TUCSON, Ariz. — The most important skills Bob Baffert learned in college were discipline and responsibility. It's how he followed late nights at dive bars alongside his Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity brothers with early mornings at Rillito Racetrack, earning some spending money by galloping horses for $5 a mount.

It's also how he reluctantly made it to class in the University of Arizona's Race Track Industry Program. Baffert said that all prepared him for his four-plus decades career as a horse trainer.

"Not just knowing about racing, but the way you handle yourself around people — the more you’re thrown into mix of things, you learn," he said.

With his trademark white hair and dark sunglasses, the 66-year-old Hall of Famer is now the face of horse racing after he trained two Triple Crown winners and five Kentucky Derby winners.

But one of his quieter achievements is legitimizing his alma mater, in a desert city not known for its horse racing, as a breeding ground for the sport.

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"It gives you a head start more than anything," Baffert said. "You have to have a lot of passion. I think it’s good that they have it — very good."

Arizona's Race Track Industry Program has roughly 30 students, but churns out well-known alumni like Baffert and fellow trainer Todd Pletcher. The two have combined to win three of the last four Runs for the Roses, and both have horses in this year's Derby.

Other alumni include Jim Mulvihill, senior director of betting information for Churchill Downs Inc.; Jim Kostas, president of Daily Racing Form; and Alexa Ravit, communications coordinator for The Jockey Club.

Program director Wendy Davis cautioned there's nothing magical about it. Rather, it's the product of a simple formula: it's unique, students get experience, and teachers adapt to the ever-changing industry.

"It’s really impressive and we’re really proud of it," said Davis, who took over her role in 2017. "We do keep in touch with grads, so we can be pretty nimble with curriculum. If something new is on the horizon, we just integrate that right in."

Why Tucson?

Baffert grew up about an hour south of Tucson in Nogales, Arizona. He developed his love for horses on his parents' farm, and initially wanted to be a jockey, taking a year off after high school to race in pursuit of his dream.

At the urging of his mother, he attended college at Arizona because of its familiarity. He had spent large portions of his childhood in the end-zone seats at Arizona Stadium, watching Wildcats football.

"I have a lot of fond memories in Tucson," he said, naming the picturesque views on campus and a variety of restaurants as his favorites.

Around the same time Baffert enrolled, in the early 1970s, horse racing industry leaders started seeking out a college to serve as an academic hub where they could train business and racing leaders as the sport continued to mature.

Their criteria included a state with year-round racing and a land-grant university. Arizona and its flagship university in Tucson fit the bill. The separator was its neutral location, outside of horse racing hotbeds, such as Kentucky, New York and California.

"When everything came together, Arizona made the list," said Davis, a Tucson native who enrolled just a few years after the program's first classes in 1974. "Arizona was the one school that said, 'We’ll let you try.'"

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The program was — and still is — special in that it was the first four-year university program that taught the ancillary parts of the racing industry. Other schools, including the University of Louisville, have Equine Industry Programs that focus on the business side. SUNY Morrisville in New York has a program for the training side.

Davis said Arizona's success is more the result of the hands-on work students do at the school's shared agriculture farm north of campus, or through internships at racetracks around the globe.

Baffert had the opportunity to intern in the racing offices at Keeneland in Lexington. But he opted to not go, scared he wouldn't return to finish degree. It took him a little extra time, but he earned his bachelor's in animal sciences. He said that opened doors for him throughout his career, including when he took a year off from horse training to serve as a substitute teacher in Nogales.

"It’s very important that, you know, you graduate," he said. "I needed that degree to do that."

The program has since broadened, now offering courses on two tracts — one for racetrack management, regulation or parimutuel racing organizations, and the other for racing and breeding animals.

But one thing that hasn't changed in Arizona is the size. The school peaked with enrollment in the 40s and 50s in the 1980s, but has since returned to its roughly 30-student size. That's because of it's niche, Davis said.

"Eighty percent of the people who come here know exactly what they want to do and they’re here because this is the industry they want to go into," she said. "They are really dedicated to the classes. They take advantage of all the extracurricular opportunities."

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Small and steady

Six students from the program spent a week in Louisville in November, helping out with the Breeders' Cup.

Among them was Jacob Shepard, a first-year student and native of Franklin, Indiana. He spent his time transporting owners, trainers and jockeys to workouts, helping in the media interview room, and taking notes on the horses in the barns, which were later used to produce a reality TV show.

"It's just opportunities like this," he said. "That is how it is so small, but so important."

Shepard grew up around horses, as his dad used to own and race them. He later attended the University of Kentucky, graduating with an agriculture economics degree, and worked three years with Twin Spires.

After a brief reprise from the industry, he opted to return because he missed it. He applied to Arizona due to the exposure from alumni like Baffert, Pletcher and several others he met along the way.

It's that network that is unique to the program, Davis said. Alumni return to speak at the annual industry symposium that's held in Tucson. Students are connected to jobs and internships, producing an employment rate of more than 90%, Davis said.

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"The key to our success is that we integrate students into our industry right at the beginning," she said. "Most of our projects use real numbers, real examples, so when students graduate they’re ready to hit the ground running."

Shepard said he's interested in working for the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, a group that aids the sport through a more social work lens. He's taken classes, including racing law and horse science, and credited the sweeping curriculum for preparing him for any industry job.

"It covers kind of the entire spectrum, so that when you graduate, you're pretty familiar with most aspects of racing," he said. "Even the kind of things you may not have been familiar with coming in, you know about that."

Baffert himself hasn't returned to Tucson since one of his horses, American Pharoah, won the Triple Crown in 2015. The two appeared when Baffert was the celebrity guest-picker on "College Gameday" on ESPN. Arizona football took on UCLA. The Wildcats lost 56-30.

"After that beating, U of A never invited me back," Baffert joked.

In the meantime, he get his Arizona fix in conversations with others, like Pletcher.

"Todd really pays attention to basketball," he said. "We talk about mainly the basketball team."

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Adapting for the future

As the industry continues to change, so will the Arizona Race Track Industry Program.

Take the two biggest stories in the sport right now — an increased focus on safety after a rash of deaths at Santa Anita Park in California, as well as the potential of the legalization of sports betting.

Davis said guest speakers throughout this semester provided updates on what's being done to ensure safety. And gambling is something referenced in the curriculum.

"I think we can’t lose the idea that this is our core business," Davis said. "Even now, within our classes, students do learn the basic business principles behind running a casino, since so many of our racetracks are racing at casinos."

The future right now is bloodstock, which Davis said is "on a roll." Students recently helped purchase two thoroughbred mares at Keeneland in November, and they have both since foaled, one in Kentucky and one in California. Bloodstock agents walked them through the process. The foals will then be raised and sold.

They'll eventually be housed at the school's new equine center, a larger, 100-acre farm, on the east side of Tucson, in the shadow of the Rincon Mountains. It's currently empty, but it was most recently a working, breeding and training facility, featuring covered and indoor arenas, huge barns and grass pastures.

"It's absolutely a game changer," Davis said, adding that it allows for both enrollment and course expansion when they move in over the summer.

The program is also in good standing financially, thanks to an endowment set up by its predecessors. Davis said the program is 80% self-funded. There are three endowments worth just north of $1.6 million, according to figures provided by the school.

That should ensure the school continues to train the future Bafferts and Pletchers, Davis said.

"When other departments at the university start feeling those budget cuts, we’ve always lived within a budget and always raised our own money. We’re on real solid footing, which is absolutely wonderful," she said.

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Justin Sayers: 502-582-4252; jsayers@courierjournal.com; Twitter: @_JustinSayers. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/justins.