Trainer Tim Yakteen, honored horseman with over 250 wins  and more importantly, former assistant to Bob Baffert has now independently entered the Kentucky Derby. While he has been at the Derby before, this is his first stint with two top contenders that were once known to be trained by Baffert.

Bob Baffert has been substituted by Tim
Yakteen in the Kentucky Derby on account of being banned by Churchill Downs
from the Derby for two years owing to his thoroughbred Medina Spirit
getting disqualified on grounds of medical infringement.

Racehorses Taiba
and Messier had to be assigned to another trainer i.e., Tim
Yakteen due to Baffert’s present 90-day suspension from the Kentucky Horse
Racing Commission.

Also read: Kentucky Derby 2022: Fun facts about Churchill Downs race track

So, who is Tim Yakteen?

Tim Yakteen was born Haitham Yakteen in
Bavaria, Germany, on July 29, 1965, to a German mother and a
Lebanese-born father. After obtaining US citizenship, his father joined
the army and was posted to Nuremberg. Yakteen then migrated to Cypress in
the early 1980s after living for 18 years in Germany.

In 1982, after he moved to the US, he
worked on the track in the field of publicity, group sales and marketing.
However, his association with the stables began when he took up mucking stalls
and filling water buckets, after which he started working for Bob Baffert, a
quarter-horse trainer. He continued working with Baffert when he shifted
to thoroughbred training in 1988.

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In 1991, Yakteen moved to California to
work with ‘Hall of Fame’ trainer Charlie Whittingham. He worked for Whittingham
until 1997, then went back to Baffert. During his seven-year stint with
Baffert, he added several feathers to his cap, including ‘Real Quiet’,
‘Silverbulletday’, ‘Point Given’, and many more.

In 2004, Yakteen chose to start out with
his own endeavour after working with two Hall of Famers. And that is how ‘Tim
Yakteen Racing Stables’ was formed.

Also read: Kentucky Derby 2022: Pedigree fun facts

Yakteen’s first big move was when his horse,
the extra-quick ‘Points Offthebench’, a California-bred colt garnered four of five starts in 2013, including two Grade I sprint stakes
– the Bing Crosby at Del Mar and the Santa Anita Sprint Championship at Santa
Anita. Points Offthebench’s prowess, as well as Yakteen’s outstanding work
with him, landed the sprinter an ‘Eclipse as Sprint champion’.

Coming back to the current scenario,
Yakteen and Baffert are prohibited from communicating with each
other, which is a non-negotiable criterion. They must keep their distance
until July 3, which is when Baffert’s 90-day suspension officially ends. Both
of them are aware of the implications, as are the owners of Taiba and
Messier since there is just one opportunity for a horse to race in the Derby,
and they would do well to not do anything and endanger that opportunity.