Unbeatable? Trainer Says Silver Charm Will Win Triple Crown
Bob Baffert doesn’t expect the Belmont Stakes to be a piece of cake for Silver Charm, but when it’s over the trainer believes his gray colt will have the entire Triple Crown pie.
“Unless there is a horse in there that has super powers I can’t see him getting beat in the Belmont,” Baffert said. “He’s still going to have to run. They’re not going to serve it to him on a platter, but it won’t be as hard for him as the Preakness.”
The Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, bidding to become the 12th Triple Crown winner in the June 7 Belmont Stakes, worked out Wednesday at Churchill Downs.
Afterward, Baffert called owner Bob Lewis and said, “Well, Bob, he doesn’t look like a million, he looks like 5 million.”
Should Silver Charm win the Belmont, he would get a $5 million bonus. Visa, the Triple Crown sponsor, said Wednesday the $5 million would be in addition to the posted purse for the races.
Silver Charm will have his final workout Monday or Tuesday and then be shipped to Belmont Park on Wednesday, Baffert said in a conference call from Louisville.
The colt’s late arrival in New York is to avoid Triple Crown fanfare.
“He won’t be there too long to get stirred up too much,” Baffert said.
The colt went back to Churchill Downs, where he won the Derby, after winning the Preakness at Pimlico in Baltimore because, Baffert said, “I just wanted him to train on this surface because it’s pretty kind. They keep it pretty consistent.”
Baffert clocked Silver Charm in 1:27 2-5 seconds for seven-eighths of a mile Wednesday. The official clockers had the colt working three-quarters of mile in 1:14 4-5 and caught him galloping out seven-eighths in 1:27 3-5.
“He took off in 13 (seconds for the first eighth-mile) and so it was more like a three-quarters work,” Baffert said. “He finished up real good and was happy. Things are going just so smoothly I can’t believe it.
“He enjoys his work. My job is to keep him happy. His class and his heart will take him the rest of the way.”
Baffert thinks Silver Charm’s neck win over Captain Bodgit in the 1-1/4-mile Derby on May 3 was his best race. “In the Preakness (1 3-16 miles) he ran good enough to win, but he had to do that on his own.”
Baffert, noting the toughness of the Derby and the demands of the Preakness, said he could not train the colt hard for the second leg of the Triple Crown. The three weeks between the Preakness and 1-1/2-mile Belmont allow for harder training.
It appears there will be at least eight 3-year-olds entered on June 5 for the Belmont. Three of them are Free House, third in the Derby and second in the Preakness; Crypto Star, fifth in the Derby; and Touch Gold, fourth in the Preakness.