Why did Derby winner Authentic knock Bob Baffert to the ground? The trainer explains.
READ MORE
2020 Kentucky Derby coverage
The Lexington Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com produced numerous stories, photos and videos out of Saturday’s 146th Kentucky Derby won by Bob Baffert trainee Authentic at Churchill Downs. Click below to read all of our coverage.
Expand All
This Kentucky Derby was strange enough with a Sept. 5 date and no fans in attendance.
The coronavirus pandemic prevented fans from packing Churchill Downs and pushed the Derby from the first Saturday in May to the first Saturday in September.
There was plenty of other unusualness at the eerie and near-empty racetrack on its biggest day of the year.
In a matter of about 30 minutes, Hall of Fame trainer watched one of his two entries, Thousand Words, rear and flip in the paddock, breaking the wrist of his longtime assistant trainer, Jimmy Barnes, and being scratched as a result of the incident. (Thousand Words was not injured, by the way).
Right after that, Baffert watched his other entry, Authentic, pull off a major upset, beating Tiz the Law — the biggest favorite in 41 years — to deliver Baffert his sixth career Derby victory, tying Ben Jones for the most of all time by a trainer.
Baffert choked up as he spoke of his latest Derby winner and his injured assistant, who missed the race while being transported away from the track in an ambulance.
One crazy day, right?
It wasn’t over.
After the garland of roses was placed on Authentic, the Derby champion spooked and circled around wildly on the Churchill Downs turf course, the de facto winner’s circle on Derby Day. In the process, the 3-year-old colt knocked Baffert clear to the ground.
“What happened is — this horse is very skittish,” Baffert said. “He’s a quirky horse, that’s why he runs with ear plugs. The garland of roses — for some reason, I’ve never seen it — they had a long red ribbon at the end of them. And it was hitting his hind leg and it was spooking him.
“Every time he would feel it, he spun around. He was like a bowling ball. He just bowled us all down. He got me. Actually, I was lucky. The turf course is pretty soft here, so it wasn’t too bad. I was probably more embarrassed than anything when I hit the ground.”
Baffert added that the long, red ribbons “really spooked” his star colt.
“Very long,” winning jockey John Velazquez chimed in.
Baffert said he had already talked to Churchill Downs director of communications Darren Rogers, who was the one to help the Hall of Fame trainer up off the ground.
“No more ribbons,” Baffert said jokingly.
Rogers told the Herald-Leader afterward that he would look into the ribbons, but he wasn’t sure they were to blame for Baffert’s tumble. He noted that Authentic had actually been wearing the garland of roses for about five minutes before he got antsy and knocked Baffert to the turf, hypothesizing that it might have been something at that spot on the track near the winner’s stage — and not the long ribbons — that bothered the Derby winner.
The garland of roses that are awarded to the Derby winner are usually sewn together at the Kroger in Middletown — within view of the general public — but this year’s garland was actually constructed on site at Churchill Downs, due to COVID-19 precautions.
Whatever it was that spooked Authentic, the skittishness is apparently in his nature.
“He’s looking at everything,” Baffert said. “He saw the ribbon on that thing — he’s a little flighty. He can be a little tough. That’s why we kept — when I saddled him, we kept him in the stall.
“He’s a very gentle horse, but he’s a little high‑strung.”
This story was originally published September 5, 2020 at 10:16 PM with the headline "Why did Derby winner Authentic knock Bob Baffert to the ground? The trainer explains.."
