Baffert has War Emblem on trail of a Triple Crown

BALTIMORE -- Six weeks ago, War Emblem's owner and trainer didn't think he was good enough to run in the Kentucky Derby.

Bob Baffert disagreed. So he acquired War Emblem on April 11, won the Derby with him 23 days later, and now has the speedy black colt in position to win the Preakness Stakes today.

"It's all about timing," Baffert said. "We got him when he was doing well, and now he's blossoming, filling out, relaxing. He's getting better and better. He's just turning the corner."

If he handles the turns quickly enough in the 1 3-16th-mile Preakness, War Emblem would move on to the Belmont Stakes in three weeks with a chance to become thoroughbred racing's first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978.

War Emblem, a four-length, wire-to-wire winner in the Derby, is the 3-1 second choice on the morning line, with Medaglia d'Oro the 5-2 favorite in the field of 13 3-year-olds. Proud Citizen, the Derby runner-up trained by D. Wayne Lukas, is at 6-1, behind Harlan's Holiday, at 9-2.

The Preakness plot thickens as soon as the gates spring open: Can speedsters like Booklet and Table Limit press War Emblem and prevent him from a Derby rerun?

"This race might be won and lost at the first turn," Booklet's trainer John Ward said.

That Baffert is in Triple Crown territory again isn't surprising -- he's trained the winners of seven of the last 16 Triple Crown races.

It's the way he did it that's intriguing: Baffert quickly transformed a horse deemed unworthy of the Derby. "He's black, he's fast, he's dangerous," Baffert says.

Baffert knew he was getting a hard-to-handle colt with bone chips in both ankles, but said his other Derby winners, Silver Charm in 1997 and Real Quiet in '98, had similar ailments.

"Real Quiet had a little chip in his ankle, Silver Charm had a little chip," he said, "but there is a way to treat it -- we ice it, and there are drugs you can give them to help repair joints."

In discussing the colt's habits with former trainer Bobby Springer, Baffert was told to expect an ambitious but ornery colt who loves to run. After Saudi Prince Ahmed bin Salman paid $900,000 for 90 percent of War Emblem, the colt moved to Baffert's barn.