American Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert is in a Dubai hospital after suffering a heart attack while preparing Game On Dude for Saturday’s $US10 million ($A9.6 million) Dubai World Cup.
Baffert’s assistant, Jim Barnes, said Baffert had had three stents inserted in two arteries.
Speaking from California, Barnes said he had been in contact with the trainer’s wife Jill who accompanied her husband to the Middle East.
Barnes said Jill Baffert told him the procedure went well and “everything should be fine”.
Bernie Schiappa, co-owner of Game On Dude, said the 59-year-old trainer wasn’t feeling well on the long flight to Dubai and was tired after visiting the stable and arriving at the hotel.
He said Baffert then fell ill early Monday morning and was taken to a hospital.
“He had a heart attack, two arteries were blocked, 100 per cent in one, 90 per cent in the other,” Schiappa said by phone from Dubai.
“He had two stents put in one artery, one stent in the other.”
Schiappa said paramedics arrived and an ambulance took Baffert to a hospital.
Sheikh Mohammed was alerted and he arrived at the hospital to visit Baffert, who has trained horses for the ruler of Dubai.
Schiappa said it would be about eight to 10 days before the trainer would be allowed to travel home.
“He’s comfortable now,” Barnes said. “They caught it just in time.”
Game On Dude, runner-up in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic, is a top contender for the Dubai World Cup. The horse is co-owned by retired Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees manager Joe Torre.
Baffert is a three-time winner of the Kentucky Derby and has also won the Preakness Stakes five times and the Belmont Stakes once.
He has saddled seven Breeders’ Cup winners.
The white-haired Baffert, one of the most recognisable figures in United States horse racing, is a three-time Eclipse Award winner as outstanding trainer.
