Taiba finished 12 th, while Messier crossed in 15 th. His first taste of the Kentucky Derby came last year when Taiba and Messier were transferred to him from Bob Baffert, who was serving a two-year suspension because of a failed drug test by 2021 Derby winner Medina Spirit. Yakteen peeled off to launch his own barn. “A lot of gifted horsemen never get the breaks I did, but I’m appreciative of them.” “I’ve been very blessed, no doubt,” he said. One day, Whittingham asked Baffert for permission to bring the energetic assistant to his barn. Just trying to extract information from the master.” I remember Bob picking Charlie’s mind about what worked, how far did you work ’em, that kind of thing. He was always very willing to talk and help others out. “We were in Barn 1A and Charlie was stabled right next to us. “I can tell you today, the first time Charlie said hello to me,” Yakteen said. Three years later, he did it again with iconic champ Sunday Silence. Santa Anita had become synonymous with soaring trainer Charlie Whittingham, who won the Kentucky Derby in 1986 with Ferdinand. They would succeed or fail together, in the sport’s version of the big leagues. When Baffert elbowed his way into thoroughbred racing at Santa Anita, he decided to bring Yakteen along for the uncertain ride. “I wanted an in with a barn that seemed like it was going somewhere,” he said. Gill-green Yakteen was told to get the horse settled in for the race held on - wait for it - the first Saturday in May. The homecoming attracted Baffert, who wanted to show he had made it in California, poised to prove it 30 miles from the family’s ranch. Laughs rolled at Santa Anita one morning as the two talked about Baffert shipping a talented horse to a futurity race started by his father and uncle in Sonoita, Ariz. “When he came to work for me, I didn’t think he’d last two weeks. “I said, ‘How long have you been riding?’ This was his best answer: ‘Since Thanksgiving.’ I expected him to say years, not a recent holiday.
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“When I interviewed him, I asked, ‘Do you know how to ride?’ He said, ‘Yes,’ ” Baffert recalled. I need to work with that guy, Yakteen thought. Bob Baffert, who came down with his own racing bug in the Arizona-Mexico border town of Nogales, became a winner’s circle regular. He’d find a way, despite no experience and an equal number of connections.Ī rising quarter-horse trainer caught his eye. He wanted in, no matter how inglorious and humbling the ladder rungs would be. Yakteen yearned for more than just a dirt-in-the-eyes trackside view. If finnicky Churchill Downs fates cooperate the first Saturday in May during a cavalry charge of 19 other horses over a mile and a quarter, the unthinkable will become bricklayer perfect. The dream seems none too thick, none too thin. It’s going to the Super Bowl, going to the World Series.”
“There’s no doubt that having a contender in the Kentucky Derby and dreaming about winning it, that’s why we’re in it,” Yakteen said. There was no way to foresee how the sweat and stiffening upper lip would uniquely arm him for a move to Southern California, a chance visit to Los Alamitos Race Course, years as a regular at Del Mar and, now, a far-better-than-puncher’s chance to win the Kentucky Derby.Īn unmapped road led to an extraordinary place where scant few go. He was gathering tools for a work life that developed by sheer accident in a country nine time zones away.
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The mix of sleeve rolling and rhinoceros-tough skin leathered Yakteen for a career he had no earthly idea was coming. “It taught me about patience … and exhaustion.” “I literally worked from sun up until sundown,” he said.
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