The previous August, Bob Baffert Racing Stables had donated $1,000 to the TOCs political action committee, California records show. Doug ONeill, a two-time winner of the Kentucky Derby, was one of the few trainers who would talk about Bafferts recent troubles. Bob Baffert has taken up more of my time than I ever should have had to deal with, Arthur said, before again coming to the defense of Bafferts treatment of his horses: He certainly puts the pedal to the metal, but he doesnt close his eyes. On July 15, 2020, Deputy Attorney General Robert Petersen sent his initial case assessment to Brodnik. It subsequently said any horses running for a suspended trainer (Baffert) would not be eligible for Kentucky Derby or Oaks qualifying points. Gray declined to be interviewed for this story, instead issuing a statement declaring that the personal vendettas of others, perceived or otherwise, play no roll [sic] in the legislation I carry. His spokesman added that campaign contributions do not affect Grays policy proposals. Horse-racing deaths, like much of the sport, are shrouded by a disjointed bureaucracy. But Californias adoption of ARCI guidelines is not a given. "We live in a different world now. Following the 2015 Belmont win, Baffert outlined several charities that he and his wife Jill supported. [15], At a news conference on May 9, Baffert initially said that Medina Spirit was never administered betamethasone. His American Pharaoh horse won the Triple Crown in 2015. Without that win, Justify would not have qualified to run in the Kentucky Derby, the first leg of the Triple Crown, a month later. 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. The rise and fall of Jorge Navarro, the alleged doping king of horse racing. The Kentucky Derby winner is staying ahead of . [7] Baffert became a 7-time winner of the Kentucky Derby in 2021 with Medina Spirit. But by August, the plan had changed. None of them are considered performance-enhancing in the traditional sense, such as amphetamines or speedballs. In his teens, he worked as a jockey for $100 a day in informal Quarter Horse races on the outskirts of Nogales. Bob Baffert blamed "cancel culture" after his horse, Medina Spirit, who won the Kentucky Derby, failed its post-race drug test. We live and work in a fishbowl, with rumors and accusations flowing constantly, Baffert said. Baffert is America's pre-eminent active trainer. 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. With upward of $1 million in yearly revenue drawn from wagering at tracks, the TOCs stated mission included establishing fair and reasonable medication rules and integrity standards., Baffert, the groups resident celebrity, was in business with several of his colleagues. This article was published more than1 year ago. Once again, the Hall of Fame. He appeared in an episode of the TV show Take Home Chef. Its so obvious. Rick Arthur, Californias medical equine director, who the documents show played a central role in the scuttling of the Justify matter, said the only part of the CHRBs handling of the case that disappointed him was the secrecy. For every Baffert defender, you can find someone on the other side. Gary Fenton, chairman of the TOC, declined to be interviewed. Bob Bafferts horses have incurred numerous drug violations over the course of his 44 years as a thoroughbred trainer. After the Times broke the news of the positive drug test, Ruis sued the CHRB in January 2020. Tinsley declined to comment. The bill was introduced by California Assemblyman Adam Gray, a former aide to Cardoza who had been in office for less than three months. The Baffert who snubbed me on April 29, 2010, that is the real Bob Baffert, not the glib, seemingly affable chap heretofore seen in TV interviews. When Did threshold change and what were they before?, No amount of betamethasone is permitted in Kentucky races now, Borden wrote. 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.. 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. Shortly after Petersen sent the analysis of the states chances, the CHRB agreed to settle Ruiss lawsuit. Baffert grew up on a cattle and chicken farm in Nogales, Ariz., near the Mexico border. Another person who came to Bafferts defense was his former assistant Tim Yakteen, who now runs his own stable. 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. In 2012, Baffert saddled Bodemeister, named for the trainer's youngest son, Bode, to second-place finishes in the Derby and Preakness. The colt went on to win the Preakness Stakes, giving the trainer his third shot at winning the Triple Crown. [31][32] Additional charges were added on January 3, 2022. But the overall record indicates that he may not be running as tight a ship as he should.. He views himself as an ambassador for the sport. With private eyes and political muscle, horse racings elite pushed to punish dopers, Bob Baffert, long horse racings irreverent king, sits on a precarious throne, Bob Baffert, banned from racing horses in New York, sues states racing association. The week after Justify won the Preakness, bringing him to the cusp of the Triple Crown, test results came back showing the plant they had tested was milkweed. 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]. 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. It elicited little notice; racehorses die by the hundreds per year in California alone. He followed it with six more Derbies, two of which launched Triple Crown runs, with American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify in 2018. In September, Baffert learned via a text message from Barbara Borden, chief steward for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, that his horse Gamine had tested positive for the anti-inflammatory betamethasone at the Kentucky Oaks. His last day as medical equine director is Wednesday. Less than two weeks later, Medina Spirit won the Kentucky Derby. "[16][17] Nonetheless, Churchill Downs suspended Baffert from entering any horses at their racetrack pending the outcome of an investigation. But he said it wasnt clear from the records why the CHRB reversed course on filing a complaint against Baffert. I went under the radar. There is nothing new here, he wrote. 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. 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. In his analysis, Petersen estimated the states chances of winning at trial to be 50 percent. FILE - In this Monday July 12, 2021 file photo, horse trainer Bob Baffert leaves federal court in the Brooklyn borough of New York. I told him I thought there was a good indication that these were feed contamination.. Two months after Arthur cleared Baffert, the legislation to limit his term died. CHRB regulations state that its foreign substances guidelines are based on ARCI recommendations as modified by the state board. It sounds like hes deflecting, Gagliano said of Baffert. FILE - Trainer Bob Baffert walks out to the winner's circle after the Brooklyn Invitational Stakes horse race at Belmont Park, Saturday, June 9, 2018, in Elmont, N.Y. . This whole thing is ridiculous, Baffert texted back, according to messages obtained by The Post via public records request. 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. ), Arthur has defended his handling of the Justify positive. 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. Hospital food is a punchline. Decorated racehorse trainer who won multiple Kentucky Derbies, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes. 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. Another day passed before it was discovered the colt was administered a topical ointment for a rash that contained betamethasone. 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. He married his second wife, Jill, a former television reporter based in Louisville, in 2002. California counts all fatalities of horses in a trainers care, including breakdowns during training, not just racing deaths. [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. Baffert's horses have won a record six Kentucky Derbies, seven Preakness Stakes, three Belmont Stakes, and three Kentucky Oaks . The lawyers said that taking into account Bafferts estimate of how many horses he has in his care, a count that differs from the starts data, the number of deaths of horses in Bobs barn is consistent with what would normally be expected from the horse population in general. Starts are regularly used, including by the CHRB, to study the death rates of a trainer. 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. Horse racing needs to cut off the head of the snake, Ruis 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. 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. 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. Hollywood Park closed in 2013, and the saga of the dead horses there faded quickly from the headlines. He made the jump to Los Alamitos, where he was running against such legends as Wayne Lukas. 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. It was then that Baffert, one of the most accessible trainers in horse racing, stopped talking until this week. Like Baffert, Hollendorfer is in the thoroughbred Hall of Fame. Hal Earnhardt, an Arizona car dealer and Bafferts oldest client, introduced him to Pegram, who made his money in fast-food franchising. It takes only a minute or so to walk from the racetrack at Santa Anita Park to the barns in back. After Arthur cleared Baffert of wrongdoing, the legislation was abandoned. And he does know generally when to stop on a horse.. 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. Obviously if we can get the Kentucky case resolved, Arkansas will have the benefit of knowing that result before a final decision is made in that case. 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.