Bob Baffert and Kaleem Shah are parting ways and Shah will be dispersing his horses to other trainers. No specific reason was given publicly, but the pair had a lot of success together led by Dortmund and several other talented runners.
On the surface and publicly it sounded as amicable as it could, but it is always curious when a parting like this comes amidst success. The last one I recall is Team Valor and Graham Motion splitting up shortly after Animal Kingdom won The Kentucky Derby and Dubai World Cup. Team Valor stated they wanted one trainer. Motion did not want to give up all his other horses. The move didn’t make sense to me and neither does this one. It wasn’t long until Team Valor had horses with several trainers again, and Graham was and is still one of them.
We’ll see if Kaleem Shah and Bob Baffert reunite in the future. Art Sherman and Doug O’Neill are said to be getting the bulk of Shah’s horses.
