TOUGH game. Bob Baffert walked toward the winner’s circle after Mastery won the San Felipe at Santa Anita last Saturday. Another win, another sweet young horse to think big about as the heat turns up this spring. Then the air went out.

“We’ve been so high on this horse, and you see what he did today was just incredible and puts him as the best three-year-old in the nation. I’m walking down and I hear a fan say ‘I hope your horse is all right.’ I said ‘What?’ and he said ‘I hear they’re unsaddling him.’ We went from the highest of the highs to sombre,” Baffert said. “The way he moves - he’s just a beautiful moving horse. He was just doing it easy. It’s very rare to get one like that. You go from seeing the next coming, and then something like that happens.”