of the stock market, Baffert sometimes is unable to purchase top prospects in the price range of clients such as Mike Pegram, who raced Real Quiet.
"I just buy nice horses and hope they pan out," he said. "But it's getting harder and harder with the market going up. You need so much luck, you've got to go through so many horses just to find that one."
Once a prospect enters his barn, Baffert said he "usually lets the horses come around on their own." One example he cited was Silver Charm, who in 1996 was packed away in cotton wool after an illness knocked him out of the Norfolk Stakes (G2) instead of being rushed into the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1). The next spring he blossomed into a dual classics winner and eventual champion.
Aiding him in determining how the stable's future stars are developing is a crack team of assistants, including Tim Yakteen and Jim Barnes in California, April Mayberry and Peter Hutton in Kentucky, and Tonya Terranova in New York. Because Baffert is still a relatively new player on the Derby scene, this represents his first core of assistants; only Eoin Harty-now training a string of two-year-olds for Godolphin Racing-has parlayed his status as a Baffert assistant into a gig of his own.
"I've always surrounded myself with good people," he said. "You can't keep your finger on the pulse of every horse."
Certainly, Baffert has inspired loyalty in his assistants. He showers them with praise every chance he gets and has invited them up on stage with him when he has won the Eclipse Award for leading trainer.
"I've worked for a lot of trainers," Hutton recently said, "and the thing I really like about Bob is he doesn't think anything about giving a horse 30 or 60 days (on the farm) if he needs it."
Hutton, who married last August, also said Baffert has been generous in giving him time off to settle into wedded life. "You've got to work on a relationship just like you have to work on keeping a horse sound and fit," Hutton said. "He's good about working with his people. He understands that."
Zito's changes
The end of the 1990s has caused Nick Zito to reflect on the past and the future. He focused on March 6, just five days before the Florida Derby (G1), when his primary Derby candidate, Champagne Stakes (G1) winner Greenwood Lake, sustained a condylar fracture to his left foreleg.
Unlike Lukas and Baffert, who have the depth in their stable to cover that kind of loss, Zito was left scrambling.
He had two quality, lightly raced three-year-olds in the barn: Bare Outline and Rollin With Nolan. Bare Outline was unplaced in the Florida Derby as Greenwood Lake's deputy and then finished fifth in the Blue Grass Stakes (G1), effectively dropping him out of the Derby picture. Rollin With Nolan's status was to be determined by his effort in the Coolmore Lexington Stakes (G2) on April 22 at Keeneland Race Course.
And that has left Zito wondering if the methods that worked so well for him in the early and mid-1990s may be ineffective in today's high-tech world. While Baffert and Lukas train stables in two or three different time zones, Zito is still in his horses' stalls every day. Anyone who has spent time in the Churchill Downs stable area during Derby week has watched Zito bathe his Derby prospects and wrap their bandages himself, jobs that normally fall to grooms or assistant trainers.
"He's great to work for because he gets down in the stall and shows you his way, the way that got him here," said Frank Allen, one of Zito's assistants. "Most trainers tell you to just go in and do it, but Nick likes to be hands-on and get in the stall with you."
Zito is hands-on in a teleconference world, and he now wonders if that is hurting him.
"I have to adjust and assess myself," Zito said one morning outside his barn at Keeneland. "Wayne Lukas, I think, had a statement once that if he was dropped off in the middle of a deserted island with all his possessions, in a month he'd be back with a big client and a big stable. And a lot of people are attracted to Bob. He's a loose guy; some owners are uptight, so they're attracted to that. I may be a little intense, a little serious."
Loyal to clients
Zito enjoys well-known clients toward whom he feels great loyalty-owners such as George Steinbrenner, Rick Pitino, Bill Condren, and Joe Cornacchia. Condren and Cornacchia were co-owners in both of Zito's Derby winners, Strike the Gold (1991) and Go for Gin (1994). But Zito said they share the same hands-on philosophy he does, meaning they will never supply him with the depth in numbers to compete with Lukas and Baffert.
"George would love to have Wayne Lukas as his trainer. George would send Wayne Lukas a horse, but Wayne's got to train the horse," Zito said. "Wayne may be in California; Wayne may be in Kentucky; Wayne may be in New York. George would say that horse has to go wherever Wayne goes or wherever Bob goes. They couldn't do that. But you could do it with us. If I go to Alaska, then that horse is coming with me.
"I think what I have to do is somehow get some more support. It's a very difficult game. A lot of high-tech owners are coming in, and you need support from your clients. By support, I mean horses.
"My owners are very, very loyal people, but I can't fight (Lukas and Baffert) unless I get some cooperation."
For a few months three years ago, Zito had the foundation to develop a numbers-heavy stable. Teamed with neophyte owner James McIngvale, Zito actually nominated the most three-year-olds to the 1998 Triple Crown-22-most of which were owned by members of the McIngvale family. But that relationship fell apart over that winter at Gulfstream Park when several of McIngvale's horses were injured while training over the Hallandale, Florida, track, and McIngvale pulled his horses out of the barn.
McIngvale now operates stables in his native Texas, Kentucky, and Delaware, and Zito has not had the opportunity to develop another similar client.
"That could have worked out and should have worked out, but there were 500 people involved other than the gentleman and myself," Zito said. "You see it now; how many trainers have they got? All of a sudden all (members of the family) have trainer's licenses. That's something that could have worked. Jim and I had great ideas. He's a 21st-century guy, which some of the industry may have a problem with. I was telling him to go easy; ease into how this worked. That's all he wanted."
And having a Plan B and a Plan C at Derby time is the main thing Zito wants as he focuses on maintaining his status as one of the Derby's most accomplished trio in the 1990s and possibly into a new decade.
John Harrell is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer.
