Set to sweep the races

Paul Clinton

Horse-trainer and former Huntington Beach resident Bob Baffert now has

a third shot at the elusive Triple Crown, after War Emblem won the

Preakness Stakes.

On May 4, the horse won the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, the

first leg of the coveted crown.

Baffert oozed confidence after the War Emblem’s dominant run in the

second jewel of the crown, on Saturday at Pimlico, where it blew away

place-horse Magic Weisner and the rest of the field.

“There’s not a 3-year-old out there that can beat him,” Baffert said,

from War Emblem’s Churchill stable.

If War Emblem wins the Belmont Stakes, on June 8, he would be the

first horse since Affirmed in 1978 to capture all three legs of the

crown.

In 1997, Baffert won the first two legs of the crown with Silver

Charm. A year later, he repeated the feat with Real Quiet. Both horses,

however, were turned away at the Belmont.

After a divorce, Baffert now lives in Sierra Madre.