In 2015, trainer Bob Baffert sent American Pharoah to run in the Travers Stakes. In what has become the stuff of Saratoga Race Course legend, thousands of people turned out the day before the race to watch the Triple Crown winner gallop during morning workouts. 

The excitement of seeing the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years pervaded Saratoga, but alas, the heavy favorite, like so many others in Saratoga lore, came to the Spa and lost, finishing second behind Keen Ice.

Baffert was back the next year, this time with a longshot. Arrogate was relatively unknown to East Coast racing fans; he’d run his first race in April 2016, and though he’d won three of his first four starts, they all came in California, and none of them were at the stakes level.

The colt by Unbridled’s Song developed sore shins as a 2-year-old, so Baffert shipped him back to owner Juddmonte’s Kentucky farm to grow up and recuperate.

“When we came back, we wanted to take baby steps with him,” said Baffert this week from California. “Juddmonte was so patient, and [Juddmonte general manager] Garrett O’Rourke told me to take my time with him.”

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