This was fun. Baffert faces unprecedented scrutiny after a positive drug test marred a win by his horse Medina Spirit at this years Kentucky Derby. Baffert has had more than 30 drug violations in his 44-year career, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. 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. [8] As of 1January2022[update] the question of whether the horse would join Dancer's Image by being disqualified for a drug violation in the Derby remains pending. Baffert was granted a stay until April 4 to gain time for an appeal. Petersen noted that in a previous case the board had exonerated the trainers of three horses who had tested positive for scopolamine, finding the flunked tests were a result of Jimson weed. The ARCI rules are recommendations, the associations president, Ed Martin, said in an interview. Baffert's history in the American classic races began in 1996 when he trained a three-year-old colt named Cavonnier, who ran second in the Kentucky Derby. Once the golden boy of horse racing, Bob Baffert now the face of its disgrace. ), Arthur has defended his handling of the Justify positive. In 2021, the post-race test of Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit showed 21pg/mL of betamethasone. There wasnt any question in my mind, he said recently. Other people may have made a different decision, but to say that there was no basis for that decision is pure bulls---, said Arthur, who announced his retirement this year. Pegram persuaded Baffert to try thoroughbreds. Horse trainer Bob Baffert before the 2020 Breeders Cup at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky. Trainer Bob Baffert pets an outriders horse while watching workouts at Churchill Downs in April. When Did threshold change and what were they before?, No amount of betamethasone is permitted in Kentucky races now, Borden wrote. But its a lot more difficult when going against a private company, such as Churchill Downs, which can invoke its own penalties. The veterinarian chalked up Bafferts response to ignorance. 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. Horse trainer Bob Baffert on Monday argued that Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit had been a victim of "cancel culture" after the horse failed a postrace drug test . Baffert dedicated American Pharoah's win to Bobby. [24], On May 17, 2021, the New York Racing Association (NYRA) banned Baffert from entering Medina Spirit or any of his other horses in the 2021 Belmont Stakes or any other race at Belmont Park. His most serious infraction was also his first. Early life and career [ edit] By then, Arthur already had a years-long, tangled history with Baffert. We live and work in a fishbowl, with rumors and accusations flowing constantly, Baffert said. They had discussions with David Tinsley, the former DEA supervisor who runs 5 Stones, the people said, but the thoroughbred owners involved scrapped the plan. According to protocols, the medication is supposed to have a 14-day withdrawal period. He has often blamed drug positives on trace contamination from substances in a horses barn and has criticized tightening restrictions on the race-day use of bute and other drugs. "[29][30] On September 10, 2021 Baffert was charged by NYRA for conduct detrimental to the best interests of racing. . His primary attorney is Craig Robertson, who represents him in all regulatory matters, but he has recused himself from any action against Churchill Downs because his law firm does business with the company, creating a conflict of interest. FILE - In this Monday July 12, 2021 file photo, horse trainer Bob Baffert leaves federal court in the Brooklyn borough of New York. The 74 total deaths since 2000 put Baffert third among trainers. 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. The cluster of sudden deaths remains unexplained and there was no evidence whatsoever CHRB rules or regulations have been violated or any illicit activity played a part in the deaths, Arthurs report concluded. Similarly, cases against two horses who tested positive in Arkansas in 2020 for lidocaine were dismissed as being the result of accidental transfer from an assistant trainer who was using the medication on himself. All of the drugs were legal, just not in the amounts found on race day. [39] California's equine medical director found that Baffert's horses were routinely given Thyro-L, or thyroxine, a thyroid hormone, that could cause heart problems during exercise, but concluded the medication, which Baffert said he had been using routinely for the previous five years, did not cause the heart attacks. The month after Gray introduced his legislation, Bafferts seventh sudden death made the deaths at Hollywood Park a national news story. CNN Hall of Fame horse trainer Bob Baffert will miss the Kentucky Derby for a second straight year after a federal judge denied his request to have a two-year ban by Churchill Downs Inc.. But Arthurs report said Hollywood Park used a different sort of poison than that found in the necropsy. Bafferts lawyers have made explicit that he will accept fines but not a suspension, and state regulators have continually obliged him. In the court of public opinion, hes a big loser, said Barry Irwin, owner of racing group Team Valor and an outspoken critic of race-day medication and Baffert. Baffert is America's pre-eminent active trainer. Baffert is a three-time winner of the Kentucky Derby, and has several top prospects for the May 5 race. A CHRB spokesman said the agency could not comment or make any employees available for an interview, citing the pending litigation. Clark Brewster, a nationally known trial attorney who represented adult film actress Stormy Daniels in her defamation suit against President Trump, will be Bafferts attorney in any litigation against Churchill Downs. It was an easy suspension to serve as Baffert was in school and not doing much training. The TOC, of which Baffert is still a board member, did not respond to requests for comment. He still has a responsibility as the face of the game but I dont think hell overcome [this] because his personality wont allow him to do it.. The Post separately obtained start data dating back to 2000 from the Daily Racing Form to put the deaths into context. Horse racing needs to cut off the head of the snake, Ruis said. There were at least 39 trainers with more fatalities to their name than Baffert during that period. Bob Bafferts horses have incurred numerous drug violations over the course of his 44 years as a thoroughbred trainer. Arthur called Bafferts blanket use of thyroxine troublesome and said at the meeting, I havent found an example of a barn that uses it in all their horses like Baffert does. Yet he determined that the drug wasnt to blame for the deaths. On at least 14 occasions, Baffert has been caught racing a horse with more than the allowable amount of bute in its system, according to a review of ARCI data, making it his most common offense. It went exactly according to the lawyers plan. But by August, the plan had changed. Another day passed before it was discovered the colt was administered a topical ointment for a rash that contained betamethasone. The scheme involved digging up drug-related dirt on Baffert and then telling him that the evidence could disappear tomorrow if he were to endorse the federal reforms of the sport, one of the people said. 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. Mick Ruis, who trained against Baffert for a couple years but now just manages his own racing business, once admired Baffert and his success, but no longer. In February, Kentucky racing officials decided against suspending Baffert, with Borden telling the Louisville Courier-Journal a lesser punishment was all in the course of being fair. And in April, Arkansas officials reversed the 15-day suspension for lidocaine positives that the trainer blamed on an assistants pain patch. 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. At least 74 horses have died in Bafferts care in his home state of California since 2000, more than all but two of hundreds of trainers in the state, according to a Post analysis of data and public records. Former Democratic congressman Dennis Cardoza, also on the board, was co-owner with Pegram of Shakin It Up, a successful thoroughbred trained by Baffert. He has won the Kentucky Derby five times. We had some thoroughbreds with another trainer and Im thinking how can we make money with Bobby running for $4,000 at night when we could be running for $40,000 during the day, Pegram said. It didnt take Baffert long to dominate Rillito Park and Prescott Downs in Arizona. He will rub people the wrong way by speaking his mind, sometimes he needs to hit the mute button. In correspondence with the agencys lawyer, Baedeker wrote that because our staff failed to act in a timely manner, the horses, trainer, owner and others could be harmed unjustly if they didnt use the more lenient classification. Bob Baffert has supporters and detractors in how he deals with jockeys By John Cherwa Special Contributor Nov. 2, 2016 4:28 PM PT Bob Baffert, still fresh and snappy after hours of morning. [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. John Cherwa is a special contributor to the Los Angeles Times. But in 2019, he was banned from Santa Anita Park and affiliated tracks after four of his horses died there in six months. When I won with [Triple Crown winners] American Pharoah and Justify, it was a relief. I told him I thought there was a good indication that these were feed contamination.. On June 1, Baedeker had asked the agencys top lawyer and investigator how close they were to filing the Scopolamine complaints., On July 9, a month after Justifys Belmont triumph, the agencys chief counsel, Robert Brodnik, wrote to the CHRB investigator that they would like to officially file by Monday.. A court, the states lawyer wrote, could find that the CHRB abused its discretion and acted in a manner that was arbitrary, capricious, or entirely lacking in evidentiary support.. Bob Baffert blamed "cancel culture" after his horse, Medina Spirit, who won the Kentucky Derby, failed its post-race drug test. In 2012, Baffert saddled Bodemeister, named for the trainer's youngest son, Bode, to second-place finishes in the Derby and Preakness. The CHRB officially opened an investigation. Hes good.. Two months later, the PAC contributed $2,000 to Grays successful election committee. Baffert often speaks of his life as if its a Shakespearean play, humankinds tragedies mingling with his own existential crises. Its not often that a sport turns against its biggest star, but Churchill Downs has taken that stand. When he was 10, his father purchased some Quarter Horses and he practiced racing them on a dirt track. State investigators found that his staff was mixing a potentially dangerous prescription drug into the feed of every horse in his care. A recent conversation about the tragedy of horse deaths wended its way back to the defense of his reputation. Robert A. Baffert is an American Racehorse Trainer who trained the 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify. Baffert was suspended by the NYRA on May 17 -- a big deal as it barred the legendary horse trainer from entering into the prestigious June 5 Belmont Stakes race. 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. Following the 2015 Belmont win, Baffert outlined several charities that he and his wife Jill supported. It was obvious long before Miners Daughter collapsed in a blood-tinged froth in March 2013 that there was something amiss in Barn 61 at Hollywood Park, the Los Angeles-area racetrack. Like Baffert, Hollendorfer is in the thoroughbred Hall of Fame. Usually, regulatory agencies do not have the guts to do whats fair and right, Arthur testified during a CHRB hearing in October, and this board made that decision appropriately., He conceded that the lack of transparency was unusual. Fellow trainer D. Wayne Lukas attributed Baffert's success to his "extraordinary eye for a good horse" and his management ability in finding the right opportunities for his charges.[5]. He paused, then added: Ive learned who my friends are.. On the morning of this years Kentucky Derby, he was going through his list of past Kentucky Derby winners and should-have-been winners, and dismissed Medina Spirit as not the best horse in the race. Things would have been so much simpler if the horse had not won the race. Baedeker this week acknowledged that they handled the process more slowly than usual. Justify faced disqualification from his victory in the Santa Anita Derby that would cost his owners a partnership of wealthy interests their share of the $600,000 first-place purse. "So now even our Kentucky Derby winner, Medina Spirit, is a junky," Trump's statement read. They had a son in 2004 whom they named "Bode" (/bodi/ BOH-dee), after skier Bode Miller. [7] Baffert became a 7-time winner of the Kentucky Derby in 2021 with Medina Spirit. Among them, according to interviews and records obtained by The Post: a push to have the veterinary official removed from office, supported by a trade group with Baffert among its directors. Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert has successfully appealed his 15-day suspension to the Arkansas Racing Commission, allowing the six-time Kentucky Derby winner to resume preparations to run Medina . The colt skipped the Belmont Stakes but became the champion three-year-old colt that year. Federal prosecutors had just indicted more than two dozen trainers, veterinarians and others on charges related to doping horses, a seismic event in a sport already reeling from a well-publicized spate of horse deaths and perpetually dwindling revenue. Baffert said in his autobiography it was a combination of ignorance and desperation. It was later discovered that horses from separate barns had also tested positive. The lawyer wrote there is evidence suggesting that this matter was handled differently.. [2][4], Baffert established his early reputation with less expensive horses like Silver Charm and Real Quiet, bought for $16,500 and $17,000 respectively. Trainer Bob Baffert's ban from racing in New York is over - Associated Press Baffert barred from participating in Preakness Stakes by Maryland commission By Jacob Calvin Meyer - The. I thought wed get fourth. 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.