BALTIMORE _ Mr. Triple Crown, Bob Baffert, freely admits he doesn't call the shots in his family. The one who does is "the warden, the boss," as he affectionately called his wife, Jill, Thursday on Pimlico's backstretch.
Their son, Bode, is graduating eighth grade June 7, the eve of the Belmont Stakes. The man who hoisted the Triple Crown trophy twice in the previous four years will not be at "The Test of the Champion." He'll be with Jill in Southern California watching a rite of passage of a boy whom America has seen grow up in the winner's circle.
"Can I go to the Belmont?" Bob asked Jill.
"You're not going to the Belmont," she said with mock sternness.
Baffert said Game Winner, who was placed fifth in the Kentucky Derby, is a possibility for the Belmont. "I'm leaving the door open for him," he said. The 2018 2-year-old champion is owned by Gary and Mary West, owners of Maximum Security, the disqualified Derby winner.
Baffert will ship stakes runners to Elmont with longtime assistant trainer Jimmy Barnes. "Jimmy will take care of things there," Baffert said. "This is our last classic."
