Leave it to Bob Baffert. He might be the only horseman in the history of the sport who can point to a thoroughbred all-star like Point Given and say the 2001 Horse of the Year is only the third-best horse he’s ever trained.

I mean, c’mon. That’s like a basketball coach looking down his bench and telling Russell Westbrook to report for a few minutes of garbage time. Or a baseball manager asking Willie Mays to grab his glove and go out and play the final inning of a 12-1 blowout.

Do you remember what Point Given accomplished during his career? Need a refresher?

He’s the only horse in history to win four consecutive $1 million races — the Preakness, Belmont, Haskell and Travers. He’s one of only five horses to win the Preakness, Belmont and Travers, along with racing royalty Man o’ War, Whirlaway, Native Dancer and Damascus.

Point Given finished his career with nine wins out of 13 starts. The only time he ran out of the money was when he finished an inexplicable fifth in the Kentucky Derby.

Great horse, but he may be only the third best on a long list of great thoroughbreds Baffert has trained since trading in the quarter horses at Los Alamitos for his latest full-time thoroughbred gig in 1991.

Since then, Baffert has won four Kentucky Derbies, six Preakness Stakes, two Belmonts, two Kentucky Oaks and 14 Breeders’ Cup races, including the past three Breeders’ Cup Classics with Bayern, American Pharoah and Arrogate.

You might have been able to add Point Given to that list of Breeders’ Cup Classic winners if he hadn’t been retired following the Travers because of a strained tendon, although a matchup between him and that year’s winner, Tiznow, would have been a race worth seeing.

Right now, I’d list Baffert’s greatest in this order — American Pharoah, Arrogate and Point Given. American Pharoah gets the nod because he did something the other two didn’t — win the Triple Crown — and then added the Breeders’ Cup Classic to his scintillating resume. The Triple Crown grind can’t be ignored. Winning three races in a five-week span is a remarkable feat.

But Arrogate is gaining fast, and the Unbridled’s Song colt can match Point Given’s record of four consecutive victories in million-dollar races if his connections opt for the $10 million Dubai World Cup on March 25. And why not? Who’s going to seriously challenge him?

If Arrogate stays sound, and that’s a big “if” in this sport, then he could set all sorts of earnings records. He’s already banked $7 million this year from his runaway victory in the $12 million Pegasus World Cup. Win the race in Dubai and there’s another $6 million and he zooms past California Chrome as the greatest money-winner in North American history.

Then you’ve got the $1 million Pacific Classic on Aug. 19 and the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 4, both at Del Mar. That’s another $4.2 million in potential earnings, which would push his career bankroll to more than $21 million. If he won next year’s Pegasus before heading off to stud, he’d finish his career with more than $28 million in earnings — almost double what California Chrome accumulated.

That’s mind-boggling, to say the least, but it’s a byproduct of today’s growing purses for major stakes races. Imagine what horses like Spectacular Bid and John Henry could have earned today. Heck, 20 years from now, $28 million in earnings might seem like a pittance. We could have the $20 million World Invitational at who-knows-what race track.

What we do know is Baffert, somehow, has gotten his hands on a horse the likes of Arrogate only a year after bidding farewell to American Pharoah. Just like Arrogate’s potential earnings total, it’s quite mind-boggling.

Jimmy Barnes, Baffert’s top assistant, is as awed as any of us by what Arrogate has accomplished in only seven lifetime starts.

“Life had to go on without American Pharoah, and he steps up,” Barnes said. “It’s tough coming off of an American Pharoah-type year because these kinds of horses come around once in a lifetime. To get two, back-to-back, it’s incredible. It’s amazing.”

It’s Bob Baffert, who is on his way, if he’s not already there, to becoming the greatest trainer ever.

Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.