ARCADIA — There aren’t too many races in which Michael McCarthy is the young, up-and-coming trainer, the least accomplished of all the people saddling horses. But that’s the contest McCarthy will find himself in Saturday when he saddles morning-line favorite Journalism to face Bob Baffert-trained Citizen Bull and Barnes and John Shirreffs-trained Baeza and Westwood in the Santa Anita Derby, the $500,000, Grade I race that identifies California’s contenders for the Kentucky Derby. McCarthy, 54, is a highly accomplished trainer by almost any measure. Visitors to his Santa Anita barn are greeted by plaques commemorating his Breeders’ Cup victories with Ce Ce and City of Light and, most famously, his 2021 Preakness win with 11-1 shot Rombauer. He’s second in stakes wins, third in overall wins and fourth in purse earnings at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting. His horses always deserve second glances from handicappers. McCarthy looks at Baffert and Shirreffs, though, and sees achievements he covets. Baffert, 72, has trained nine Santa Anita Derby winners and six Kentucky Derby winners, including Triple Crown heroes Justify and American Pharoah, won 19 Breeders’ Cup races and had three Horses of the Year. Shirreffs, 79, has trained two Santa Anita Derby winners and a Kentucky Derby winner, won three Breeders’ Cup races and will always be associated with the iconic Zenyatta. “There are guys in (this year’s Santa Anita Derby) who have done this before and done it with great success,” McCarthy said this week in his stable office. “We’ll see if we can emulate them.” Born in Youngstown, Ohio, McCarthy grew up in Arcadia, graduated from Arcadia High within walking distance of Santa Anita racetrack, and seems to have been preparing for this moment all his life. He worked for trainers John O’Hara, Doug Peterson and Ben Cecil, and got his break when he became assistant to East Coast-based Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher. More than a decade with Pletcher gave McCarthy experience handling six Eclipse Award-winning horses and an annual squad of Kentucky Derby contenders, years of disappointment leading up to Super Saver’s victory in 2010. “We’ve seen it from all sides,” said McCarthy, who often uses “we” to mean “I.” Since leaving Pletcher, moving back to Southern California and opening his own barn in 2014, McCarthy has had one Kentucky Derby starter. Endlessly earned a shot at the Derby in 2024 by winning the Jeff Ruby Steaks at Turfway Park, and finished ninth of 20 horses at Churchill Downs. If Journalism and jockey Umberto Rispoli add to their victories in the 1-1/16-mile Los Alamitos Futurity in December and the 1-1/16-mile San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita in March by winning the 1⅛-mile Santa Anita Derby Saturday, McCarthy will have more than a Kentucky Derby starter on May 3 at Churchill Downs. “If he wins the Santa Anita Derby, he’ll probably be the favorite,” said Baffert, mindful that Journalism is the 6-5 favorite over 9-5 Citizen Bull and 3-1 Barnes on the morning line for the Santa Anita Derby, and the 4-1 favorite on the morning line for the round of Kentucky Derby future betting that began Thursday and runs through Saturday at 1 p.m. Then, Baffert said, McCarthy will “have all the press there, watching his every move,” and will face the nerves that come from being that close to a Kentucky Derby victory, meaning “you can’t really relax.” But Baffert has no doubt McCarthy is up to the challenge. “He worked for Todd Pletcher all those years. He has experience. He’s won the Preakness. He’s not a first-time kid. He knows what he needs to do,” Baffert said. “He’s just focusing on his horse.” Shirreffs, who won the 2005 Kentucky Derby with 50-1 shot Giacomo, said the secret to handling Derby pressure is “keeping your focus narrow.” “Not worrying about what’s out there, just worrying about day-to-day and improving your horse as much as possible,” Shirreffs said. “The pressure doesn’t come from within. If there’s pressure, it’s from somewhere outside.” Baffert and Shirreffs both express admiration for Journalism going into the Santa Anita Derby, whose small, five-horse field is trained by just three men. “(It’s his) professionalism,” Shirreffs said of the colt. “He runs his race (every time). When you see a horse repeat a performance in a very professional way, to me, that’s a really nice horse.” McCarthy declines credit for Journalism’s consistency, giving it to the 3-year-old son of 2007 and 2008 Horse of the Year Curlin and the Grade II stakes-winning mare Mopotism. “He’s a very straightforward horse,” McCarthy said. “He has a wonderful mind, obviously plenty of ability. It makes my job quite a bit easier.” Journalism gave himself a tough act to follow by winning the San Felipe by 1¾ lengths over Barnes, earning a 108 Beyer speed figure, the highest by a 2025 Kentucky Derby contender. “That was a little bit more than we were expecting numbers-wise,” McCarthy said. “Does he move forward off that last race? I don’t know. Does he bounce off that race? I don’t know. From what I’m seeing (in training), he’s right where he needs to be.” This year hasn’t been all roses for McCarthy. He, his wife Erin and daughter Stella live in Altadena. The Eaton fire in January came within 600 feet of their house, and now an adjacent golf course is being used for debris collection. “Terrible deal. I feel bad for a lot of people,” McCarthy said of those who lost homes to the wildfire. “Now it’s just become a headache, you know?” The trip from tragedy to triumph could conclude a little after 4:30 p.m. on Saturday in the Santa Anita Derby, a race that’s more meaningful than most to an Arcadia kid. “(It has) a lot of history, and obviously some very good 3-year-olds have won the Santa Anita Derby, won the Kentucky Derby, (won) champion 3-year-old. Bob Baffert has made the Santa Anita Derby kind of his appetizer to the Kentucky Derby,” McCarthy said. “We’ll see if we can go ahead and add our name to the list.” Follow horse racing correspondent Kevin Modesti at X.com/KevinModesti.