BAFFERT WOULDN’T TRADE BREEDERS’ CUP PLACES

Favorite Trick is perfect in seven starts going into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Hollywood Park on Nov. 8.

The son of Phone Trick has progressed in distance in each successive race, beginning at 4 1/2 furlongs and advancing to 1 1/16 miles. He has won over three different tracks -- Keeneland, Churchill Downs and Saratoga. He has been favored in six of seven starts, the last four odds-on. His margins of victory always have been by more than a length, except for his second race, which he won by a neck.

He always has been further in front at the finish than he’s been at the stretch call, a very worthwhile trait in any horse.

Pretty impressive credentials, but not necessarily to Bob Baffert, who trains Favorite Trick’s main California threat, Souvenir Copy.

“He’s a good horse,” Baffert said of Favorite Trick. “He’s won seven in a row. (But) anytime those horses come back here, speed plays a big factor. Speed holds here.

“Every year they write that our horses aren’t that tough, then we go to Kentucky and kick the dog(bleep) out of them. I’m looking good. I’m sitting here with Souvenir Copy, who came out of the Norfolk great.”

Baffert also has another promising 2-year-old by the name of Johnbill, whose distance potential is unlimited.

“He’s unproven in stakes company, but I just like the way he runs. It’s a good spot for him, and he’s been training great. He just worked a mile in 1:36 3/5. How many 2-year-olds do that? Not too many. And he did it with ease.

“I think Souvenir Copy is the only other 2-year-old who could do it. Right now, I wouldn’t trade with any of them, not even for Johnbill. I think I’ve got the two best 2-year-olds in the country in my barn. Down the road, I think Johnbill will prove that.

“Favorite Trick’s been beating up on horses that are sprinters. But, then again, I wish the race were at Santa Anita. At Hollywood Park, sometimes the speed keeps going. I think the post position is going to play a big factor. I’d like to be inside, somewhere in the first six holes.”

One trend Favorite Trick’s connections might be wary of: the Juvenile has been run at California tracks four times, and has been won by a horse each time who made his last start at Santa Anita, including 1993 winner Brocco.

Baffert had no malice towards Gary Stevens for choosing to ride the D. Wayne Lukas-trained Grand Slam in the Juvenile over his Souvenir Copy, who will now be ridden by Chris McCarron.

“These guys are friends of mine,” said Baffert, “so I let them make the call. I never try to force a jockey to ride my horse. If they don’t want to ride -- if they think another horse is better -- I let them ride it. I don’t want to listen to them complain if it loses. There’s nothing worse than making a jockey ride your horse, and the horse he was going to ride wins.

“I want a jockey to feel comfortable on the horse he’s riding. Otherwise, I think it plays on their mind that maybe they should have ridden the other horse. That way, they make the choice and I’m off the hook. Whoever rides my horse is under no pressure. I told Gary not to worry about it, that I was cool with it.

“I don’t know how good Grand Slam is. He was very impressive in his last two outs. I really believe it’s between Grand Slam and Souvenir Copy. I just don’t know how tough Favorite Trick is.

“I could have convinced Gary to ride Souvenir Copy, but I told him to make the call. Chris knows the horse, and it boils down to this: If I don’t have the horse ready, it doesn’t matter who’s on him.”

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THE HOMESTRETCH: By the time this is read, Gentlemen should officially be out of the Breeders’ Cup Classic. “He still has a slight temperature this morning,” trainer Richard Mandella said early Saturday. “If it had been untreated with medication, it would probably be higher, so I’d say right now there’s very little chance to imagine trying to run him. I’m not ready to say absolutely not right at this moment, but it’s coming to that.” On the good news front, Gentlemen should continue to race once this ailment is behind him. “We’re sure there’s nothing greatly wrong with him,” Mandella said. “He’s fighting off some bug. If I run him or worked him hard, he’d probably get damn sick, so that’s the problem. But we plan to race him next year.” . . . David Hofmans says Touch Gold is coming up to the Classic in top shape, despite past problems with his left front foot. “He worked a little faster than I wanted,” the trainer said of the Belmont winner’s mile work in 1:39 at Hollywood Park. “I wanted him to go in about 1:40. I thought he worked well, though. It was very even all the way around. He finished up well on his own. The Classic is a tough race. Would I trade places with anybody else? Hell no. I wouldn’t trade with any of them.” . . . McCarron, who rides Touch Gold, on Skip Away’s $480,000 supplement to the Classic: “He certainly enhances the field a great deal. It’s going to make it tough on the rest of us.” . . . In addition to Formal Gold in the Classic, agent Brian Beach says Kent Desormeaux’s other firm Breeders’ Cup mount is Black Cash in the Juvenile. Black Cash won the Grey Breeders’ Cup Stakes at Woodbine by 3 3/4 lengths and was an 8-length maiden winner on Sept. 14 . . . On Baffert’s phenomenal success with 2-year-olds: “What do I look for? I can’t tell you that. It’s my own secret. I see a horse and all of a sudden, I just like it. I know immediately.” . . . Apprentice rider Jose Carlos (J.C.) Gonzalez, who had vaulted into the first division among Oak Tree’s jockeys under the guidance of agent Vic Lipton, suffered fractures of his pelvis and femur when Don Pasqual broke his left knee near the quarter pole on Friday. Gonzalez, who had ridden 10 winners, will be sidelined indefinitely . . . As many others had before him, young jockey Marlon St. Julien found the Southern California competition too stiff and has moved his tack to New Orleans. “It’s very tough,” said Jim Pegram, who booked mounts for St. Julien, who won only one race (at Fairplex Park) since Sept. 11. “Look at last Thursday. There were 68 horses entered and 33 different riders. There are some great riders here and you have to get lucky. He wanted to wait longer, but when you have earning power somewhere else, you have to go. He can make $10,000 a week in New Orleans, or sit here and starve to death. He’ll go to Kentucky from New Orleans, and he wants to come back to California some day. He really liked it and wanted to stay, but it made no sense.”