Top 66 Bob Baffert Quotes

Nothing is more important than the health and safety of our equine and human athletes, and nothing impacts their health and safety more than the policies and procedures concerning drugs.

The horse that wins the Derby is usually the best horse.

All of a sudden, I started winning races. I was the king of Arizona.

You’ve got to move forward. You can’t feel sorry for yourself.

I love Usain Bolt. When he’s in there, I can’t wait to watch him. Because you know he’s going to put on a show.

It was the most incredible feeling you can have winning the Kentucky Derby. You’re not really mentally prepared for it. It’s the greatest race in America, with 150,000 people, Churchill Downs, the Twin Spires, it’s just magical.

American Pharoah loved human contact. He was a very sweet horse and is still very sweet. He loves people, will put his head in your lap. I’m probably closer to that horse because of his temperament.

When you’re getting a lot of press, a lot of ink, you start believing your own crap. You start reading what you say and think you look smart. Sometimes you need to be knocked down a notch.

I’ve won the Derby with the best horse and I’ve lost the Derby with the best horse.

Bob Baffert is not stupid.

My parents were always with me when I went through all the Triple Crowns.

I got the biggest gut-punch in racing, for something I didn’t do.

One thing about racing, a lot of times you’ll get upset with someone, yet we live in confinement here. It’s almost like we live in a prison and you have to try and get along. Forgive and forget.

I always wanted to train and when I got in the business, I never thought about the money I might earn.

I never learned from a real trainer so it was trial and error. Mostly error.

It’s an incredible feeling for an owner or trainer to know they’ve got a superior race horse on their hands. You can tell when you have a really good one.

This is not about you or me; it’s about a horse making history. It’s sacred. Most people don’t remember the trainer or jockey or owner of Secretariat or Affirmed. I have to look most of them up. This is about the horse.

I’m a pretty softie kind of guy.

I’ve been blessed and lucky or whatever you want to call it.

I’m not a conspiracy theorist.

Well Belmont is the kind of track where we’ve had a lot of success, as have a lot of people in California, where you can ship in there, in a few days run the horses, the horses will run great and there’s few tracks where you can do that.

The Triple Crown was a tough beat, but by the time you get to the last leg of the Triple Crown, you just want it to be over.

You don’t ease off until your horses are saddled and on the track. Until then, I’m like a snapping turtle. I snap at almost everybody with impatience.

Wayne Lukas was the bar. Wayne impacted Quarter Horse racing and thoroughbred racing like no other.

I’m worried about our sport. Our sport, we’ve taken a lot of hits as a sport.

I don’t like being third.

The quarter horse game is more laid back. I think those guys are more friendly.

Most trainers here, they ride whoever’s hot. If they get cold, boom, they get rid of him. But for some reason, I stick with a jockey the longest and when you do have the separation it’s a story.

I never thought I’d have to be fighting for my reputation and the poor horse’s reputation.

I get to work with horses, be around them, you know. When you love horses as much as I do, you want to be around them. I mean, you can’t beat it.

Racing has its ups and downs, but the ups make up for the downs.

I look back and can’t believe it sometimes. I have to go to the Derby Museum to see what I really accomplished.

The Apollo curse is something I don’t even think about.

There’s so much jealousy in our business. They don’t like anything new or different. They don’t like change.

Medina Spirit earned his Kentucky Derby win and my pharmacologists have told me that 21 picograms of betamethasone would have had no effect on the outcome of the race.

You can’t use your hot pitcher three nights in a row. You’ve got to let your stars freshen up and back off them.

Breeders’ Cup is your last chance to make serious money, and it’s for championships, which impacts how much these horses earn to breed. Ton of money on the line.

I do most of my racing here in California now. There’s no reason to go anywhere else except for a few of the big races.

Great trainers and great jockeys keep a horse from getting beat.

I think about the losses more, the ones that got away from me.

When you buy a horse, it’s like getting married.

You want them to have fun. If I don’t like the way a horse looks, if he has his ears pinned back, I’ll send him to the farm, let him go be a horse for a while.

I wanted to be a horse trainer against my mother’s will.

Nobody’s got a sense of humor anymore.

We really don’t know which ones are better until we race each other. I’ve got good horses, but other guys have good horses, too.

Art Collector, I think he’s a very good horse.

I know I’m the most scrutinized trainer and have millions of eyes on me. But you know what? I don’t have a problem with that.

You know, there’s problems in racing, but it’s not Bob Baffert.

The emphasis in thoroughbreds is managing the horses as much as it is training them.

I like music, but I wasn’t really good at music.

I want to have a positive influence on the sport of horse racing.

Medina Spirit is a deserved champion and I will continue to fight for him.

It’s horse racing. If you can’t beat him one way, try to win another way.

Black cats. They kill me every time. I can just feel it when I see one. The only thing that gets me is black cats.

I just love being around horses. Once it gets in your blood, the passion, you can’t get out.

I just had too much fun in college. I did well enough to get by, but not enough to get into grad school.

I know there are people who say I’m lucky because it looks like I’m not doing anything. But it can’t be luck this often.

Justify, you can walk up to him and he might give you three, four, five seconds and then he’s done with you. He’ll try to bite your head off. It’s not in a mean way. He’s just a big, tough horse. He’ll run you out of the stall.

When I lost my parents, that’s when I changed.

It’s all about winning. I’m like a coach in the NFL. You better win.

I go through airports and people see the white hair and they said, ‘Hey, the horse guy! Aren’t you the horse guy?’ Or I get, ‘Has anybody told you that you look just like Bob Baffert?’ I say, ‘He must be a good-looking guy.’

I didn’t just show up as a walk-on back in 1989. I’ve done this my whole life, and I’d tell any young trainer to start in quarter horses because you have to do everything. I broke them, rode them, wrapped them and slept with them since I was a boy.

It’s not the same when you don’t have people watching and cheering you on. That’s what makes the Derby so great.

I might get to the barn later, but I stay longer, and that’s what counts.

I don’t take vacations.

I can get mad and snap at people. If a horse loses, I’m moody.