Bob Baffert Officially Having The Two Favorites At The Preakness Is Why He's The Perfect Villain In Horse Racing
There are two things that are true here. Bob Baffert sucks for the cheating and what he's done to horses with positive drug tests. Bob Baffert is the villain that horse racing desperately needs. The Preakness is always a weird event and it's even weirder this year. Just 10 horses running, the Kentucky Derby winner likely facing a DQ at some point and just two other horses from the Derby race. It's sort of gross.
EXCEPT for the fact that Bob Baffert has the two favorites. People are going to tune in for chaos. You either want Medina Spirit to blow up the sport and win the triple crown or you're going to go crazy for someone like Midnight Bourbon or Rombauer or Unbridled Honor. Basically anyone who can stop Baffert from winning. That's what we need in horse racing - ideally with the sport cleaned up. It's not exactly a hot take to say get the damn drugs out of the sport and just let the horses race.
Yeah, there are people who hold onto horses for different reasons. Knicks Go, Go For Gin, Storm The Court, those three all have special places in my heart. But it's not like there's a horse I hate. It's not a typical sport where you are cheering against a horse because they went to a different farm. That all changes now with Baffert and the entire world talking about this sport in that light. If we didn't have this Baffert news and this field, the Preakness would hardly be talked about. People would watch, don't get me wrong, but think about the hype from previous years and wondering if we'll have a chance to see a triple crown winner. Hell, we're seeing backlash already in the sport:
I have no idea what will make them think what's a level playing field or not but we have that out there. It took a meeting, extra tests and we still could see Medina Spirit scratched from the race, but as of now he's in:
If Medina Spirit runs, it's a bit tough to imagine one of Baffert's horses losing. I know a lot can happen during a race, etc, but Medina Spirit and Concert Tour have the speed. Either way people are going to tune in to cheer for/against Baffert. There's no other way to put it. He's been the face of the sport and now he's the perfect villain for the sport. Let's be honest, it also doesn't hurt he looks like Ashley Schaeffer
