War Emblem: Unwanted, Unbeaten

By Bill Saporito

Thoroughbred trainer Bob Baffert, whose horses won the Kentucky Derby in 1997 and '98, didn't have a steed good enough to enter this year's Run for the Roses. Neither did Russell Reineman, a Chicago businessman and stable owner who had been trying to unload a Derby hopeless called War Emblem--a 3-year-old with a small chip in each ankle and a big chip on his shoulder. "He's a mean-spirited horse," notes Baffert.

But Baffert saw something in War Emblem that Reineman didn't--a nasty competitor begging to get loose on a big track. So did Prince Ahmed bin Salman, an American-educated, Saudi Arabian stable owner who had charged Baffert with finding him a Derby runner, and the two hoped their hunch would pay off. Did it ever. War Emblem won the Derby in style, going off as a 20-to-1 shot and leading wire to wire. Two weeks later, in the Preakness, the "speed" horses were supposed to drain War Emblem like a cheap battery. He won going away. "Baffert and the Prince were able to see that they could move [War Emblem] up in class," says Tom Hammond, a racing expert for NBC.

War Emblem now heads for the Belmont Stakes this week, trying to become the first horse to win the Triple Crown since Affirmed in 1978. It's a great script, at least to anyone who isn't in the horse-racing game. Back at the barn, though, Baffert is getting a whiff of some sour oats from other trainers. The notion is that he "bought" the Derby for nearly $1 million, using his Middle Eastern ATM to pry War Emblem loose from a struggling Chicago businessman, since Reineman's company, Crown Steel Sales, was losing money. This, in a sport in which multimillion prices are routinely paid for animals in the hopes of winning big races. "There's been a lot of horses bought at the 11th hour that people don't talk about," says Baffert. Usually because they don't win.

War Emblem is the most unlikely Triple Crown hopeful since Seattle Slew in 1977. Reineman couldn't get the $20,000 he asked for the horse as a yearling, so War Emblem went to work at places like Sportsman's Park in Illinois, a course known as a bullring. It's a short track with tight turns and bumper car tactics that tend to limit long-striding horses like War Emblem. The horse did well enough so that over the winter Reineman reportedly tried to dump him for $300,000 but again found no takers. Then War Emblem won the Illinois Derby, and with the Kentucky Derby approaching, notes then trainer Bob Springer, "people get crazy." Baffert and bin Salman got crazy enough to buy 90% of War Emblem for $900,000. Reineman probably felt like a million.

Baffert looks at as many as 4,000 horses each year and buys maybe 50. "The horse was just starting to come around," he says, "and [the owner] thought what everybody else thought, that he was a creature of that [short] track." He was a creature all right. Baffert put War Emblem through a crash course in obedience, changing bits and using a tongue tie to keep him under control so that he wouldn't sprint like mad for the entire race.

Controlled fury will be the key to Belmont, at a mile and a half the longest of the Triple Crown races by an eighth of a mile. Once again the speed horses such as Sunday Break and Perfect Drift will be gunning for War Emblem, hoping to grind him down. Bring it on, says Baffert. "Nothing that goes with him up front will be around at the end."

--By Bill Saporito