Baffert willingly steps out of Triple Crown spotlight

3:39 PM ET

BALTIMORE — As the colt Collected made his way back to the stakes barn at Pimlico on Wednesday morning, his trainer, Bob Baffert, came walking up, trailed by a media throng of exactly one, a journalist who is working on a book on Baffert.

A year after bringing in the popular American Pharoah off a Derby win and also sending out Dortmund, Baffert comes into the 141st Preakness as a mere character actor in a story headlined by the unbeaten Kentucky Derby winner, Nyquist.

“Different feel?” Baffert said, responding to a question. He looked around. His media throng had doubled.

He’s not bothered by it. More like bemused. Cool, calm, and Collected. Baffert knows he’s not playing with the strongest hand this year.

“Last year, I just stepped back and watched — let’s see what you got now, boy,” he said of American Pharoah.

“Nyquist is a really good horse. Eight wins in a row. It’s like with California Chrome. After he won the Derby, people went, ‘Oh, he is for real.’ He has a winning attitude. He reminds me of Smarty Jones. Explosive. He ran a pretty fast Derby. He kept running. He was pretty impressive.”

Nyquist and Collected were among 11 horses entered on Wednesday for the Preakness, the second leg of the Triple Crown. Of the 11, only Nyquist, Derby runner-up Exaggerator, and ninth-place finisher Lani ran in the first leg of the Triple Crown. The other eight entrants — Abiding Star, Awesome Speed, Cherry Wine, Collected, Fellowship, Laoban, Stradivari, and Uncle Lino — skipped the Derby to run here. Posts were drawn too late to make this edition.

Lexington Stakes winner …

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