Out on the trail, Baffert used to ask his Mexican colleagues what they wiped themselves with after a poop They suggested rocks. "It was through the chickens that I learned how to relate to people and make good business deals," he says.Papa Baffert also kept Aberdeen Angus cattle and, crucially, horses. Bob Baffert is from Nogales, Arizona, on the Mexican border, a windy place in the high desert, 4,000ft above sea level. He was brought up in a ranch house built of mud bricks and without electricity He used to sell his father's eggs as a schoolboy.
I think it was for the Cartoon Network."It is all a beautiful story for those round these parts, proof that the American dream is more than that. The attention will keep coming and he will keep enjoying it."It seems like I've been talking for hours," he said in an interview between interviews this week. "I've talked to the foreign press and I've even done an interview with Julie Crone [the ex-jockey now a television reporter]. Baffert began to conquer it. This year, old snowy hair has saddled almost 150 winners and collected about $15 million in purses. If his eight horses perform as expected in the Breeders' Cup tomorrow he will have enjoyed the most successful season in the history of racing.
It was only seven years ago, and the last time the Breeders' Cup was held at Gulfstream Park, that Baffert was virtually nothing, a man looking for success and publicity. He was, according to his own florid words, "a media whoremonger" But then Thirty Slews won the Sprint and the world changed. THERE WAS, again, an audience with Bob Baffert outside barn No 8 here yesterday. Cameras rolled, tape recorders whirred and pens scribbled as America's first trainer did his stuff These days they come to him. Richards said: "We're looking to start him off over hurdles. It could be something like two races over hurdles and two over fences before Aintree." The Grey Monk is already pencilled in for a handicap hurdle on the Edward Hanmer Chase card at Haydock a week tomorrow but there is an alternative for him at Ayr. Richards added he might run The Grey Monk in the Edward Hanmer if the race cut up..
He was owned by The Winning Line, whose spokesman said: "Venetia Williams informs us the General has a slightly inflamed tendon and would need to miss this season. Bearing in mind his age and handicap mark we felt that he should be retired.". THE GREY MONK is set to return to action with the Grand National as his target. Nicky Richards, his trainer, is planning a light campaign for the injury-prone grey. Richards wants to emulate his late father Gordon, who won the Grand National with Lucius (1978) and Hallo Dandy (1984).
GENERAL WOLFE has run his last race. The Venetia Williams-trained 10-year-old, winner of the Peter Marsh Chase at Haydock for the last two seasons, has been retired after suffering a setback. He is in Hong Kong at the start of the year and is not going to ride for me on the all- weather, and he comes back mid-March I wouldn't have asked him if I didn't want him.". KIEREN FALLON will be Sir Michael Stoute's stable jockey next year, the trainer confirmed yesterday. Fallon has ridden as a freelance since being sacked by Henry Cecil in July.
