A biography for Bob Bafferthasn’t been written yet.
“I'm a pretty softie kind of guy.”
“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.”
“The last thing I want to do is do something that would jeopardize the greatest two minutes in sports.”
“It's horse racing. If you can't beat him one way, try to win another way.”
“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.”
“Nobody's got a sense of humor anymore.”
“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 can gauge how a horse is feeling.”
“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 always worry about the horses I haven't beaten yet.”
“I didn't know what I wanted to do. I was training about six horses. I was feeling the pressure from the folks. You know, 'When are you going to get a real job?' I never considered training a profession. It was a hobby.”
“I just love being around horses. Once it gets in your blood, the passion, you can't get out.”
“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.”
“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.”
“American Pharoah handles people. He's been surrounded by hundreds of people. And when he runs, he always looks like he's having fun.”
“The testing levels have become ridiculous. All they show is contamination, and they have really put the trainers' heads on the chopping blocks. It hurts racing.”
“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.”
“All of a sudden, I started winning races. I was the king of Arizona.”
“I don't like being third.”
“When you buy a horse, it's like getting married.”