A week after that, Baffert learned of the positive test. Horse owner and racing reform advocate Barry Irwin has stated, "He's Mr. Its all because of his success.. "What a way to come back," said Baffert, whose punishment by the Kentucky Horse . No sanctions were issued against Baffert.[40][41]. Horse racing needs to cut off the head of the snake, Ruis said. Most were for excessive use of phenylbutazone, a commonly used anti-inflammatory known as bute. We went there with expectations not very high. The drug was again betamethasone, and Baffert again expressed shock and vowed to clear his name. The previous August, Bob Baffert Racing Stables had donated $1,000 to the TOCs political action committee, California records show. Then, when American Pharoah won the 2015 Belmont Stakes, the win was the fourth attempt at a Triple Crown for Baffert, who at age 62 became the second-oldest trainer to win a Triple Crown.[6]. (Arthur and those involved with the bill said the actions were unrelated. And he pushes the envelope to the extent that they give their lives for his bank account.. followed up and ruled Baffert would not be allowed to run in New York. 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. 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. Baedeker said that before they made their recommendation to the board, they consulted with the states Office of the Attorney General, for which Petersen works, and received concurrence . Arthur B. Hancock III, a prominent thoroughbred owner, has for three decades been a leading proponent for eradicating drugs from the sport. [21][22] Sports Illustrated suggested that the positive drug test was a sign that Baffert's "leaking credibility" had reached "the saturation point. Arthur, the equine medical director, took issue with Petersens legal finding that the CHRBs handling of the case could be declared arbitrary or capricious. 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 . 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.. The board agreed not to disqualify Justify. You could trust him and that never changed.. Hes won seven, more than anyone else in the 147-year history of the race. Currently, his major coverage area is horse racing, where he can be found at big races at Santa Anita, the Triple Crown series and Breeders Cup. But Californias adoption of ARCI guidelines is not a given. In 1997, he trained Silver Charm to win the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, finishing second in the Belmont. The CHRB officially opened an investigation. Mick Ruis, the owner and trainer of the second-place finisher in the Santa Anita Derby, has sued the CHRB. 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. He finished third in the Derby that year with Congaree. Does the drug that could strip Medina Spirit of a Kentucky Derby win enhance performance? Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Churchill Downs goes after suspended trainer Bob Baffert with new policy. In 2010, Misremembered, a horse he bred, owned by his wife Jill and their friend George Jacobs, won the Santa Anita Handicap, marking Baffert's first Grade I win as a breeder instead of a trainer. The lawyer wrote there is evidence suggesting that this matter was handled differently.. He won his first race on that 1970 afternoon but not as a trainer. But they dont usually die in a cluster from a single barn for no clear reason. Share on Facebook TWEET This Another day passed before it was discovered the colt was administered a topical ointment for a rash that contained betamethasone. What we knew about horses you could put in a thimble. Being a horse trainer is tough enough because its such an up-and-down, emotional roller coaster, Baffert said. But until now, those violations, some of which Baffert has succeeded in getting overturned or reduced, have resulted in roughly $20,000 in fines against $321 million in career earnings. It takes only a minute or so to walk from the racetrack at Santa Anita Park to the barns in back. [11], Prior to Medina Spirit's death, Baffert had last been under intense scrutiny a decade earlier when seven horses in his stables at Hollywood Park died between November 2, 2011 and March 14, 2013, all from sudden and later unexplained heart attacks. Per Baffert, barn staff including grooms, were involved in administering the thyroxine in feed.. The colt skipped the Belmont Stakes but became the champion three-year-old colt that year. [33], In February 2022, Baffert was suspended 90 days and fined $7,500 by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. Four months later, during a confidential executive session, Arthur and CHRB Director Rick Baedeker recommended that the commissioners not move forward with the disqualification of Justify, arguing that the scopolamine positive was probably the result of contamination from jimson weed. The deadliest period came between 2000 and 2005, when 34 of Bafferts horses in California died. Shah said the two parted over disagreements that should have been resolved, without being specific. was. It was an easy suspension to serve as Baffert was in school and not doing much training. Bob survived a heart attack in late March 2012 while in Dubai for a world-class race at Meydan. In 1997 he won his first Kentucky Derby with Silver Charm. It basically said something under his control is associated with these fatalities, Arthur said, but regulators couldnt act without evidence of a rules violation. He paused, then added: Ive learned who my friends are.. Two months later, the PAC contributed $2,000 to Grays successful election committee. 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. 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 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. Monty Roberts, a trainer who has agitated for more humane treatment of racehorses throughout his six-decade career, said that Baffert has long been one of the most important voices holding the sport back from reform. Baffert has had more than 30 drug violations in his 44-year career, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. [9] Point Given was nominated in 2009, but elected and inducted in 2010. Hal Earnhardt, an Arizona car dealer and Bafferts oldest client, introduced him to Pegram, who made his money in fast-food franchising. I told him there would be nothing from CHRB before the KY Derby, unlikely before the Preakness and possibly not until after the Belmont, Arthur wrote. "[16][17] Nonetheless, Churchill Downs suspended Baffert from entering any horses at their racetrack pending the outcome of an investigation. Horse trainer Bob Baffert, left, leaves federal court in Brooklyn on July 12. The timing of the legislation was coincidental, he added: I understand where youre going and why, but there were no connections, from my perspective., Brewster, attorney for Medina Spirits owner, also said that Bafferts issue with Arthur was about Lasix and that the timing was irrelevant.. In 2000, for instance, another of his horses, Nautical Look, tested positive for morphine, landing Baffert a two-month suspension. Baffert's horses have won a record six Kentucky Derbies, seven Preakness Stakes, three Belmont Stakes, and three Kentucky Oaks . But by August, the plan had changed. Bafferts lawyer called as a defense witness Arthur, who testified that his handling of the case was the fault of Californias cumbersome regulatory process. He declared, I considered this a horse poisoning, not a horse drugging., After the hearing, Santa Anitas Board of Stewards, a three-person panel that rules on drug cases, dismissed the complaints. "We live in a different world now. In his analysis, Petersen estimated the states chances of winning at trial to be 50 percent. 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. Baffert, however, became the first trainer in history to win the Derby and Preakness in back-to-back years. 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. [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. He appeared in an episode of the TV show Take Home Chef. The CHRB ruled it was caused by feed contamination, citing six other horses across four barns who also tested positive. Former Democratic congressman Dennis Cardoza, also on the board, was co-owner with Pegram of Shakin It Up, a successful thoroughbred trained by Baffert. Baffert claims the defendants have "unlawfully deprived and will continue to deprive Baffert of his right to due process of law guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment and of his right to. Now 68, Baffert is seeing his livelihood and reputation under attack after a series of medication infractions have made him an outcast to some in the industry and a pariah to many more outside of it. In an email Monday, Bafferts attorney, W. Craig Robertson III, referred to the CHRBs initial decision to dismiss the test and a hearing last year in which officials ruled they had no authority to overturn that decision. Ive heard the rumors on Bobby since we got in the business after winning some Cal Cup races. 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. 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. At one point, the regulators effort included searching for exonerating evidence in a literal haystack. Its not often that a sport turns against its biggest star, but Churchill Downs has taken that stand. In a hearing in October, the state and attorneys for Baffert and the horses owners stipulated the scopolamine positive was the result of contamination and it would have no performance-enhancing effects. Cherwa also contributes general interest stories from Florida. Baffert parlayed a hobby as a 5-foot-9 jockey into a job as a quarter-horse conditioner into a career as a thoroughbred trainer before jumping onto the highest pedestal of horse racing and becoming the most recognizable name in the sport. We have a real conundrum to sort out, Arthur wrote in an email to top CHRB officials, explaining he believed a disqualification would be terribly unfair. More than a year earlier, the Association of Racing Commissioners International, which creates model rules for the sports various state bodies, had reclassified scopolamine from a 3/B to a 4/C drug. In an op-ed for The Washington Post, Baffert wrote that reforming racing was not just necessary to the sports survival but the only moral path forward. The bold statement appeared to put Baffert on the right side of history: By the end of the year, President Donald Trump had signed into law the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, which promised to reform the sport. 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. Baffert, like many trainers, was using a thyroid drug that was cited in the CHRB investigation. But hes a good person, no, a great person. Baffert has saddled 34 horses in the Derby third-most in history since his first appearance in 1996. 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. He built up his training business a step at a time and acquired some prominent owners. Political Cartoons. His reasoning was that Baffert also administered thyroxine to horses outside of Hollywood Park, where his horses did not suffer sudden deaths. He was born on January 13, 1953, in Nogales, AZ. Justify tested positive for scopolamine, an anti-nausea medication said to have potential performance-enhancing effects in horses, after winning the Santa Anita Derby in April 2018. He got his first big break in 1992 when he won his first Breeder's Cup race with Thirty Slews. The first two infractions occurred in May 2020, when the horses Charlatan and Gamine tested positive in Arkansas for lidocaine, a numbing agent. [13] In Kentucky, any amount of betamethasone detected in post-race testing is a violation and could result in a disqualification. Between 1997 and 1999, he won the Eclipse Award as outstanding trainer three years running and was voted the 1997 Big Sport of Turfdom Award. PUBLISHED 9:20 AM ET Jul. Officials worked secretly to clear Bob Bafferts Justify amid 2018 Triple Crown run, records show. Yakteen rose to Bafferts defense and it ended with a scuffle that slightly injured a security guard. 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. 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. Tinsley declined to comment. By then, Arthur already had a years-long, tangled history with 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 . In 2015, the Daily Herald ran a profile on Jill Baffert, explaining that she was a former journalist and waitress from Centerville. 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. American Pharoah next won the 140th Preakness Stakes, making six victories in that race for Baffert, who also finished fourth with Dortmund. But the sports new governing authority will not take over until mid-2022. To me, whats in the best interest of the sport is not seeing anyone being dogpiled on.. 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. Betamethasone is mostly injected into the joints of horses to ease inflammation and, if the inflammation is reduced, any associated pain subsides. As the trainer battles to protect his legacy, the records offer a new window into how those charged with running horse racings disjointed regulatory system have appeared to treat the powerful trainer with deference. Bob is trying to put 2020 behind him and move forward in a positive manner, Robertson wrote in an e-mail to Borden. Time after time its not his fault. 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. Bob had the personality and he was honest. His American Pharaoh horse won the Triple Crown in 2015. 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.. Theres one thing that I will say positive about Bob is that he is a horseman. If the complaint was ruled on quickly enough, it would have made Justify ineligible for the Kentucky Derby. This whole thing is ridiculous, Baffert texted back, according to messages obtained by The Post via public records request. Despite the cautious approach of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, which five months later still has not acted on the drug positive, or disqualified, Medina Spirit, Churchill Downs suspended the trainer for two years. For every Baffert defender, you can find someone on the other side. Whether youre a lifelong resident of D.C. or you just moved here, weve got you covered. Asked whether he was surprised by the finding that Bafferts barn was the deadliest in California, Roberts laughed. When a horse dies in California, CHRB records often list medications the horse had been prescribed, based on its medical history. The month after Gray introduced his legislation, Bafferts seventh sudden death made the deaths at Hollywood Park a national news story. Between November 2011 and March 2013, however, Baffert had seven of his horses die of sudden death, not on the race track. In 2015, Baffert trained the 2014 champion two-year-old colt American Pharoah to win the Triple Crown, the first to do so in 37 years. He was 10 when his father, Bill, bought a couple of quarter horses, plowed some land for a track and Bob started riding them before school each morning. The owner was Kaleem Shah. In that period, 36% of all cardiac related horse deaths in California were animals trained by Baffert. But its a lot more difficult when going against a private company, such as Churchill Downs, which can invoke its own penalties. A three-member hearing panel has made the decision to suspend Hall of Fame horse trainer Bob Baffert for one year, effective immediately, the New York Racing Association announced Thursday. Some of my friends swear that I'm actually a conservative Democrat. The dark side of Bob Baffert's reign. ), 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. It bothers me when hes not considered the Kentucky Derby winner.. CHRB brass agreed to follow Arthurs suggestion. CHRB regulations state that its foreign substances guidelines are based on ARCI recommendations as modified by the state board. The. 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.. The way this case was handled was out of respect for Justify., On the afternoon of April 18, 2018, Arthur learned that Justify and another Baffert horse, Hoppertunity, had tested positive for scopolamine. 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.). When I won with [Triple Crown winners] American Pharoah and Justify, it was a relief. The CHRB provided The Post with death data dating back to late 1990 showing that at least 87 of Bafferts horses have died in California since then. Baffert, one of the most legendary trainers in American horse racing, has faced criticism and suspensions after his 2021 Kentucky Derby champion, Medina . In fact, Bafferts horses, at 8.3 deaths per 1,000 starts, have died at a significantly higher rate than Hollendorfers, at 6.25. 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. He views himself as an ambassador for the sport. [8] His first suspension was in 1977 for misuse of morphene, but thereafter he had no violations for the next eight years. Both trainers were fined $500. 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. There were at least 39 trainers with more fatalities to their name than Baffert during that period. Baffert said the horse was off the drug for 18 days before the race. Until this summer, Baffert was the longest-serving member on the board of the Thoroughbred Owners of California, having been elected in 2007. . Kaleem Shah, an owner who split with Baffert in 2016, defended the trainer over the horse deaths. 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.
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