Trainer of California bred Horse of the Year Mucho Unusual

• Tim Yakteen won the G1 Santa Anita in back to back years with Taiba and Practical Move. He has also won Graded Stakes with Mucho Unusual, Points Offthebench, Sabiango and Bench Points among others.

• Broke through in 2013 with his first “big” horse when the extra-rapid Points Offthebench, a California-bred he’d nursed along until the gelding cut loose as a 4-year-old, registered victories in four of five starts, including a pair of Grade I sprint stakes – Del Mar’s Bing Crosby and the Santa Anita Sprint Championship. Points Offthebench’s brilliance – and Yakteen’s fine job with him -- were awarded an Eclipse as Sprint champion. He also was honored in his home state by being named California’s 2013 champion older male, sprinter and Horse of the Year by the California Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association.

• Tim Yakteen spent the first 18 years of his life in Germany, the son of a German mother and a Lebanese-born father who had become a U.S. citizen and joined the Army, which earned him an assignment in Nuremberg. Naturally enough, Yakteen speaks fluent German.

• On July 4, 1982 he started a new life by joining a sister who’d moved stateside to Cypress, California, right near Los Alamitos Race Course.

• Young Yakteen needed a job and, though he hadn’t had any experience with horses previously, he was willing to learn and started by mucking stalls, first with trotters, then with Quarter-horses.

• As he moved up the ranks he landed a job with a Quarter-horse trainer on the rise - a white haired fellow named Bob Baffert. And when Baffert made the jump to Thoroughbreds in 1988, Yakteen made it with him.

• Tim Yakteen remained with Baffert until 1991 when he was offered the opportunity to work with the thoroughbreds and come on board with Hall of Famer Charlie Whittingham. He took it and for the next six years was the Bald Eagle’s right-hand man, highlighted by his direct involvement with the remarkable careers of the multiple-stakes winning mare Flawlessly, Santa Anita Handicap winner Sir Beaufort and a record-setting run by the horse he saddled in the Japan Cup – Golden Pheasant.

• Tim saddled his first winner in 1991. His inaugural winner was Lady Keeper.

•In 1997 the timing was right for him to return to the Baffert barn and for the next seven years he helped the future Hall of Famer saddle up the like of champions Silver Charm, Real Quiet, Silverbulletday, Chilukki and Point Given.

• Tim stayed with Baffert through 2004 before going out on his own. He sent out his first stakes winner in 2004 when he took Sabiango to the Deuling Grounds (now Kentucky Downs) in Kentucky to capture the 12-furlong Kentucky Cup Turf Handicap. Like his conditioner, Sabiango was a German-bred.

• He is married to horsewoman and XBTV commentator Millie Ball, a British-bred who began riding in Europe, then transitioned to California racing in 1995. She and Yakteen became friendly at the racetrack and the couple was engaged in Dubai the night before the 2001 Dubai World Cup where they had gone to oversee the Baffert ace Captain Steve – she as the exercise rider, he as the assistant trainer – for his run in the $6-million race. The horse was a winner and Yakteen and Ball were off and running, too. Married in 2001, the couple have two sons, Sam and Ben.

Highpoints

Won the Gr. 1 Santa Anita Derby For the Second Year in a row with Practical Move

Won the Gr. 2 San Felipe Stakes with Practical Move

Won the Gr. 3 Los Al Futurity With Practical Move

Won 2022 Gr. 1 Santa Anita Derby with Taiba

Campaigned American Champion Sprinter Points Offthebench

Saddled first winner in 1991

Mentored by Hall of Famers Charlie Wittingham & Bob Baffert

Married to XBTV and Santa Anita Simulcast Show host Millie Ball

Trained G1 Santa Anita Derby winners Taiba and Practical Move