Pegram’s Life Is Charmed as Close Friend of Baffert’s

Less than two weeks after his last visit to New York, where Isitingood finished fifth in the Metropolitan Handicap, Mike Pegram will be back at Belmont Park on Saturday.

There is no place else the horse owner-breeder and man of many McDonald’s restaurants--he owns 22 franchises in northern Washington--could possibly be on the day Silver Charm tries to become the first 3-year-old in 19 years and only the 12th to win the Triple Crown.

With, he says, beer in hand, Pegram, 45, will be hoping to witness history, and nobody will be happier if he does, even though he doesn’t own even a fraction of Silver Charm.

The gray son of Silver Buck belongs to Bob and Beverly Lewis, and Pegram has become more than just a fan of their colt. In homage to Bob Lewis, the chairman of Foothill Beverage Company, an Anheuser-Busch distributor and the second-largest beer distributor in California, Pegram says he has switched beverages to a light beer from a certain St. Louis brewery.

What took Pegram to Churchill Downs and Pimlico last month, and is keeping him on the Triple Crown trail, is his kinship with Bob Baffert, Silver Charm’s trainer.

They met more than 10 years ago, hit it off instantly and their fortunes have risen together.

With Baffert on the verge of becoming the 10th trainer to sweep the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes in the same year, he’s still quick to credit Pegram for his original involvement with thoroughbreds after starting with quarter horses.

“I was fortunate enough that a guy like Mike got me involved,” Baffert said. “My father put me through college and he thought he spent a lot of money on that, but Mike put me through thoroughbred training school and it cost him a lot more than my college education.

“We hit it off because we were close to the same age [Baffert is 44] and we’re both very competitive. He loves racing and he loves the action. He’s been really successful with [his restaurants] and pretty much everything else he’s done, and he knew I always wanted to play at the top level and that’s what he wants to do.

“I owe him so much. He gambled on me [in the switch to thoroughbreds]. We’re like brothers.”

Pegram can only picture what it will be like if Silver Charm wins again, but he knows how good it felt at Churchill Downs and Pimlico. It was especially sweet after Baffert’s heartbreaking loss with Cavonnier in the 1996 Kentucky Derby.

“Bob said last year he knew [briefly] what it felt like to win the Derby, but I was sitting there with him and I knew [Cavonnier] had gotten beat,” said Pegram, who lives in Mount Vernon, Wash.

“When [Silver Charm] won this year, I couldn’t have been any happier than if I had won it myself. I was happier when Bob won the Derby than I was when Thirty Slews won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, and I didn’t make nearly as much money.

“When someone is like family to you, well, I couldn’t imagine being any higher. I got my thrill of a lifetime on the first Saturday of May in 1997.”

Although Pegram’s own chance for a shot at Derby glory was lost this year when Inexcessivelygood suffered a fatal injury in the stretch of the Jim Beam Stakes at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., in late March, there have been a lot of successes in the sport for Pegram, a fan since he was a youngster growing up in Indiana.

Besides Isitingood, who held a world record for a mile on turf for a few weeks earlier this year and has earned more than $1 million, he has had--either alone or in partnership--many other stakes winners.

None was more prominent than Thirty Slews, the first thoroughbred Baffert bought at auction and who was named for his $30,000 sale price. Owned by Pegram, Dr. James Streelman, Denny Boer and Mitch Degroot, he scored an 18-1 upset in the 1992 Breeders’ Cup Sprint. Other important victories have been provided by Letthebighossroll, High Stakes Player, Arches Of Gold, Miss Gibson County, Argolid, Favored One and Broadway’s Top Gun.

For the most part, it has been an enjoyable ride since Pegram met Baffert at a New Mexico quarter horse sale in 1986 through Hal Earnhardt, an Arizona car dealer and horse owner.

“After the sale, it looked like we were going to be stuck for a day in El Paso because of bad weather and the only place planes were flying was to Las Vegas,” Pegram said. “So we flew to Vegas for a day and that’s where I got to know him.

“There was just an instant chemistry there. There’s a lot of similarities in our styles. He enjoys life and doesn’t make things too complicated. He’s laid back, but, [when necessary] he’s money. If he was a basketball player, he’d want to be the guy that takes the last shot.”

Two years after they first got together, the decision to switch to thoroughbreds was made, although Baffert, who did very well with quarter horses, didn’t give them up entirely until late 1991.

Born in Fort Knox, Ky., Pegram became involved as an owner on a small scale with his father in the 1970s, but then got interested in quarter horses.

“I started to miss [thoroughbred racing] and, back then, Bob was starting to raise a family [he has four children, Pegram has two] and I told him he needed a daytime job, like a real person,” Pegram said.

“Plus, it was an economics thing. You could be running at Santa Anita for $35,000 [in purse money] or at Los Alamitos for $8,000. I had a lot of fun with Bob and a lot of respect for his judgment and I thought if he could get [quarter horses] to run 400 yards in 18 seconds, he could get [thoroughbreds] to go six furlongs in 1:09 flat.

“Bob Roth [Pegram’s former partner] and I pretty much gave Bob a three-year commitment where we would provide the resources to help him [get established] and we started out in a small way.”

The first horse they claimed, Hidden Royalty, out of a $32,000 maiden race at Del Mar in 1988, didn’t pan out and they eventually lost her for $12,500.

But there have been plenty of success stories, and all the while it has been fun for Pegram, who likes giving his horses unconventional names. They include Arches Of Gold, a definite McDonald’s connection; Miss Gibson County, named for where he’s from; Letthebighossroll; Letthebiggatorout; Letthebigcajundoit, named for jockey Eddie Delahoussaye, who rode Thirty Slews to his Breeders’ Cup victory; Silverbulletlover, and Fun In Excess. There have been others that the Jockey Club wouldn’t approve.

“I like to have fun,” Pegram said. “You don’t see me in the Turf Club. I’m down in the paddock, drinking beer. We’re not in church out there. A lot of the names I choose are phrases we use in everyday life and I think about how it’s going to sound [when the track announcer calls it] coming down the [stretch].”

Some also hold a special place with Pegram. When asked, he mentions Isitingood, who has won races all over the country; Miss Gibson County; and Letthebighossroll, a local favorite who is still active at age 9.

“Miss Gibson County was, in terms of pedigree, by nothing out of nothing, but she wound up making $600,000 and there was a lot of emotional attachment,” he said. “We bought Letthebighossroll for $80,000 [in 1990] and Bob told me later this horse would earn a million dollars and I told him if he did, I would buy him a Mercedes.”

Letthebighossroll, whose stakes victories include the Harry Henson Stakes and California Cup Sprint in 1991, is currently at $945,698.

“Bob said that in 1991, so if [Letthebighossroll] makes it, it will be a 1991 Mercedes,” Pegram said. “I have a ’91 Mercedes with fewer miles on it than Letthebighossroll.”

Perhaps one day Baffert will even train another Derby winner--for Pegram. The party that night would probably outdo what happened after Thirty Slews kicked off Breeders’ Cup IX at Gulfstream Park with his upset triumph.

“A.P. Indy won [the Classic, the final Breeders’ Cup race], but I don’t remember a whole lot in between from that day,” Pegram said. That was a definite high. The lowest of the lows occurred when Inexcessivelygood, who was a close second to Concerto at the time, broke down under Chris McCarron in the Jim Beam.

“It was a very tough deal, but he took it well,” Baffert said. “Mike looked over at me and said, ‘That’s why you have to enjoy the good times, because these things are going to happen.’

“He was actually more worried about me. That’s the same way Bob Lewis is. They’re cut from the same mold. They believe you have to have fun, and Mike does like to have fun.”

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Belmont Stakes

* WHEN: Saturday

* TIME: 2:30 p.m.

* TV: Channel 7

* PROBABLE STARTERS: Silver Charm, Wild Rush, Touch Gold, Free House, Crypto Star, Irish Silence, Mr. Energizer

* DISTANCE: 1 1/2 miles