Customer Reviews

Baffert Dirt Road to the Derby

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Just finished Baffert: Dirt Road to the Derby. If you like Bob Baffert you will enjoy this book. If you are in love with thoroughbred racing you will enjoy this book. Steve Haskin writes awesome articles for The Blood-Horse. I think he is the best turf writer alive today. I would never have guessed that he had anything to do with this book. There isn't any Steve Haskin in this book and that may be good because that means this book is Bob Baffert. Also it isn't written like most biographies I have read. It rambles back and forth in Bob's life with interesting recollections that may not be interesting to a person not into thoroughbred horse racing.

This book was enjoyable to read. I liked learning about the ordinarily extraordinary life and times of Bob Baffert. It's a book full of experiences and some tips to learn from.

The exploits of Bob Baffert will leave any genuine racing fan laughing. I'm an Australian horse racing fan and I loved this book! Didn't stop giggling the entire way through and couldn't help but read aloud passage after passage to my partner (much to his chagrin). This condensed version of Bob Baffert's life up to (and past) the Derby isn't earth-shattering, content-wise, but it is very entertaining.

Baffert as the self described "ordinary person" with a talent for self effacement becomes a repeating theme in this book. "Whatever Bob accomplished in the end he was just a horse trainer". To see what Baffert accomplished there is a list of Baffert stakes winners in the back of the book going back to 1984 that blow you away. I'm hard to impress but was by this endless list of winners. This astounding success over many years (and one could argue an unmatched record) implies someone particularly good in his field. Or, is he? Dissapointingly, there is very little in "Dirt Road" beyond a smidgeon as to how Baffert actually trains, feeds, shoes, vets, exercises and conducts his horses. There is so little of this in the book you wonder if the fellow ever actually goes to the barn.

Instead this story seems more the boon on hobbknobbing with the wealthy and selling horseracing to susceptible marks, useful talents to be sure, but what does this have to do with training horses? I was unable to escape certain sections of the book in forming opinions on Baffert--his father always under the influence of alcohol, a trait seemingly passed on to the children; social skills evolved as a boy selling door to door his father's eggs, but, never blinking an eye that the money came from chickens imprisoned in tiny cages in the Baffert backyard. Though Baffert professes attachment to a horse or two here or there, treating animals as livestock backgrounds this whole saga. Animals as a means to an end, ignorning basic animal needs while using those animals for their own self-promotion and profit is difficult to ignore in the story of Bob Baffert. We may take our hats off to Baffert's success but his book fails to answer the question whether the success is horse training or salesmanship.

Thank goodness the author didn't fill this book with a bunch of useless data...there's plenty of that in most other books on thoroughbred horse racing. My favorite parts were when Mr. Baffert opens up and tells the stories of his misadventures growing up and the adventures of today. Another reviewer complained that the author used the "I" too much, but considering that "BAFFERT" is in the largest type on the dust jacket, I would expect the book to be about him. Please write another book, and fill it with some more humerous stories. I really enjoyed the few you shared with us in this one.

Bob Baffert is one of the greatest trainers out there today! He takes care of his horses & is SO funny! He's my favorite trainer & if it hadn't been for him & Silver Charm I might not have ever gotten to to racing like I am now! I would love to be a Jockey & ride for Mr. Baffert one day or even be one of his rival trainers! Who knows! ^_~

The BAFFERT book is an easy read and actually gives you a bit of a feel for the man, the horse racing industry (mostly thoroughbred), and its players thru 1999.

It sometimes seems the book is meant to be cathartic, as Bob fairly candidly relates a number of mistakes (as well as good decisions) he has made with horses and clients over the years; still the book helps you to appreciate the little boy personae so evident in the successful man who's central to nearly every major horse racing event today.

Although the book was published in 1999, a number of the people and horse bloodlines are still relevant as I write this review in April 2006.

This is an entertaining, informative and personal glimpse of a fine trainer and the world of horse racing. It is very current. Some of the horses mentioned are still racing and most of the people mentioned are still very active in the racing world. This makes the people involved in racing very real and human. The writing style is conversational and fast paced. I could not put the book down until I had finished it.

When you see people who are successful, you often wonder how they got to be that way. It's easy to assume most successful people got a lot of breaks because of family or "who they knew." This guy Bob Baffert became America's best horse trainer the same way Jerry Garcia became my favorite rock 'n roller, doing what he loves, having fun, and figuring out what it takes to make it. And when he "made it," Baffert didn't seem to change. Like he writes in the book, he's still a 45-year-old kid jusy doing what he enjoys. Ths book has some hilarious stories about his childhood and early days as a jockey that have never been told. If you like horse racing, I think you'll love "Baffert."

Bob should stay to training horses, this book is poorly organized and written on a grade school level. I have never been so annoyed with the writing in a book, he uses "I" constantly. The content is shallow and gives the reader no further insight into the high end racing world.