Jill Moss Baffert pulled up to the barn where her husband, Triple Crown winner Bob Baffert, trains horses in Southern California.
The former journalist and waitress from Centerville, 42, was delighted at the thought of going inside and seeing American Pharoah, the first horse in 37 years to win the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes.
“I can walk inside and scratch him on the nose whenever I want,” Jill told The Daily Herald last week. “I have a wonderful life. I am so happy.”
And why not? American Pharoah stole millions of hearts with his run to the Triple Crown. She’s living a charmed life with Baffert, the most-recognized face in horse racing, and she embraces the place where it all started for her, Hickman County, home of Minnie Pearl of Grand Ole Opry fame.
Jill Baffert is just so proud to be here, as Cousin Minnie would say.
The former Miss Hickman County beauty queen had no idea 25 years ago, when she was graduating from Hickman County High School, that she would be living in the fast lane. There’s no sure thing in horse racing, as her husband knows better than anyone after years of highs and heartache, trying to win the Kentucky Derby and then the Triple Crown.
If she were betting on her life before meeting Baffert in 1998, Jill would have imagined herself working as a news anchor or morning show host in a top-10 market or network, not spending her days at nights in barns and horse tracks across the country.
“I was in love with the news when I was a teenager and would always have the news on to watch ‘World News Tonight with Peter Jennings,’ ” Jill said.
Growing up in Centerville, Jill spent nine years as a waitress in Breece’s Cafe, where she seemingly got to know everyone in town. After graduating from Middle Tennessee State University and accepting a TV job in Hopkinsville, Ky., she continued to work at the restaurant, serving home-cooked food so good, it would rival your grandma’s.
“I was doing everything in Hopkinsville, reporting, anchoring and producing,” she said. “I was a waitress to make extra money, not as much as when I was in high school and college, but whenever I could. I was driven and determined to make it in television, but I kept coming back to Centerville every chance I got.”
The hard work in the restaurant was a foundation for Jill. It taught her finesse in dealing with people and the importance of getting things right.
“I made my own money, bought my own clothes and met hundreds of wonderful people,” she said. “It was great experience.”
After sending tapes of her work “just about everywhere,” Jill was hired by WLKY-TV, the CBS affiliate in Louisville, home of the Kentucky Derby. She knew only a little about horses at the time. As the middle daughter of Butch and Carolyn Moss, Jill never had a horse or pony growing up. Her little sister, Ginger, did — a horse named Skipper and a pony named Lightning.
“Horses were never even on my radar,” she said. “My sister could tell you everything you wanted to know. Not me.”
Working in Louisville changed all of that. She hosted a morning show from Churchill Downs for two weeks leading up to The Run for the Roses in 1998, where she met the supremely confident and charismatic Baffert, who was married to his first wife at the time.
“You know when Bob is in the room,” Jill said.
Baffert won his second of four Kentucky Derbys in 1998 with Real Quiet, who was nipped at the wire in his bid for a Triple Crown. Baffert previously won the Derby with Silver Charm in 1997, then with War Emblem in 2002 and American Pharoah in 2015.
The Bafferts married in 2002, and Jill’s life never has been the same. She has dedicated herself to Baffert, their son, Bode, who was born in 2004, and the horse business.
“I was really driven and ambitious. I was dedicated to my job,” Jill said. “Looking back now, my life took such an incredible detour from broadcasting.
“I love these horses and the people in the horse business. Bob’s friends and my friends mostly are in the horse business. Our life resolves around horses.”
The Triple Crown came after two decades of hard work for the 62-year-old Baffert, an Arizona native who won six Triple Crown races with horses between 1997 and 2000. He was so successful, he rarely took time to stop and smell the roses at The Run for the Roses.
“I probably appreciate it more,” Baffert told the Los Angeles Times during this year’s Triple Crown run. “When I first came in here I was younger and I thought this was fun, this was easy or whatever.”
But even Baffert went through a dry spell. After War Emblem in 2002, Baffert took 12 horses to the Kentucky Derby. He was in the money with only two of them. Pioneer of the Nile was second in 2009 to Mine That Bird. Bodemeister finished second in 2012 to I’ll Have Another.
Baffert, who was elected to horse racing’s Hall of Fame in 2009, suffered a heart attack in March 2012 while in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Jill was with him, and when he was feeling sluggish, she Googled some of his symptoms. She called for an ambulance. At the hospital, they found out he had two clogged arteries, including one with 100 percent blockage.
The doctor told them Baffert was lucky he did not die, and he changed his diet and stress load. Instead of training more than 150 horses now, he works with 100. And he concentrates on possible Triple Crown race winners.
“After my little heart attack scare, I started realizing, you know what, you’re not invincible, and you better enjoy what you have,” Baffert told reporters at the Belmont Stakes.
The Dubai scare put horse racing and life into perspective for Baffert.
“He steps back a little bit now. He doesn’t always travel with his horses or he may not go to the track on a Sunday afternoon to watch the races,” Jill said.
Jill tackled a lifelong health problem of her own after winning the Triple Crown. She underwent a hip replacement earlier this month after suffering from Legg-Calve-Perthes since childhood. The disease occurs when blood supply is temporarily interrupted to the ball part of the hip joint. Without sufficient blood flow, the bone begins to die, so it breaks easily and heals poorly.
“I was on crutches for four years as a child, from ages 9 until 13,” she said.
The recovery time from surgery ranges from four to six weeks, and she’s already down to one crutch.
“Today I feel good, with less pain, and I have a lot of energy,” she said.
The Triple Crown victory has injected the Bafferts with a surge of optimism, too. American Pharoah became America’s horse along the way, and they’re enjoying his wave of popularity.
“People asked Bob before the Belmont, ‘How would it feel to win the Triple Crown?’ He didn’t know it would feel this good,” Jill said. “We did not know it would encompass so much. This horse has given people a reason to hope in a world with some many tragedies and negative stories bombarding them.”
Looking back, Jill said she would not trade any of her experiences — her childhood in Centervillle, her job in Breece’s Cafe, her decision to marry Baffert or the ups and downs in horse racing. She and Baffert return to Centerville whenever they have a chance. Her mother, the former librarian at Hickman County High School, still lives in Centerville. Her father, a retired contractor, moved to Columbia.
“Growing up in the South, in Centerville, is one memory I love and cherish,” she said. “Southern people are so good and genuine, so kind and welcoming. I am proud of my hometown and where I grew up.
“They say, ‘You can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl.’ That applies in my life,” she added. “The more I think about it, the more I appreciate it. I really have a wonderful life.”
James Bennett is editor of The Daily Herald. Contact him at jbennett@c-dh.net. Follow him on Twitter @JamesBennettCDH.
