Baffert, Maple, Tiznow among six elected to Hall of Fame

Baffert, Maple, Tiznow among six elected to Hall of Fame

Bob Baffert celebrates his first Derby win in 1997 (Churchill Downs) Trainers Bob Baffert and Janet Elliot, jockey Eddie Maple and the horses *Ben Nevis II, Silverbulletday and Tiznow have been elected to the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame. The Class of 2009 will be inducted on August 14 in Saratoga Springs, New York, in a ceremony at 10:30 a.m. (EDT) at the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion. Baffert, Maple, Silverbulletday and Tiznow were elected in the contemporary categories by the 181 members of the Hall of Fame's voting panel. Elliot, the second woman elected and the Hall of Fame's first female trainer, and Ben Nevis II, winner of the English Grand National in 1980, were selected for induction by the Steeplechase Committee. In 2000, jockey Julie Krone was the first woman elected to the Hall of Fame. Baffert, 56, and the late Robert Wheeler were the finalists in the contemporary trainers category. Maple, 60, finished ahead of Randy Romero and Alex Solis in the contemporary jockeys voting. It was Maple's seventh time on the ballot. Tiznow, the only two-time winner of the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1), received more votes than Best Pal and Point Given in the contemporary male division. Silverbulletday finished ahead of Open Mind and Sky Beauty in the contemporary female category.

A native of Cobh in County Cork, Ireland, Elliot moved to the United States

in 1968 to work for Mrs. Elizabeth Bird. After also working for Hall of Fame

trainer Jonathan Sheppard for nearly a decade, she opened her own public stable

in 1979. She won the inaugural running of the Breeders' Cup Steeplechase in 1986

with Census, and trained three champions -- Corregio in 1996 and Flat Top in

1998 and 2002.

In 1991, Elliot led the steeplechase standings in wins and earnings, ending

Sheppard's 18-year reign as the leading trainer. She is the first woman to win a

national training title. She ranks third in career earnings by a steeplechase

trainer.

Elliot, 60, was stunned by the news of her election.

"I've been elected to the Hall of Fame? Not just nominated?" she said. "Oh,

my God. How exciting. It's an honor I never expected. I don't know what to say."

After a couple of seconds of reflection, Elliot found more words to describe

her feelings.

"That's extremely exciting," she said.  "I feel incredibly honored. Wow."

Baffert has trained the winners of eight Triple Crown races, seven Breeders'

Cup races and has handled 10 champions, including Mike Pegram's Silverbulletday.

He was elected in the first year that his name appeared on the ballot. He had

been eligible in 2007 and 2008, but had not received enough votes in the

nominating committee process to become a finalist and appear on the ballot.

After rising to prominence as a Quarter Horse trainer, Baffert began a

transition to Thoroughbred racing at the end of the 1970s. He saddled his first

Thoroughbred winner, Flipper Star, at Rillito Park in Tucson, Arizona on January

28, 1979. Flipper Star's victory came in a four-furlong race for three-year-olds

that carried a purse of $600. The winner's share was $330.

In the early 1990s, Baffert completed the move to Thoroughbred racing and

developed a distinguished record. He was the leading money-winner trainer three

consecutive years (1998-2000) and through 2008 ranks fifth all-time among

trainers in earnings at $134,822,227. He has won the Kentucky Derby (G1) three

times, the Preakness (G1) four times and the Belmont S. (G1) once.

Baffert wasn't sure how to react when told that he has been elected.

"That is awesome. That is really awesome," he said. "I don't know what to

say. I never expected this when I got in the business. I'm sort of at a loss for

words."

Baffert was quickly back in stride.

"It's an honor," he said. "It's a very humbling feeling right now. I've

always thought about it but I really wasn't mentally prepared for it when I

heard about being on the ballot this year.

"I feel honored. It's a great honor to be in the Hall of Fame. I guess I've

got to call my mother up and tell her. She's going to be happy. She says she's

coming."

Baffert and Silverbulletday are the first trainer-horse combination to be

inducted in the same year since Neil Drysdale and A.P. Indy entered the Hall of

Fame together in 2000.

"I'm excited about Silverbulletday," Baffert said. "She was a great mare and

it will be great having Mike Pegram there. Mike Pegram and Hal Earnhardt are the

ones who motivated me to get in the Thoroughbred business. Mike Pegram put me on

scholarship to get into the business and it looks like it paid off well. It's

certainly fitting that I get in with one of Mike's horses."

Interestingly, when Drysdale was elected in 2000, he also won that year's

Kentucky Derby with Fusaichi Pegasus. Baffert has a leading contender this

season in the shape of Pioneerof the Nile (Empire Maker).

Others who achieved the Hall of Fame/Kentucky Derby double in the same year

are Gary Stevens, who entered the Hall of Fame and guided Silver Charm in 1997,

and D. Wayne Lukas, who was voted into the Hall and trained Derby winner

Charismatic in 1999.

Maple, 60, retired in 1998 with a resume of 4,398 wins in a 34-year career.

He won the Belmont S. on Temperence Hill and Creme Fraiche, three runnings of

the Metropolitan H. (G1), two Travers (G1) and two runnings of the Suburban H.

(G1). Maple rode Arbees Boy, Foolish Pleasure and Quiet Little Table to

victories over Forego, and he rode Secretariat to victory in the Canadian

International, the colt's final start. He rode regularly for Hall of Fame

trainer Woody Stephens, who put him on such top horses as Horse of the Year

Conquistador Cielo, Devil's Bag, Swale and Forty Niner.

"I'm tickled to death," Maple said when told he had been elected. "It's an

honor. There's nothing but great riders, great horses, great trainers in the

Hall of Fame. It's just a great honor. I enjoyed riding all those years and to

have something like this come back is really, really thrilling."

After he retired, Maple and his wife ran a retail home and garden store on

Long Island, New York. Since 2005 he has been the general manager at the Rose

Hill Plantation Equestrian Boarding and Teaching Center in Bluffton, South

Carolina.

Silverbulletday, a daughter of Silver Deputy, was foaled in 1996. She won 15

of 23 career starts, earned $3,093,207 and was the champion two-year-old filly

of 1998 and the champion three-year-old filly of 1999.

"She's the best racehorse I've ever owned and I've been fortunate to have a

few of them," Pegram said. "She was in a class by herself."

From an 11-length victory in her debut, she graduated to stakes company and

won another five two-year-old races, including the Breeders' Cup Juvenile

Fillies (G1) over Excellent Meeting. She extended her winning streak to eight

races with five more victories as a three-year-old. Her first defeat that season

was against males in the Belmont S.

Pegram said he could not select a favorite Silverbulletday victory.

"There were so many," he said. "The Kentucky Oaks (G1). The Alabama (G1). The

Alcibiades (G2). The Ashland (G1). She was a machine there for a while. She made

it all look easy. You had to pinch yourself every so often."

Pegram still owns Silverbulletday. She is in foal to Elusive Quality.

Tiznow was bred in California by the late Cecilia Straub-Rubens, who raced

the son of Cee's Tizzy with co-owner Michael Cooper. During two seasons of

competition at ages three and four with trainer Jay Robbins, Tiznow won eight of

15 starts and amassed purse earnings of $6,427,830. He was the three-year-old

male champion and Horse of the Year in 2000 and the older male champion in 2001.

"Incredible. Great. Great. Great," said Pamela Ziebarth, daughter of

Straub-Rubens, when she was told of Tiznow's election.

Tiznow, now one of the top sires in the United States, stands at stud at

WinStar Farm near Versailles, Kentucky.

"He's an impressive stallion and he was so impressive on the track," Ziebarth

said. "I just couldn't be more happy with what we have. He's just made our

racing life so incredible."

During the summer of 2000, Tiznow emerged as a top-level stakes runner with

second-place finishes in the Swaps S. (G1) and the Pacific Classic (G1). He won

the Super Derby (G1) and the Goodwood H. (G2) before beating the European star

Giant's Causeway by a neck in the Breeders' Cup Classic at Churchill Downs.

Cecilia Straub-Rubens died a few days after the first Breeders' Cup victory.

At four, Tiznow won the Santa Anita H. (G1) and the San Fernando S. (G2). He

completed his career with a thrilling victory by a nose in the Classic over

another European standout, Sakhee, winner of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe

(Fr-G1).

"My dad got involved in racing in the early '60s and never really had the

opportunity to see what came of it," Ziebarth said. "My mom did have the

opportunity with Tiznow and he made it for her. I couldn't be more happy about

that."

Ben Nevis II, a 1969 foal, was bred in Great Britain and was racing there

when he was purchased and brought to the United States by the late Redmond

Stewart, Jr. of Maryland. Stewart turned the unruly gelding over to his daughter

Ann and her husband Charles Fenwick Jr. With Fenwick training and riding, Ben

Nevis II found success and won the 1977 and 1978 runnings of the Maryland Hunt

Club, a demanding event over four miles and 22 fences.

In 1979, Ben Nevis II was sent to England to compete in the Grand National,

the world's most prestigious steeplechase event. He fell during the race. Ben

Nevis II was aimed toward the 1980 Grand National at Aintree, where he became

just the third American-based horse to finish first. He joins the first two

American winners, Battleship and Jay Trump, in the Hall of Fame.

"Wonderful. That's great news," Ann Stewart said. "That's so exciting."

Stewart said the horse was a handful.

"His record tells you how successful he was, but it was really weird. My dad

got him because he had friends. When we got him, you couldn't even put tack on

him. He appeared to be crazy. I don't know if I should say that, but it's the

truth. Because Dad wouldn't give up on him, my husband got him in a race and he

just took off and won easily every race he was in. Nobody could come close. He

was a very big, very talented horse."

Edward L. Bowen is the chairman of the Museum's Hall of Fame committees. The

16-member Nominating Committee considered more than 80 candidates for the

contemporary categories before selecting 11 finalists. To qualify for the

ballot, candidates were required to receive at least a majority of votes from

the committee. The winners received the most votes from the 181 voters in the

United States and Canada. A total of 175 votes, 96.6 percent, were returned.

Members of the nominating committee are: Bowen, president of the

Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, freelance writer and a trustee of the

Museum; Cot Campbell, president of Dogwood Stable and a Museum trustee; Steve

Crist, publisher and columnist, Daily Racing Form; Jane Goldstein, turf

writer and the retired Santa Anita Park publicist; Russ Harris, handicapper and

turf writer, New York Daily News; Jay Hovdey, executive columnist,

Daily Racing Form; Dan Liebman, editor-in-chief, The Blood-Horse;

Neil Milbert, formerly a turf writer at the Chicago Tribune now a

freelance writer; Leverett Miller, owner-breeder and Museum trustee; William

Nack, freelance turf writer and author; Jay Privman, national correspondent,

Daily Racing Form, and television analyst of racing; Jennie Rees, turf

writer and columnist, The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky; 

John Sparkman, bloodstock/sales editor, Thoroughbred Times; Clark

Spencer, turf writer, Miami Herald; Michael Veitch, turf  writer and

columnist, The Saratogian and Daily Racing Form; John T. von Stade,

Chairman of the Board of Trustees, National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

Members of the Steeplechase Committee are: George Bernet, retired turf writer

and editor at Daily Racing Form; Bowen; Austin Brown, a retired racetrack

executive and a director of the National Steeplechase Association; Charlsie

Cantey, a retired trainer and television commentator; Joe Clancy, co-editor and

co-publisher of the Steeplechase Times; Don Clippinger, editorial

director of The Thoroughbred Times; Charles Colgan, former executive vice

president of the National Steeplechase Association; Leonard Hale, longtime

racing executive now the executive director of the Charles Town HBPA; William

Pape, longtime owner-breeder and former president of the National Steeplechase

Association; Stanley Petter, bloodstock agent and a Museum trustee; von Stade;

Peter Winants, author, photographer, and steeplechase historian.

The induction ceremony is free and open to the public. It was moved to

Friday, August 14, to coincide with the Museum Ball and the National Museum of

Racing and Hall of Fame S. (G2) at Saratoga Race Course.