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Baffert has also had his share of horse fatalities, the other metric to which his critics point. The month after Gray introduced his legislation, Bafferts seventh sudden death made the deaths at Hollywood Park a national news story. Medina Spirit departed Churchill Downs in a van before dawn on Monday, bound for Baltimore (a horse van, not Jeff Spicoli's VW bus ). 'It was cancel culture': Kentucky Derby winner's trainer defends failed Baffert said the horse was off the drug for 18 days before the race. In 2021, the post-race test of Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit showed 21pg/mL of betamethasone. He has also won the Preakness Stakes five times and the Belmont Stakes once. Gagliano, the Jockey Club president, denied that the group had any knowledge of whom 5 Stones investigated, outside of the eventual indictments. 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. Baffert is America's pre-eminent active trainer. In July 2020, Merneith tested positive for dextromethorphan, a drug commonly used in cough medicine. followed up and ruled Baffert would not be allowed to run in New York. Hearings begin for Bob Baffert's case against Churchill Downs ban 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). In 1997 he won his first Kentucky Derby with Silver Charm. Four months after that, in May 2014, Arthur issued an advisory that the CHRB was concerned by the apparently indiscriminate use of thyroxine and that the drug must be prescribed for a specific horse for a specific condition. Arthur told The Post that the advisory was a result of the Baffert investigation. Arkansas racing officials vote not to suspend Bob Baffert - ESPN.com Santa Anitas 16-day fall season begins Friday with 14 stakes races over three days as trainers and owners take aim at the Breeders Cup at Del Mar. Bob Bafferts horses have incurred numerous drug violations over the course of his 44 years as a thoroughbred trainer. Baffert responded: Zero tolerance?, Robertson, Bafferts attorney, then tried to negotiate for Baffert to avoid potential suspensions in both Arkansas and Kentucky. Bob Baffert says Derby horse Medina Spirit was 'cancelled.' Here's what Maryland Racing Commission Officially Suspends Bob Baffert, The hearing for a preliminary injunction began in federal court on Thursday afternoon, continuing a nearly two-year-long legal battle between Baffert and the racetrack following his suspension back in 2021. Celebrities Who Are Republicans/Conservatives - HubPages Bob Baffert has moved his way up the ladder to the extent that he has the most influential, the wealthiest owners in the industry, that he takes on the highest-quality horses possible because he wins races. Betamethasone is mostly injected into the joints of horses to ease inflammation and, if the inflammation is reduced, any associated pain subsides. Following the 2015 Belmont win, Baffert outlined several charities that he and his wife Jill supported. He makes it clear that he believes in same-day medication and he believes in his whips, said Roberts, who has long pushed to remove whipping horses from racing. But in this case, Arthur urged a lighter penalty based on his suggestion the CHRB downgrade the drug. The 74 total deaths since 2000 put Baffert third among trainers. Once again, the Hall of Fame. Officials worked to clear Bob Baffert's Justify after Triple Crown run After the Times broke the news of the positive drug test, Ruis sued the CHRB in January 2020. Mr. It seems the biggest problem trainer Bob Baffert had during the running of the $300,000 San Felipe Stakes on Saturday was keeping his face covering over his nose. [25][26] On June 14, 2021, Baffert sued the NYRA alleging the association had no authority to suspend his license and that suspension "without prior notice" was a violation of the law. Baffert has had two fatalities in the last three years, a low number for a barn of his size. Longtime client Mike Pegram explained, "Anybody who walks with that swagger, people are going to love him or hate himhe's a wiseass and irreverent." Mick Ruis, the owner and trainer of the second-place finisher in the Santa Anita Derby, has sued the CHRB. The Kentucky Derby winner is staying ahead of . Two months after Arthur cleared Baffert, the legislation to limit his term died. Gary Fenton, chairman of the TOC, declined to be interviewed. 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. April 29, 2022 9:00 AM. In the next six months, three of his horses tested positive for banned or excessive substances four times in California, Arkansas and Kentucky. Hollywood Park closed in 2013, and the saga of the dead horses there faded quickly from the headlines. to move forward. Petersen did not respond to an interview request. This America's different." pic . May 10, 2021. When The Post shared the data on 72 of the horse deaths with Brewster, he and Bafferts lawyer, W. Craig Robertson III, said that one of the horses listed was never in Bafferts care, though it is marked as his horse in CHRB records, and that another was a stable pony not being raced. Hollendorfers lawyer, Drew Couto, has claimed his client is being unfairly blamed for a high-profile spike of deaths at the track. ), Among the TOCs central crusades was countering the movement against Lasix. It was an easy suspension to serve as Baffert was in school and not doing much training. LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - Testimonies have begun in the case of horse trainer Bob Baffert against Churchill Downs. But they dont usually die in a cluster from a single barn for no clear reason. Baffert revisited the Derby the next year, sending two top colts, Real Quiet and Indian Charlie, to Louisville. The new classification simply makes more sense pharmacologically, Arthur wrote. Per Baffert, barn staff including grooms, were involved in administering the thyroxine in feed.. When asked about that plan, attorney Brewster said that in fact 5 Stones did investigate Baffert at the direction of the Jockey Club. [2], Baffert graduated from the University of Arizona's Race Track Industry Program with a Bachelor of Science degree,[3] got married, and began training quarter horses at a Prescott, Arizona farm. [21][22] Sports Illustrated suggested that the positive drug test was a sign that Baffert's "leaking credibility" had reached "the saturation point. But even in those cases, which were handled according to established rules, the horses were disqualified and their winning purses were forfeited. Petersen opined it would have been unfair to punish Baffert for what he called an oversight by CHRB staff and said there is no evidence to suggest a nefarious motive by the board. He has never apologized to the public for trashing the game. Shah said the two parted over disagreements that should have been resolved, without being specific. The colt skipped the Belmont Stakes but became the champion three-year-old colt that year. It sounds like hes deflecting, Gagliano said of Baffert. Baedeker this week acknowledged that they handled the process more slowly than usual. 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. [13] In Kentucky, any amount of betamethasone detected in post-race testing is a violation and could result in a disqualification. Baffert is the biggest name in horse racing, even bigger than the animals he conditions. But when factoring in the number of races run, Bafferts horses have died at the highest rate of the 10 trainers who have had the most horse deaths. The TOC, of which Baffert is still a board member, did not respond to requests for comment. Two months later, the PAC contributed $2,000 to Gray's . The colt went on to win the Preakness Stakes, giving the trainer his third shot at winning the Triple Crown. Citrus Feed Companys Larry Bell has long supplied Baffert with feed and has previously testified in Bafferts defense, according to CHRB records. Whether youre a lifelong resident of D.C. or you just moved here, weve got you covered. In the past three years, there were 188 deaths involving either racing or training in California. It was later discovered that horses from separate barns had also tested positive. At first it was believed the substance came from a pain-relief patch that Bafferts longtime assistant Jimmy Barnes was wearing because of back pain. (At least one death of a Baffert horse identified by The Post was not included in the agencys data.) When he was 10, his father purchased some Quarter Horses and he practiced racing them on a dirt track. Biography Bob Baffert is best known as a horse rider. Two Triple Crown winners and a signature shock of white hair will do that for a man. In 1977, as a part-time trainer, he was suspended for a year when one of his horses tested positive for morphine. Political Cartoons. He followed it with six more Derbies, two of which launched Triple Crown runs, with American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify in 2018. As the Kentucky Derby approached, officials began discussing the possibility of contamination that the positive test had been triggered by something Justify ingested. Early life and career [ edit] Baffert said the horse ingested hay after a groom, who was taking cough medicine, had urinated in the horses stall. The suspension was scheduled to run March 8 through June 5. Arthur, the equine medical director, took issue with Petersens legal finding that the CHRBs handling of the case could be declared arbitrary or capricious. Churchill Downs Draws a Hard Line With Bob Baffert A New York federal judge on Wednesday, July 14, 2021 nullified the suspension of horse trainer Bob Baffert, finding that the New York Racing Association acted unconstitutionally by failing to let him adequately respond to claims made against him after Kentucky . Hes Mr. Teflon.. But in 2018, Arthur was still on the job when another Baffert-trained horse tested regulators willingness to challenge him. In 2012, Baffert saddled Bodemeister, named for the trainer's youngest son, Bode, to second-place finishes in the Derby and Preakness. Hospital food is a punchline. In New York, chefs are redefining it. ), The records show Arthurs early decisions led to the CHRB veering off its usual course in its handling of the Justify case, beginning with his email to a testing coordinator that read, The scopolamine cases will be handled differently than usual., By the CHRBs own guidelines, the way forward was clear: If a second sample came back positive, the CHRB would file a complaint. Trainer Bob Baffert stands outside his barn at Churchill Downs on May 2, 2016, in Louisville, Ky. Medina . The ARCI rules are recommendations, the associations president, Ed Martin, said in an interview. John Cherwa is a special contributor to the Los Angeles Times. All they show is contamination, and they have really put the trainers heads on the chopping blocks. Rick Baedeker, who was executive director of the CHRB before retiring last year, said the boards decisions were carefully considered to avoid treating Baffert differently than any other trainer. On July 15, 2020, Deputy Attorney General Robert Petersen sent his initial case assessment to Brodnik. Bob Baffert Suspended 15 Days for Drug Positives 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. His last day as medical equine director is Wednesday. He has won the Kentucky Oaks three times: first in 1999 with Silverbulletday, who was later selected for the Hall of Fame, then with Plum Pretty in 2011 and with Abel Tasman in 2017. A CHRB spokesman said the agency could not comment or make any employees available for an interview, citing the pending litigation. My heart tells me one thing, but my head tells me something else, said veteran racing journalist Ron Flatter, the managing editor of the website Horse Racing Nation. [citation needed], According to his supporters, Baffert's style and personality, combined with his success, have made him a target for controversy. The Post separately obtained start data dating back to 2000 from the Daily Racing Form to put the deaths into context. Baffert was fined $10,000. The attorney generals office referred all questions to the CHRB. Less than two weeks later, Medina Spirit won the Kentucky Derby. There is nothing new here, he wrote. After Uncle Sam, a 4-year-old colt, died during a workout at the track the following January, a vet wrote: This is the 3rd for this owner/trainer in about as many months collapsed and died.. Hes always wanted to be a rock star and some people dont think racing should have one.. Racing lacks a central clearinghouse for data on deaths nationally, and regulators in many states do not track deaths by trainer. The substance was indeed Jimson weed. Ruis is suing the CHRB for absolving Baffert of a positive for scopolamine, a byproduct of jimsonweed, after Justify tested for the drug after winning the 2018 Santa Anita Derby. And Ive warned them that this was not going to stay a secret at the time, he testified of the CHRB, but that was their decision, not mine. (Baedeker, who retired last year, told The Post they couldnt legally disclose the test results because CHRB did not file a complaint.). PUBLISHED 9:20 AM ET Jul. One of the biggest assholes and cheats of all time, horse-racing Has his success made people hate him more? He claimed that the horse death data provided by the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) was not possible.. Thats much higher than the Jockey Clubs widely cited national rates, which never exceed two deaths per 1,000 starts. 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, 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. With Time Running Out In Legal Wars, Bob Baffert Says Four Of His Baffert's horses have won a record six Kentucky Derbies, seven Preakness Stakes, three Belmont Stakes, and three Kentucky Oaks. If it surprised me it would be that I expected more, Roberts said. Bob Baffert - Bio, News, Photos - Washington Times He made the jump to Los Alamitos, where he was running against such legends as Wayne Lukas. If they didnt adopt those rules, the rules that prevail are the ones they adopted.. The bottom line, he said, is if youre a horse in Bob Bafferts barn, youre there to work.. We might have gone to the board sooner, but obviously because of the high-profile nature of this thing we were making sure we had everything buttoned up, he said. Baffert failed in multiple attempts in Kentucky to overturn the track's ban or the start of his suspension, which began April 4. In his analysis, Petersen estimated the states chances of winning at trial to be 50 percent. Theres one thing that I will say positive about Bob is that he is a horseman. The previous August, Bob Baffert Racing Stables had donated $1,000 to the TOC's political action committee, California records show. He rejoined The Times in 2009 and left his post as deputy sports editor late in 2017. Baffert made the. In winning the 141st Kentucky Derby, bringing his total number of victories in the race to four; Baffert also ran the third-place finisher, the previously undefeated colt Dortmund. In each instance, the death is investigated.