Baffert goes for 8th Preakness win without valued assistant

[ASFN Admin]

Each time Bob Baffert won a big race over the past two decades with assistant Jimmy Barnes by his side, the two would share a moment and embrace. Baffert's other Derby horse, Thousand Words, reared up in the paddock and broke Barnes' right wrist, so he was in an ambulance during the race. As soon as Baffert got to the hospital room, Barnes - his arm bandaged up and doctors around him - flashed a big smile and said to him, ''We did it!'' Four weeks later, Baffert is aiming to win a record-breaking eighth Preakness Stakes this Saturday with Authentic or Thousand Words while his right-hand man watches from 3,000 miles away in California.

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