HI HO SILVER CHARM

By STEVE WULF/LOUISVILLE

They have silver manes and golden noses in common. They are both, in the words of the one who can speak, "total couch potatoes." And though their backgrounds are those of long shots, they are now favored for posterity.

On June 7 at New York's Belmont Park, all eyes--as well as many bets and hopes--will be on Silver Charm, a 3-year-old gunmetal gray colt by Silver Buck out of Bonnie's Poker; and his trainer, Bob Baffert, a 44-year-old silver-haired charmer by an Arizona cattle rancher out of a schoolteacher. Together, along with jockey Gary Stevens and owners Bob and Beverly Lewis, they have won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, the first two jewels of the Triple Crown. This Saturday they will try to win the third, the Belmont, and if they do, Silver Charm will become the 12th horse, and the first gray, to win the Triple Crown--a feat last accomplished by Affirmed in 1978. "It hasn't sunk in yet," Baffert said the other day on the backstretch at Churchill Downs, where Silver Charm was relaxing before his 1 1/2-mile race with destiny. "Me, Bobby Baffert, going for the Triple Crown? Damn, the Triple Crown!"

With that, Baffert wiped at his watery eyes and blew his nose. Sentimental? No, actually he's allergic to hay and horses; always has been. That's just one of the anomalies on Baffert's past-performance chart. He grew up on the family ranch in Nogales, Ariz., rode quarter horses without much success, became something of a party animal while majoring in animal science at the University of Arizona, tried substitute teaching for a while, worked in a Tucson feed store for another while, then gravitated back to quarter horses as a trainer. He found his calling, or so he thought, putting together a successful string at Los Alamitos in Orange County, Calif., and training the 1986 world champion, Gold Coast Express. But, as Baffert recalls, "one day I came home to our little house with a tiny backyard, and my wife started telling me about a feature she had just seen on TV about Wayne Lukas, who went from training quarter horses to Thoroughbreds and had this magnificent spread. 'Why don't you do that?' she said."

Thoroughbred training and quarter-horse training are obviously a breed apart, but the latter requires a horse sense and work ethic that Baffert put to good use once he decided to run with the big boys. His first major success came with Thirty Slews, who won the Breeders' Cup Sprint in 1992. By 1995 he was the leading trainer at Santa Anita. At last year's Kentucky Derby, he saddled Cavonnier, who lost by a nose to Grindstone--trained by Lukas. "I actually thought we had the race won," says Baffert, "so when they posted the results, it felt like a death in the family. I kept it inside, but I really thought I would never get a chance like that again." Indeed, in any given year there are about 40,000 Thoroughbred foals, and only about eight of them have a good chance of winning the Derby three years later.

Days before that wrenching finish, Baffert received a videotape of a 2-year-old gray that was up for sale in Ocala, Fla. According to Baffert, "he had a beautiful long stride, absolutely effortless, and a quarter-mile time that was pretty damn good. But I hadn't seen him in person, so this was like buying on the Home Shopping Network." Baffert's offer of $85,000 was accepted, and Silver Charm was his. The horse had been overlooked for a number of reasons. He was literally an ugly yearling, hairless because of mange. His breeding wasn't very special. But lurking in his pedigree was his dam's sire, Poker, who was also the maternal grandfather of 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew.

One of the more refreshing aspects of Baffert's personality is his willingness to admit his mistakes. He also puts a lot of stock in fate, and he truly believes Silver Charm would not be racing for the $5 million Visa bonus that goes with winning the Triple Crown had it not been for owner Bob Lewis, a Budweiser distributor who has invested a lot of money and love in Thoroughbreds. "Bob is driving the bus," he says. "Gary and I are just along for the ride." The bus ride began when Baffert ran into the Lewises at a Huntington Beach, Calif., restaurant the week before last year's Derby. He talked them into entering Criollito in the 1996 Churchill Downs Handicap on Derby Day. While discussing Criollito's training with Lewis later that week, Baffert sold him on Silver Charm. Criollito won, but the Lewises had to watch the race at the Louisville Airport because they were on their way back to California to be with their daughter Nancy, who was in labor. So the way Baffert figures it, Silver Charm is a reward for the Lewises.

In some ways Baffert is a reward for horse-racing writers. They loved it when he told them the week before this year's Derby, "This time I brought a horse with a longer nose." They loved it when he filled out a questionnaire at a local hair salon and, under occupation, wrote down "porn star." They loved it when he helped Stevens up onto Silver Charm just before the Derby and told him, "May the horse be with you." Most of all, they loved it when his horse won a sensational stretch drive with favorite Captain Bodgit. In the winner's circle Baffert literally danced with the trophy. At the victory party afterward, Baffert kept telling Lewis, in homage to the ad campaign for one of the owner's beers, "I love you, man." After the Derby, Baffert says, he felt like the Robert Redford character in The Candidate who asks, after winning the Senate race, "What do we do now?"

What he did was ship Silver Charm to Pimlico for the Preakness and cross his fingers. Because of its shorter distance and tighter turns, the Preakness is the race he thought Silver Charm might not win. Indeed, bettors made him the third choice, behind Captain Bodgit and Free House. In the home stretch, Baffert thought, Free House would hold off Silver Charm. But along came Captain Bodgit, and Silver Charm responded to this new threat, catching Free House at the wire by the bob of his nose. "Free House is a buddy of his from California," Baffert says. "Captain Bodgit he doesn't like very much. Gary told me he wouldn't have won had it not been for Captain Bodgit's late charge." In the winner's circle Baffert decided to wear the Preakness cup on his head. His wife Sherry says, "Bob's always been like that. I don't know if I'm married to a horse trainer or an entertainer."

Unfortunately, Captain Bodgit injured a tendon in the Preakness and had to be retired. So on Saturday Silver Charm will try to beat Free House and six other challengers. A victory for Silver Charm would also be a victory for the industry, which seems on the verge of recovery after years of declining interest. "It's nice being the last jockey to do it," Affirmed's rider Steve Cauthen said the other day at Churchill Downs. "But I'll be rooting for Silver Charm in the Belmont. It'll be great for racing if that little horse does it."

Says Baffert: "If my four kids are any indication, this Triple Crown thing is good for the sport. They finally think it's cool what I do. The other night I got to throw out the first ball in Anaheim Stadium, and my boys met Ken Griffey Jr. Next week I'm taking them to New York for the Belmont. Maybe they'll go to a show or a Yankee game."

Maybe they'll get to go with Mom and Dad and Silver Charm into the winner's circle. If that happens, does Baffert have anything special planned, along the lines of his Derby dance and Preakness pose? "Actually," he says, "I've been rehearsing with my daughter Savannah, who's the same age as Silver Charm. When the camera is on her, I've instructed her to smile and then scream, "Show me the money!"