Medina Spirit had a legal medication in him, ONeill said. He's saddled. After the test result was revealed, Mick Ruis, the trainer and owner of the Santa Anita Derbys runner-up, sued the CHRB, claiming Justifys win should have been erased. Baffert dedicated American Pharoah's win to Bobby. A 23-page analysis of that case, sent to the CHRB by a California deputy attorney general in July and obtained by The Post, suggests the states lawyers were concerned about the way the agency responded to the failed drug test. Judge Denies Baffert Request to Reverse Churchill Downs Ban In 2007, he joined the 15-member board of the Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC), a nonprofit that represents the roughly 9,000 CHRB-licensed owners in the state. Trainer Bob Baffert stands outside his barn at Churchill Downs on May 2, 2016, in Louisville, Ky. Medina . The veterinarian chalked up Bafferts response to ignorance. After the Times broke the news of the positive drug test, Ruis sued the CHRB in January 2020. Medina Spirit departed Churchill Downs in a van before dawn on Monday, bound for Baltimore (a horse van, not Jeff Spicoli's VW bus ). He declined to answer further questions. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Churchill Downs goes after suspended trainer Bob Baffert with new policy. Its just disheartening. Bob Baffert - Bio, News, Photos - Washington Times By age 20, he had developed a reputation as a trainer and was hired by other trainers to run their stables. Like Baffert, Hollendorfer is in the thoroughbred Hall of Fame. But in 2019, he was banned from Santa Anita Park and affiliated tracks after four of his horses died there in six months. The horse is scheduled to run Saturday in the Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita. Hal Earnhardt, an Arizona car dealer and Bafferts oldest client, introduced him to Pegram, who made his money in fast-food franchising. On June 9, Justify won the Belmont and the Triple Crown. EXPLAINER: Why is Bob Baffert not in the Kentucky Derby? - Spectrum News 1 The previous August, Bob Baffert Racing Stables had donated $1,000 to the TOCs political action committee, California records show. Bafferts attorney argued in court that the trainers May suspension by the New York Racing Assn. Hearings begin for Bob Baffert's case against Churchill Downs ban And Bafferts veterinarians were prescribing it at his request without conducting laboratory tests to see whether the horses needed the drug, according to Arthurs later report. The Post reported this month that Arthur had previously studied a spate of sudden horse deaths in Bafferts barn. Unlike a normal day at the races, Bafferts fate will not be decided by a photo-finish camera or the actions of a jockey aboard a 1,000-pound animal. Board member Michael E. Pegram had for decades hired Baffert to train his top horses, including the winner of the 1998 Kentucky Derby, Real Quiet. Baffert has had more than 30 drug violations in his 44-year career, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. FILE - In this Monday July 12, 2021 file photo, horse trainer Bob Baffert leaves federal court in the Brooklyn borough of New York. In his teens, he worked as a jockey for $100 a day in informal Quarter Horse races on the outskirts of Nogales. That investigation led to the indictments that Baffert said spurred him to embrace more oversight, so the cheaters would be quickly caught and punished.. Theres a recognition that certain substances are normal in equine care, Martin said, but if that horse still requires that, then maybe you shouldnt run the horse., Martin made a distinction between doping horses with banned substances and running them with too much medication. Baffert said the horse ingested hay after a groom, who was taking cough medicine, had urinated in the horses stall. Baffert, however, wouldnt change the outcome. His graded stakes wins include nine wins in the Santa Anita Derby, nine in the Haskell Invitational Handicap, and fourteen in the Del Mar Futurity, a race he won seven straight times from 1996 to 2002, when it was a Grade II event. But Californias adoption of ARCI guidelines is not a given. On July 15, 2020, Deputy Attorney General Robert Petersen sent his initial case assessment to Brodnik. We went there with expectations not very high. Some of the earlier violations do give you pause. The board agreed not to disqualify Justify. Before his Kentucky Derby-winning colt, Medina Spirit, tested positive for betamethasone last month which could erase the victory his horses were cited for drug-related violations 29 times, according to the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI). The Kentucky Derby winner is staying ahead of . His white hair, tinted glasses and accessibility make him a natural to promote the sport. [42][44] A friend of Baffert's and an inductee into the American Quarter Horse Association Hall of Fame, Adair died on Preakness Day, May 16, 2015, at 71. was unconstitutional after Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit failed a postrace drug test. There is nothing new here, he wrote. Regardless, the indictments appeared to sway Baffert, whose opinion piece in The Post supported drastic action to fix a broken system. Among the provisions in the federal legislation that Baffert supported is a phaseout of Lasix on race day a reform Baffert had opposed for years. April 29, 2022 9:00 AM. In a recent interview, Arthur described his findings as damning for Baffert, in particular analysis in his report showing that, over a six-year period, Bafferts horses were nine times more likely to die of sudden death than the average trainers. On June 2, with the Belmont Stakes a week away, the owner of a feed operation showed up at the CHRB office carrying plant samples he said he found more than a month earlier, the records show. But Baffert and his lawyers had since established a reputation for pugnaciousness when regulators attempted to discipline him. "[29][30] On September 10, 2021 Baffert was charged by NYRA for conduct detrimental to the best interests of racing. But he said it wasnt clear from the records why the CHRB reversed course on filing a complaint against Baffert. This whole thing is ridiculous, Baffert texted back, according to messages obtained by The Post via public records request. Without that win, Justify would not have qualified to run in the Kentucky Derby, the first leg of the Triple Crown, a month later. The CHRB officially opened an investigation. Baffert, however, became the first trainer in history to win the Derby and Preakness in back-to-back years. Its truly painful when you know what the truth is, Baffert told The Times earlier this week in his first interview on the subject since May. The month after that, Grays bill to limit Arthurs term was passed out of a committee. According to data provided by the California Horse Racing Board and supplemented by The Times research, the trainer has had 75 horses die since 2000 either racing, training, or by illness or non-exercise accidents. Citrus Feed Companys Larry Bell has long supplied Baffert with feed and has previously testified in Bafferts defense, according to CHRB records. Hollywood Park closed in 2013, and the saga of the dead horses there faded quickly from the headlines. But a top veterinary official cleared Baffert, finding that the spate of deaths remains unexplained following a probe that demonstrated the hazards of going after Baffert. While he allowed that the case was handled differently because of the Triple Crown ramifications, the special treatment had nothing to do with the horses trainer. Baffert's horses have won a record six Kentucky Derbies, seven Preakness Stakes, three Belmont Stakes, and three Kentucky Oaks. But after learning that Justify and another Baffert horse had tested positive for the same drug, Arthur announced in an e-mail to CHRB officials: The scopolamine cases will be handled differently than usual. Arthur said in a recent interview that he was referring to the logistics of what was clearly going to be a high-profile case that needed to be handled carefully.. (The trainer and jockey usually get 10 percent each.) To me, whats in the best interest of the sport is not seeing anyone being dogpiled on.. And he does know generally when to stop on a horse.. Baffert grew up on a cattle and chicken farm in Nogales, Ariz., near the Mexico border. Brewster alleged, without providing evidence, that the Jockey Club directed 5 Stones to investigate anybody who doesnt train for them and wins a lot of races and might run in racetracks they dont run at., You know what the conclusion was? Brewster said of the alleged private investigation into Baffert. After winning the Santa Anita Derby in April of that year, Bafferts Justify tested positive for scopolamine, a banned substance, which normally would have disqualified the victory and made the horse ineligible to run in that years Kentucky Derby. There have been so many false narratives that have come up and the hearing process isnt even done yet. He won his first race on that 1970 afternoon but not as a trainer. Hell do anything to win, and hes got all his bases covered politically, Barry Irwin, owner of 2011 Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom, said of Baffert. According to Arthurs report, he found that Baffert was dispensing Thyro-L, or thyroxine, a prescription thyroid hormone, to all horses in his care. He has also won the Preakness Stakes five times and the Belmont Stakes once. In a written decision, the stewards stated the CHRB has already ruled on this matter in its August 2018 closed hearing and had followed the law., However, the stewards suggested they would not have made the same decision as the CHRB: It is the Stewards opinion that had this Board of Stewards heard the Justify and Hoppertunity complaints prior to August 23, 2018 both horses would have been disqualified., Ruiss lawyers have since argued in court for the settlement to be rescinded because the stewards refused to make a decision on the merits., I remain convinced that justice has not yet been served, Vienna told The Post, and that hopefully the courts will resolve the matter., The rise and fall of Jorge Navarro, the alleged doping king of horse racing. I felt that we wouldve been dumping this in their lap, that we wouldve been putting them in an unfair position, and that we needed to go ahead and do the difficult thing, quite frankly, which is take responsibility for the decision, Baedeker said. Baffert, a La Caada Flintridge resident who is currently training his horses at Santa Anita, has not officially been charged with anything related to Medina Spirit. What I can tell you definitely is this case was handled differently, and it was handled differently because of Rick Arthur, said Ruiss attorney, Darrell Vienna. "So now even our Kentucky Derby winner, Medina Spirit, is a junky," Trump's statement read. It basically said something under his control is associated with these fatalities, Arthur said, but regulators couldnt act without evidence of a rules violation. Real Quiet won the race that year, and Baffert also finished third with Indian Charlie. The quest to find Jimson weed continued. And because of that, he has become arrogant as hell. The first two infractions occurred in May 2020, when the horses Charlatan and Gamine tested positive in Arkansas for lidocaine, a numbing agent. This America's different." pic . The previous August, Bob Baffert Racing Stables had donated $1,000 to the TOC's political action committee, California records show. The Judge made her ruling based on the NYRA having not allowed Baffert a forum to refute their claims and stated that (they the NYRA).."had held no hearing let alone a prompt one. Baffert, one of the most legendary trainers in American horse racing, has faced criticism and suspensions after his 2021 Kentucky Derby champion, Medina . Even then, he would not talk about the specifics of the cases against him. The legal records, which draw from dozens of emails, memorandums and other materials that have not previously been made public, show how officials delayed action, contradicted their own plans and rewrote existing rules to Bafferts advantage. Carson Valley was killed in a freak accident in 2019 at Del Mar when a loose horse crashed into the Baffert trainee. "We live in a different world now. Bob Baffert has supporters and detractors in how he deals with jockeys He started at The Times in 1980 and left in 1995 to be sports editor of the Chicago Tribune and Tribune Co. sports coordinator in 2002. The last stand of Bob Baffert, horse racing's top trainer - Los Angeles He won the aforementioned first race at a sanctioned track in 1970, but his mother insisted he attend college and he enrolled in the University of Arizonas Race Track Industry Program. Both trainers were fined $500. It hurts racing., In the same speech, Baffert agitated for the continued use of Lasix, which is popular with trainers but increasingly criticized as a potential performance-enhancer and masking agent for other drugs. The way this case was handled was not a favor for Bob Baffert, Arthur said. And in the 13 months following his essay in The Post, Bafferts horses tested positive for prohibited or excessive substances five times in three states. He followed it with six more Derbies, two of which launched Triple Crown runs, with American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify in 2018. By then, Justify had won the Triple Crown, one of the rarest achievements in sports. Racing officials ruled that the positive test was a result of contamination and the wins of Charlatan and Gamine were restored. Ive heard the rumors on Bobby since we got in the business after winning some Cal Cup races. He saddled Paynter in the Belmont Stakes later that year, but that colt, like his stablemate Bodemeister, finished second. [42] He had been paid $200,000 to allow the Burger King to stand behind him in the grandstand during the televised broadcast of the Belmont, after having turned down $150,000 to allow the mascot to appear with him at the Preakness. There were at least 39 trainers with more fatalities to their name than Baffert during that period. The Jockey Club has a database of thoroughbred breakdowns meaning deaths stemming from track injuries but said it is barred from sharing its data because of its contracts with racetracks. Whether youre a lifelong resident of D.C. or you just moved here, weve got you covered. Regulators taped calls without consent with Baffert - Los Angeles Times On Monday, Bell confirmed he helped with the search, adding Jimson weed has plagued California for years.. Baffert wants a preliminary injunction that would keep Churchill Downs from denying his horses entry into races there and at Turfway Park, in Florence, Ky., and from "prohibiting him from earning. ), Among the TOCs central crusades was countering the movement against Lasix. In a scheme typical of the high-stakes warring behind the scenes in racing, four thoroughbred owners entered talks in 2015 with a private intelligence agency to dig up drug-related dirt on Baffert, according to multiple people with direct knowledge. Baffert won his first race as a thoroughbred trainer Jan. 28, 1979, saddling Flipper Star to a victory at Rillito in Arizona. Biography Bob Baffert is best known as a horse rider. He claimed the boards cover up cost him damages including the $400,000 difference between the first-place and second-place purses in the Santa Anita Derby. But the star trainers sudden support belied the fact that Baffert has for years been entangled with the very problems he blamed for his sports potential demise: drugs, dead horses and a feckless regulatory system. Racing lacks a central clearinghouse for data on deaths nationally, and regulators in many states do not track deaths by trainer. [13] In Kentucky, any amount of betamethasone detected in post-race testing is a violation and could result in a disqualification. The. In each instance, the death is investigated. Officials worked to clear Bob Baffert's Justify after Triple Crown run Baedeker and Arthur said in interviews that no matter how it was handled it would have been impossible to resolve the case that quickly. Grays office told the committee that removing Dr. Arthur from his position, while intentional, is not the sole purpose of the bill, records show. The dark side of Bob Baffert's reign. The new classification simply makes more sense pharmacologically, Arthur wrote. Baffert also has wielded unmatched clout when regulators have discovered banned or excessive substances in his horses. When the CHRB also decided to run DNA tests on the horses blood samples, the records show Arthur said the request would be a big deal and asked if they could wait until after the Preakness, which was 10 days away. Bafferts record of testing failures threatens public confidence in thoroughbred racing and the reputation of the Kentucky Derby, said Bill Carstanjen, chief executive of Churchill Downs Inc. Given these repeated failures over the last year, including the increasingly extraordinary explanations, we firmly believe that asserting our rights to impose these measures is our duty and responsibility.. (Arthur and those involved with the bill said the actions were unrelated. "[23] On June 2, 2021, Medina Spirit's split sample also tested positive and Churchill Downs suspended Baffert through the end of the 2023 Spring Meet. [10][12] However, his violations for use of prohibited medications has sparked controversy. In 2015, a loose group of prominent thoroughbred owners hatched a plan according to people with direct knowledge of it to sic private eyes, from a firm called 5 Stones that helped bring down Russian dopers, on their sports most famous trainer. Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert has been suspended from the home of the Kentucky Derby for two years after Medina Spirit's positive post-race drug was confirmed, the company that runs the. This article was published more than1 year ago, LOS ANGELES In March 2020, horse racings most recognizable figure, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, declared that his sport was in crisis.. The owner was Kaleem Shah. Baffert made the. Baffert won the Derby a third time in 2002 with War Emblem. The 77-year-old billionaire made headlines last year when he made a $10,000 contribution to opponents of Houston's Equal Rights Ordinance. His reasoning was that Baffert also administered thyroxine to horses outside of Hollywood Park, where his horses did not suffer sudden deaths. Yeah, but thats what drives him. Robertson blamed the frequency of Bafferts drug-related violations on how often his horses are tested after winning races and said, Horse racings regulations need to catch up with the sensitivity of modern day testing., Jockey Club President James L. Gagliano dismissed that frequent complaint from Baffert.