[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. This America's different." pic . He has also won the Preakness Stakes five times and the Belmont Stakes once. Whether youre a lifelong resident of D.C. or you just moved here, weve got you covered. [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. There is nothing new here, he wrote. Baffert, like many trainers, was using a thyroid drug that was cited in the CHRB investigation. 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. Bob Baffert blamed "cancel culture" after his horse, Medina Spirit, who won the Kentucky Derby, failed its post-race drug test. In New York, chefs are redefining it. As he did so, a political group with Baffert on its board was involved in legislation that would result in Arthur losing his job. 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 . Former Democratic congressman Dennis Cardoza, also on the board, was co-owner with Pegram of Shakin It Up, a successful thoroughbred trained by Baffert. A A Former President Donald Trump released a statement Sunday about the disputed winner of the Kentucky Derby, saying the controversy reflects the current state of the country. In 2012, Baffert saddled Bodemeister, named for the trainer's youngest son, Bode, to second-place finishes in the Derby and Preakness. Baffert said the horse was off the drug for 18 days before the race. 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. 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. 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. I dont see somebody who is doping horses, Martin said after reviewing Bafferts drug-related history. 10, 2022. In February 2013, with Bafferts Hollywood Park sudden-death toll at six and Californias equine medical director, Rick Arthur, probing his barns operations, state legislation was introduced that would place term limits on Arthurs position, eventually forcing him out of a $309,000-a-year job. He has never apologized to the public for trashing the game. Its bizarre, Baedeker said, because you have a deputy attorney general criticizing the board for following the law to the letter.. 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. 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. I told him I thought there was a good indication that these were feed contamination.. By the April 1 ruling, Baffert had already transferred four 3-year-old colts to other trainers. Gagliano, the Jockey Club president, denied that the group had any knowledge of whom 5 Stones investigated, outside of the eventual indictments. 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. He has not been in alliance with us, said Hancock, mentioning Bafferts many positive tests and then listing top trainers who have had one or zero positives in their career. Some would argue, though, that if it makes a horse less uncomfortable, it improves their performance. Its more the friendship that I miss. In 2000, for instance, another of his horses, Nautical Look, tested positive for morphine, landing Baffert a two-month suspension. All they show is contamination, and they have really put the trainers heads on the chopping blocks. 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. When a horse dies in California, CHRB records often list medications the horse had been prescribed, based on its medical history. Why would people want to be betting on horses when there are allegations and there are real positives and hes getting off on technicalities.. He acknowledged there was no way to determine if that bale was part of the delivery to Baffert, according to the records, but the CHRB investigator nonetheless submitted the sample for testing. Baffert faces unprecedented scrutiny after a positive drug test marred a win by his horse Medina Spirit at this years Kentucky Derby. He views himself as an ambassador for the sport. Baffert failed in multiple attempts in Kentucky to overturn the track's ban or the start of his suspension, which began April 4. to move forward. Petersen did not respond to an interview request. But the overall record indicates that he may not be running as tight a ship as he should.. 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. And because of that, he has become arrogant as hell. "We live in a different world now. Ruis horse, Bolt dOro, finished second. By then, Arthur already had a years-long, tangled history with Baffert. Baffert was inducted into Lone Star Park's Hall of Fame in 2007, and in 2009, he was nominated and inducted to the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame, the same year as a filly he trained, Silverbulletday. This article was published more than1 year ago. Baffert revisited the Derby the next year, sending two top colts, Real Quiet and Indian Charlie, to Louisville. He tried his hand at substitute teaching before he started training horses full time. Hollendorfers lawyer, Drew Couto, has claimed his client is being unfairly blamed for a high-profile spike of deaths at the track. Arthur is the CHRBs primary advisor on drug testing, according to state code; the role of determining penalties in individual cases falls to its stewards and commissioners. Some of the earlier violations do give you pause. After Baffert was notified a week following this years Kentucky Derby that the colts blood and urine sample contained 21 picograms, a trillionth of a gram, of betamethasone, he held a hastily called news conference outside his barn at Churchill Downs saying he had no idea how it could have gotten into the horses system. On Monday, Bell confirmed he helped with the search, adding Jimson weed has plagued California for years.. Attorneys for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert argued in a Kentucky court Thursday that a 90-day suspension imposed by the state's racing commission would essentially end his career. 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. Cardoza, who now works for a law firm, denied in an interview last month that the TOC was involved: Not at all. But he then said, TOCs involvement in that bill had nothing to do with Bob Baffert., Instead, Cardoza said, the drive to oust Arthur was over his opposition to Lasix. Bob Bafferts horses have incurred numerous drug violations over the course of his 44 years as a thoroughbred trainer. This was fun. You wouldnt know it now.. In the 1980s, Baffert moved to California and worked at Los Alamitos Race Course, where he switched to training Thoroughbreds full-time in 1991. [2] Baffert and his family reside in California. The colt skipped the Belmont Stakes but became the champion three-year-old colt that year. When I won with [Triple Crown winners] American Pharoah and Justify, it was a relief. But in 2018, Arthur was still on the job when another Baffert-trained horse tested regulators willingness to challenge him. "What a way to come back," said Baffert, whose punishment by the Kentucky Horse . The TOC, of which Baffert is still a board member, did not respond to requests for comment. When Arthur delivered his report in November 2013, the bill to remove him from office was still pending. He saddled Paynter in the Belmont Stakes later that year, but that colt, like his stablemate Bodemeister, finished second. This America's different." pic . State investigators found that his staff was mixing a potentially dangerous prescription drug into the feed of every horse in his care. [35], The most notable cases prior to Medina Spirit's test was the disqualification of Gamine after a third place finish in the 2020 Kentucky Oaks, also for betamethasone,[36] and Triple Crown winner Justify, who tested positive for scopolamine after winning the 2018 Santa Anita Derby, but the results did not become public until after the horse won the Triple Crown. 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. 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.. [10] Though number of racing starts are used to calculate rates of death for all horses in the care of race trainers, not all horse deaths were animals in race training nor were they necessarily race-related fatalities. The board followed their recommendation. That investigation led to the indictments that Baffert said spurred him to embrace more oversight, so the cheaters would be quickly caught and punished.. 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. "[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. That didnt feel appropriate to those of who wanted to see science prevail, Cardoza said. In 1997, he trained Silver Charm to win the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, finishing second in the Belmont. Earlier data was unreliable, the racing publication said. Betamethasone is mostly injected into the joints of horses to ease inflammation and, if the inflammation is reduced, any associated pain subsides. 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.. 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. Bafferts lawyers have made explicit that he will accept fines but not a suspension, and state regulators have continually obliged him. If the complaint was ruled on quickly enough, it would have made Justify ineligible for the Kentucky Derby. In 2013 the group hosted a Lasix-focused event at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills at which one owner reportedly said running a race without the drug was like waterboarding your horse in their own blood.. For every Baffert defender, you can find someone on the other side. Once the golden boy of horse racing, Bob Baffert now the face of its disgrace. 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. Arthur, the equine medical director, took issue with Petersens legal finding that the CHRBs handling of the case could be declared arbitrary or capricious. Hes won seven, more than anyone else in the 147-year history of the race. Its so obvious. Arthur is retiring at the end of June from a job often consumed by the scandals of a single trainer. In 2015, he trained American Pharoah, the first horse to win the Triple Crown since Affirmed in 1978.. was. . None of them are considered performance-enhancing in the traditional sense, such as amphetamines or speedballs. Baffert is the biggest name in horse racing, even bigger than the animals he conditions. If it surprised me it would be that I expected more, Roberts said. According to Arthurs report, he found that Baffert was dispensing Thyro-L, or thyroxine, a prescription thyroid hormone, to all horses in his care. Gary Fenton, chairman of the TOC, declined to be interviewed. 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. 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. In the past three years, there were 188 deaths involving either racing or training in California. Baffert told investigators he used the drug for about five years to build up his horses, which Arthur noted was unusual because it was typically used to slim them down. The colt lost the Belmont Stakes after breaking poorly from the starting gate. 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.). ), 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. The bill was introduced by California Assemblyman Adam Gray, a former aide to Cardoza who had been in office for less than three months. 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. The month after Gray introduced his legislation, Bafferts seventh sudden death made the deaths at Hollywood Park a national news story. Racing lacks a central clearinghouse for data on deaths nationally, and regulators in many states do not track deaths by trainer. Cherwa also contributes general interest stories from Florida. Baffert is America's pre-eminent active trainer. Brodnik presented the board with a two-page memo stating an extensive investigation was conducted and the evidence proves that this was an environmental contamination incident. Baedeker and Arthur recommended the pending matters against Baffert be dismissed, according to the states legal analysis. Less than two weeks later, Medina Spirit won the Kentucky Derby. LOS ANGELES In 2018, as star trainer Bob Baffert led his thoroughbred Justify to the Triple Crown, California regulators embarked on a secret effort to exonerate Baffert after the horse's. The drug was again betamethasone, and Baffert again expressed shock and vowed to clear his name. It will all be settled by lawyers and judges and that takes time. Following the 2015 Belmont win, Baffert outlined several charities that he and his wife Jill supported. 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. My focus will always be on the best care for my horses. Shah, the owner of at least three of the horses, told The Post he had fully trusted Baffert as a trainer and had no reason to suspect that he would harm the horses he loves the horses. Brewster, the attorney, said that Baffert believed the horses had ingested rat poison, traces of which were found in one of them. 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. 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. Trainer Bob Baffert stands outside his barn at Churchill Downs on May 2, 2016, in Louisville, Ky. Medina . April 29, 2022 9:00 AM. It elicited little notice; racehorses die by the hundreds per year in California alone. "We live in a different world now. In that period, 36% of all cardiac related horse deaths in California were animals trained by Baffert. The first two infractions occurred in May 2020, when the horses Charlatan and Gamine tested positive in Arkansas for lidocaine, a numbing agent. Closing everything and moving forward is in Bobs best interest and the best interest of horse racing. 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. Nothing is more important than the health and safety of our equine and human athletes, Baffert wrote, and nothing impacts their health and safety more than the policies and procedures concerning drugs.. No sanctions were issued against Baffert.[40][41]. Without that win, Justify would not have qualified to run in the Kentucky Derby, the first leg of the Triple Crown, a month later. He paused, then added: Ive learned who my friends are.. Bob Baffert blamed "cancel culture" after his horse, Medina Spirit, who won the Kentucky Derby, failed its post-race drug test. In 1977, as a part-time trainer, he was suspended for a year when one of his horses tested positive for morphine. The dark side of Bob Baffert's reign. Again, we can most likely agree to most anything in Kentucky except a suspension.. The lawyer wrote there is evidence suggesting that this matter was handled differently.. 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. This time, he aided the CHRBs search for Jimson weed. 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]. Mick Ruis, the owner and trainer of the second-place finisher in the Santa Anita Derby, has sued the CHRB. 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. 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. The rise and fall of Jorge Navarro, the alleged doping king of horse racing. Gray said at the time that the bill also would increase the institutional knowledge of Californias central horse drug-testing lab. Baffert's horses have won seven Kentucky Derbies, seven Preakness Stakes, three Belmont Stakes and three Kentucky Oaks. The trainer was fined $2,500. 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. . 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. A CHRB spokesman said the agency could not comment or make any employees available for an interview, citing the pending litigation. The goal, the people familiar said, was to get Baffert to support languishing reforms in the sport. Two months later, the PAC contributed $2,000 to Grays successful election committee. 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. 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.. By age 20, he had developed a reputation as a trainer and was hired by other trainers to run their stables. Other trainers seem to navigate just fine.. Theres one thing that I will say positive about Bob is that he is a horseman. It sounds like hes deflecting, Gagliano said of Baffert. 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. Both trainers were fined $500. Does the drug that could strip Medina Spirit of a Kentucky Derby win enhance performance? Those who have known Baffert the longest, including a core group of owners, recognize his flaws but generally remain steadfast in their support of him. Being a horse trainer is tough enough because its such an up-and-down, emotional roller coaster, Baffert said. But he said it wasnt clear from the records why the CHRB reversed course on filing a complaint against Baffert. 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. Instead of promptly filing a public complaint against Baffert, the CHRB kept the positive result secret while Arthur conducted a lengthy investigation. With private eyes and political muscle, horse racings elite pushed to punish dopers, Throughout the months-long process, CHRB officials had indicated they planned on filing a complaint against Baffert, which would have exposed the failed drug test. And he does know generally when to stop on a horse.. Bob had the personality and he was honest. 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. Either way, the state-appointed official probing Bafferts role in the deaths at Hollywood Park did so as his job was being threatened by the efforts of a Baffert-affiliated coalition. The bottom line, he said, is if youre a horse in Bob Bafferts barn, youre there to work.. Kentucky regulators taped calls without consent with Baffert after Medina Spirit test. A week after that, Baffert learned of the positive test. 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.. The positive test only emerged when the New York Times reported it more than a year later. 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. Shortly after Petersen sent the analysis of the states chances, the CHRB agreed to settle Ruiss lawsuit. It then changed the classification of scopolamine so that its detection in a horse would trigger only a fine and not disqualification and loss of the races purse. Baffert also trained the 2018 Triple Crown Winner, Justify and the 2020 Kentucky Derby winner, Authentic. 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. And Noodles died May 22 of a non-exercise induced respiratory issue. By then, Bafferts encounters with regulators dated back decades, to 1977, when he served a yearlong suspension for racing a horse on morphine. This horse was going to run at the Triple Crown, Arthur said. 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. 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. He also won the race in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018 when run as a Grade I event. Political Cartoons. All of the drugs were legal, just not in the amounts found on race day. Baffert did not win another classic race until 2001, when he won the Preakness and Belmont Stakes with eventual Hall of Fame member Point Given.