Zayat has invested a ton of money and has gotten better results with Assmussen, Mott and Romans (and Dutrow as well) than with Baffert. While I agree that it might have been "nicer" to make the switch before Baffert put all the time into Maimonides, it's a simple business decision. Zayat was dissatisfied with the Del Mar surface and asked Baffert to get them out of there. The move to NY was obviously successful. At that point, Zayat should have changed rather than return to Cali.
Nevertheless, Baffert has presumably been paid for training Maimonides up to now. Baffert is committed to Cali. It's his home an it's where he wants to be. That's his choice. If an owner wants out of Cali for whatever reason, he's no going to stay with Baffert. Zayat clearly finds leaving Cali more important than having Bob train his horses.
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RIP Monroe.
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