Bob Baffert is back at the Kentucky Derby for the first time in four years, having served his punishment for Medina Spirit’s failed drug test and coming to the place where he has won a record-tying six times.
He’s settled in at his old Barn 33, the signs boasting of his Churchill Downs triumphs again hanging on the outside wall.
“I’m going to have fun now that everything is behind me,” Baffert told The Associated Press in an interview this week.
The white-haired trainer will saddle Wood Memorial winner Rodriguez and Citizen Bull, last year’s 2-year-old champion, in the 151st Kentucky Derby next Saturday, May 3.
“Going back with a live horse is more important to me,” he said. “I really feel like this year I have two horses that could be in the top five, top 10.”