None of them are considered performance-enhancing in the traditional sense, such as amphetamines or speedballs. According to protocols, the medication is supposed to have a 14-day withdrawal period. That investigation led to the indictments that Baffert said spurred him to embrace more oversight, so the cheaters would be quickly caught and punished.. Why would people want to be betting on horses when there are allegations and there are real positives and hes getting off on technicalities.. Yakteen rose to Bafferts defense and it ended with a scuffle that slightly injured a security guard. Baffert says he plans to seek legal recourse wherever necessary. Arthur suggested the board retroactively apply it to the Justify case. By then, Arthur already had a years-long, tangled history with Baffert. Theres a recognition that certain substances are normal in equine care, Martin said, but if that horse still requires that, then maybe you shouldnt run the horse., Martin made a distinction between doping horses with banned substances and running them with too much medication. Baffert has had two fatalities in the last three years, a low number for a barn of his size. The quest to find Jimson weed continued. [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. There is nothing new here, he wrote. 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. 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. It went exactly according to the lawyers plan. Following the publication of the report, Baffert tweeted: Im gratified that CHRB completed its investigation & found there was no wrongdoing. [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. Pegram persuaded Baffert to try thoroughbreds. He will rub people the wrong way by speaking his mind, sometimes he needs to hit the mute button. The board followed their recommendation. The owner was Kaleem Shah. When Arthur delivered his report in November 2013, the bill to remove him from office was still pending. 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. Decorated racehorse trainer who won multiple Kentucky Derbies, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes. Baffert, however, wouldnt change the outcome. Some would argue, though, that if it makes a horse less uncomfortable, it improves their performance. He claimed that the horse death data provided by the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) was not possible.. 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 . Thats much higher than the Jockey Clubs widely cited national rates, which never exceed two deaths per 1,000 starts. [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. According to Arthurs report, he found that Baffert was dispensing Thyro-L, or thyroxine, a prescription thyroid hormone, to all horses in his care. In 2021, the post-race test of Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit showed 21pg/mL of betamethasone. If you lose 75% of the time, youre considered really, really good. Even then, he would not talk about the specifics of the cases against him. (Pegram and Auerbach did not respond to interview requests. The public backlash, including a letter written by a gay. The colt went on to win the Preakness Stakes, giving the trainer his third shot at winning the Triple Crown. Nine died in 2000, all but one from breakdowns. Arthur is retiring at the end of June from a job often consumed by the scandals of a single trainer. From there, he moved to racing at recognized tracks, scoring his first victory at age 17 in 1970. It takes only a minute or so to walk from the racetrack at Santa Anita Park to the barns in back. 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. 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. Baffert has also had his share of horse fatalities, the other metric to which his critics point. Scopolamine, Baedeker wrote, can be injected but very often is the result of feed or straw that has been contaminated with Jimson weed., Arthur had previously suggested he didnt consider Jimson weed contamination to be a serious threat, writing in a 2016 memo that the likelihood under our current procedures of getting a positive from environmental contamination is rather low. In an interview this week, Arthur said he meant that such incidences were infrequent but said that in California, if you have a scopolamine positive, its going to be associated with Jimson weed thats just the reality of it., On April 26, records show, Arthur emailed CHRB officials that he had talked to Bob and informed him the proceedings would not immediately interfere with Justifys Triple Crown schedule. Baffert has had more than 30 drug violations in his 44-year career, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. There have been so many false narratives that have come up and the hearing process isnt even done yet. Horse racing needs to cut off the head of the snake, Ruis said. He's saddled. After winning the Santa Anita Derby in April of that year, Bafferts Justify tested positive for scopolamine, a banned substance, which normally would have disqualified the victory and made the horse ineligible to run in that years Kentucky Derby. But the scuttled test result remained secret until the New York Times reported it in 2019. "So now even our Kentucky Derby winner, Medina Spirit, is a junky," Trump's statement read. 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. 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. Several members of the Breeders Cup board have used Baffert as their trainer. Doug ONeill, a two-time winner of the Kentucky Derby, was one of the few trainers who would talk about Bafferts recent troubles. Bob is trying to put 2020 behind him and move forward in a positive manner, Robertson wrote in an e-mail to Borden. Theres 10,000 other trainers who understand the absolute insurer rule and dont seem to run afoul of it, Gagliano said, referring to the edict that any substances in the horse are the trainers responsibility. For every Baffert defender, you can find someone on the other side. You could trust him and that never changed.. 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 . In New York, chefs are redefining it. 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. In April, after Arkansas reversed its decision on two Baffert horses and overturned his suspension, trainer Richard Baltas was bad-mouthing Baffert at Clockers Corner, the place where trainers and fans watch horses work in the morning at Santa Anita. 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. Carson Valley was killed in a freak accident in 2019 at Del Mar when a loose horse crashed into the Baffert trainee. He declined to answer further questions. Once again, the Hall of Fame. Gray said at the time that the bill also would increase the institutional knowledge of Californias central horse drug-testing lab. Its all because of his success.. A 4/C violation meant minor punishment that wouldnt typically involve disqualifying the horse or redistributing winnings. In fact, Bafferts horses, at 8.3 deaths per 1,000 starts, have died at a significantly higher rate than Hollendorfers, at 6.25. 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. Following the 2015 Belmont win, Baffert outlined several charities that he and his wife Jill supported. Once the golden boy of horse racing, Bob Baffert now the face of its disgrace. 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. 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.. The CHRB had not adopted that recommendation. Baffert said the horse was off the drug for 18 days before the race. But Californias adoption of ARCI guidelines is not a given. In raw numbers, most of Baffert's medication violations were for exceeding allowed amounts of authorized medications such as phenylbutazone, a pain medication commonly administered to horses. Bob survived a heart attack in late March 2012 while in Dubai for a world-class race at Meydan. Like Baffert, Hollendorfer is in the thoroughbred Hall of Fame. Time after time its not his fault. Real Quiet won the Preakness as well, but, like Silver Charm, the horse was denied a Triple Crown win and finished second in the Belmont Stakes by a nose. Baffert trained Lookin At Lucky, co-owned by Mike Pegram, to win the Preakness Stakes in 2010. Robert A. Baffert (born January 13, 1953) is an American racehorse trainer who trained the 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify. I told him I thought there was a good indication that these were feed contamination.. Some of the earlier violations do give you pause. And Noodles died May 22 of a non-exercise induced respiratory issue. Anybody who walks with that swagger, people are going to love him or hate him, Pegram said. 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. [21][22] Sports Illustrated suggested that the positive drug test was a sign that Baffert's "leaking credibility" had reached "the saturation point. 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. The first two infractions occurred in May 2020, when the horses Charlatan and Gamine tested positive in Arkansas for lidocaine, a numbing agent. One of his grooms, Clemintino Abrego Garcia, testified that Baffert called him three or four times attempting to get him to admit that he had eaten baked goods near the horse. During a hearing, records show, Baffert argued the positive test could have been a result of his stable hands eating poppy seed bagels and muffins around the horse. He also dismissed complaints that doping was rampant in the sport. The CHRB ruled it was caused by feed contamination, citing six other horses across four barns who also tested positive. 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. The suspension was scheduled to run March 8 through June 5. Teflon."[11]. As the Kentucky Derby approached, officials began discussing the possibility of contamination that the positive test had been triggered by something Justify ingested. He appeared in an episode of the TV show Take Home Chef. He was fined $1,500. 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. Its all right there in black and white; thats all I can say., ARCI President Ed Martin said the rules limiting race-day medications have been tightened not out of concern for performance enhancement but to prevent breakdowns. Racing lacks a central clearinghouse for data on deaths nationally, and regulators in many states do not track deaths by trainer. Some of my friends swear that I'm actually a conservative Democrat. Two months later, the PAC contributed $2,000 to Grays successful election committee. He won his first race on that 1970 afternoon but not as a trainer. [2] Baffert and his family reside in California. (Arthur and those involved with the bill said the actions were unrelated. But hes Bob, he has to speak his mind.. Baedeker said this week he changed his mind on not filing a complaint, which would have put the matter before CHRBs Board of Stewards, because he didnt want to pass the buck. 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. Betamethasone is mostly injected into the joints of horses to ease inflammation and, if the inflammation is reduced, any associated pain subsides. In 2000, for instance, another of his horses, Nautical Look, tested positive for morphine, landing Baffert a two-month suspension. "[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. 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. Grays office told the committee that removing Dr. Arthur from his position, while intentional, is not the sole purpose of the bill, records show. The New York Racing Assn. The month after that, Grays bill to limit Arthurs term was passed out of a committee. Horse trainer Bob Baffert, left, leaves federal court in Brooklyn on July 12. It subsequently said any horses running for a suspended trainer (Baffert) would not be eligible for Kentucky Derby or Oaks qualifying points. After the Times broke the news of the positive drug test, Ruis sued the CHRB in January 2020. 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. A complaint is filed in every case where the split sample confirms the original laboratory finding, read an advisory on the CHRB website. All they show is contamination, and they have really put the trainers heads on the chopping blocks. [citation needed], According to his supporters, Baffert's style and personality, combined with his success, have made him a target for controversy. 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.. The dark side of Bob Baffert's reign. Bob Baffert Family, Parents Baffert is a three-time winner of the Kentucky Derby, and has several top prospects for the May 5 race. Kentucky regulators taped calls without consent with Baffert after Medina Spirit test. 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. After the test result was revealed, Mick Ruis, the trainer and owner of the Santa Anita Derbys runner-up, sued the CHRB, claiming Justifys win should have been erased. Hes Mr. Teflon.. Baffert has saddled 34 horses in the Derby third-most in history since his first appearance in 1996. Hollywood Park closed in 2013, and the saga of the dead horses there faded quickly from the headlines. Bob Baffert blamed "cancel culture" after his horse, Medina Spirit, who won the Kentucky Derby, failed its post-race drug test. Arthur also presented exercise histories for the horses that showed they worked harder than average. LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - Testimonies have begun in the case of horse trainer Bob Baffert against Churchill Downs. 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. In 1997 he won his first Kentucky Derby with Silver Charm. The ARCI rules are recommendations, the associations president, Ed Martin, said in an interview. The average death rate for racehorses in California, according to an analysis of more than 5,000 deaths since 2000, is 7.2 per 1,000 starts. He tried his hand at substitute teaching before he started training horses full time. By Marty Irby. He told reporters that he would fight the issue "tooth and nail. On June 9, Justify won the Belmont and the Triple Crown. At one point, the regulators effort included searching for exonerating evidence in a literal haystack. 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. 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. 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. Does his love of the camera sometimes bite him? asked longtime owner and friend Mike Pegram. 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. The way this case was handled was not a favor for Bob Baffert, Arthur 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. 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. His attorney, let me just say, worked very, very hard, recalled former California Deputy Attorney General Jerald L. Mosley, who represented the state in attempting to uphold the suspension. That didnt feel appropriate to those of who wanted to see science prevail, Cardoza said. 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. California counts all fatalities of horses in a trainers care, including breakdowns during training, not just racing deaths. Political Cartoons. "We live in a different world now. And he does know generally when to stop on a horse.. I think much of the GOP political party is moving too far to the right. Has his success made people hate him more? 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. In fact, at some point Id like to get back together with Bob, Shah said. 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. All of the drugs were legal, just not in the amounts found on race day. This America's different." pic . Robert A. Baffert (born January 13, 1953) is an American racehorse trainer who trained the 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify. In response to public records requests in Maryland, New Jersey and Kentucky, officials told The Post that they did not maintain digital records of horse deaths by trainer, instead keeping reams of copies of reports. 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. [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. In his analysis, Petersen estimated the states chances of winning at trial to be 50 percent. 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. And the Breeders Cup, which will be held Nov. 5-6 at Del Mar, has indicated it will soon make a decision on Bafferts eligibility to run in those championship races. No sanctions were issued against Baffert.[40][41]. 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. 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. In that period, 36% of all cardiac related horse deaths in California were animals trained by Baffert. 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.. 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. In the next six months, three of his horses tested positive for banned or excessive substances four times in California, Arkansas and Kentucky. He built up his training business a step at a time and acquired some prominent owners. And promote he does, chatting with people he met one minute ago as if they were long-lost friends. But they dont usually die in a cluster from a single barn for no clear reason. It was an easy suspension to serve as Baffert was in school and not doing much training. 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. [27][28] On July 14 the suspension was reversed by U. S. Federal District Court Judge Carol Bagley Amon sitting in the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn. 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. was. Baffert sued in federal court, claiming the two months off could cost him $11 million in purses. The 69-year-old Hall of Fame trainer is suing Churchill Downs Inc. in federal court to end his suspension. Another person who came to Bafferts defense was his former assistant Tim Yakteen, who now runs his own stable. Hal Earnhardt, an Arizona car dealer and Bafferts oldest client, introduced him to Pegram, who made his money in fast-food franchising. Baffert won his first race as a thoroughbred trainer Jan. 28, 1979, saddling Flipper Star to a victory at Rillito in Arizona. Medina Spirit departed Churchill Downs in a van before dawn on Monday, bound for Baltimore (a horse van, not Jeff Spicoli's VW bus ). 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 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. We live and work in a fishbowl, with rumors and accusations flowing constantly, Baffert said. Being a horse trainer is tough enough because its such an up-and-down, emotional roller coaster, Baffert said. Hes good.. He made the jump to Los Alamitos, where he was running against such legends as Wayne Lukas. (The trainer and jockey usually get 10 percent each.) A CHRB spokesman said the agency could not comment or make any employees available for an interview, citing the pending litigation. It basically said something under his control is associated with these fatalities, Arthur said, but regulators couldnt act without evidence of a rules violation. 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]. And he pushes the envelope to the extent that they give their lives for his bank account.. Robert A. Baffert is an American Racehorse Trainer who trained the 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify. The Kentucky Derby winner is staying ahead of . [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. Bafferts breakthrough thoroughbred was Thirty Slews, who won the Breeders Cup Sprint in 1992. Arthur said the TOC was behind the effort to oust him because of his criticism of Lasix. Nothing is held back.. [38] This reminded the public that since 2000, at least 74 other horses had died while in Baffert's stables. In the past three years, there were 188 deaths involving either racing or training in California. The trainer was Baffert. Hospital food is a punchline. 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. Baffert was recently suspended for 90 days by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, California Horse Racing Board, and the New York State Gaming Commission for drug violations in the 2021 Kentucky . 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. "[29][30] On September 10, 2021 Baffert was charged by NYRA for conduct detrimental to the best interests of racing. 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. Finding a new director every two to four years would cost $300,000 each time, a committee that analyzed the bill found. The previous August, Bob Baffert Racing Stables had donated $1,000 to the TOCs political action committee, California records show. shooting in manchester nj today,