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. In 2015, a loose group of prominent thoroughbred owners hatched a plan according to people with direct knowledge of it to sic private eyes, from a firm called 5 Stones that helped bring down Russian dopers, on their sports most famous trainer. [43] At the post-Belmont press conference, Baffert announced he and his wife would be making donations of $50,000 each to the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, the California Retirement Management Account (CARMA), and Old Friends Equine, all programs for retired race horses; and to the Permanently Disabled Jockey's Fund in memory of a Quarter Horse Jockey named Robert Z. Bafferts lawyers have made explicit that he will accept fines but not a suspension, and state regulators have continually obliged him. 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. Shortly after Petersen sent the analysis of the states chances, the CHRB agreed to settle Ruiss lawsuit. Anybody who walks with that swagger, people are going to love him or hate him, Pegram said. Baffert has saddled 34 horses in the Derby third-most in history since his first appearance in 1996. Baffert grew up on a ranch in Nogales, Arizona, where his family raised cattle and chickens. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Churchill Downs goes after suspended trainer Bob Baffert with new policy. 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. Yakteen rose to Bafferts defense and it ended with a scuffle that slightly injured a security guard. The horse is scheduled to run Saturday in the Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita. Hollendorfers lawyer, Drew Couto, has claimed his client is being unfairly blamed for a high-profile spike of deaths at the track. California keeps track of horse deaths by trainer, but there are errors and limits to the data. 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. In that period, 36% of all cardiac related horse deaths in California were animals trained by Baffert. 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. 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. 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. When Arthur delivered his report in November 2013, the bill to remove him from office was still pending. Medina Spirit departed Churchill Downs in a van before dawn on Monday, bound for Baltimore (a horse van, not Jeff Spicoli's VW bus ). Baffert is known for holding court on such ideas at Clockers Corner, a popular hangout for horsemen at Santa Anita Park. Does his love of the camera sometimes bite him? asked longtime owner and friend Mike Pegram. "We live in a different world now. But the star trainers sudden support belied the fact that Baffert has for years been entangled with the very problems he blamed for his sports potential demise: drugs, dead horses and a feckless regulatory system. The colt skipped the Belmont Stakes but became the champion three-year-old colt that year. The 90 day ban against Baffert was set to be honored in all 38 racing states. 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. [2] His first winner was Flipper Star at Rillito Park on January 28, 1979. While he allowed that the case was handled differently because of the Triple Crown ramifications, the special treatment had nothing to do with the horses trainer. From there, he moved to racing at recognized tracks, scoring his first victory at age 17 in 1970. In the 1980s, Baffert moved to California and worked at Los Alamitos Race Course, where he switched to training Thoroughbreds full-time in 1991. 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. The Jockey Club has a database of thoroughbred breakdowns meaning deaths stemming from track injuries but said it is barred from sharing its data because of its contracts with racetracks. But Californias adoption of ARCI guidelines is not a given. The CHRB ruled it was caused by feed contamination, citing six other horses across four barns who also tested positive. This horse was going to run at the Triple Crown, Arthur said. 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. Bob is trying to put 2020 behind him and move forward in a positive manner, Robertson wrote in an e-mail to Borden. [34] However, the Kentucky Court of Appeals rejected Baffert's appeal on April 1. State investigators found that his staff was mixing a potentially dangerous prescription drug into the feed of every horse in his care. Yeah, sure, hes a wiseass and irreverent. He married his second wife, Jill, a former television reporter based in Louisville, in 2002. Ruis horse, Bolt dOro, finished second. But Clark Brewster, the attorney representing Medina Spirits owner, Amr Zedan, then contacted The Post and described Baffert as being unfairly maligned. April 29, 2022 9:00 AM. "[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. Baffert has trained horses that won fifteen American Classic Races, fifteen Breeders' Cup races, four Dubai World Cups and the inaugural Pegasus World Cup. 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. 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. This whole thing is ridiculous, Baffert texted back, according to messages obtained by The Post via public records request. If you lose 75% of the time, youre considered really, really good. The goal, the people familiar said, was to get Baffert to support languishing reforms in the sport. But even in those cases, which were handled according to established rules, the horses were disqualified and their winning purses were forfeited. He finished third in the Derby that year with Congaree. Real Quiet won the race that year, and Baffert also finished third with Indian Charlie. 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. In the case of Bafferts recent horse deaths, the records list a typical blend of drugs that have been allowed under certain thresholds, most frequently the anti-inflammatory phenylbutazone (or bute to horsemen) and furosemide (also known as Lasix), which is said to decrease bleeding from a horses lungs. [38] This reminded the public that since 2000, at least 74 other horses had died while in Baffert's stables. Like Baffert, Hollendorfer is in the thoroughbred Hall of Fame. 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. The groom denied it. 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. He got his first big break in 1992 when he won his first Breeder's Cup race with Thirty Slews. The 5-year-old mare was the seventh seemingly healthy horse from that barn to drop dead in 16 months. In each instance, the death is investigated. Baffert was fined $10,000. 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.. And Madeline Auerbach, who later became a CHRB commissioner, had partnered with Baffert in thoroughbred breeding. The attorney generals office referred all questions to the CHRB. Great Read: Bob Baffert has come a long way in horse racing, Santa Anita opens Friday as prelude to Breeders Cup at Del Mar, Surging Crespi receives another strong performance from sophomore Diego Velazquez, High school baseball and softball: Fridays scores, With Marcus Morris sidelined, Clippers look to stabilize lineup and rotations, With their playoff lives at stake, Darvin Ham challenges Lakers effort and urgency. By the April 1 ruling, Baffert had already transferred four 3-year-old colts to other trainers. Baffert failed in multiple attempts in Kentucky to overturn the track's ban or the start of his suspension, which began April 4. Baffert won the Derby a third time in 2002 with War Emblem. In more than four decades in the sport, Baffert has faced significant regulatory scrutiny because of a high death rate only once, after seven of his horses collapsed in a short period of time at the same California track. Baffert dedicated American Pharoah's win to Bobby. This article was published more than1 year ago. [14] It was Baffert's fifth violation in 13 months. 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. But Arthurs report said Hollywood Park used a different sort of poison than that found in the necropsy. By Marty Irby. In July 2020, Merneith tested positive for dextromethorphan, a drug commonly used in cough medicine. He will rub people the wrong way by speaking his mind, sometimes he needs to hit the mute button. You wouldnt know it now.. Baffert said the horse was off the drug for 18 days before the race. ), Among the TOCs central crusades was countering the movement against Lasix. A complaint is filed in every case where the split sample confirms the original laboratory finding, read an advisory on the CHRB website. John Cherwa is a special contributor to the Los Angeles Times. Horse trainer Bob Baffert, left, leaves federal court in Brooklyn on July 12. If they didnt adopt those rules, the rules that prevail are the ones they adopted.. 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 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. [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. Horse trainer Bob Baffert, left, leaves federal court in Brooklyn on July 12. 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 . The longest his suspension from Kentucky would be is 30 days, which would be honored by all racing jurisdictions. By age 20, he had developed a reputation as a trainer and was hired by other trainers to run their stables. "What a way to come back," said Baffert, whose punishment by the Kentucky Horse . (A CHRB spokesman declined to comment, citing pending litigation. Bafferts record of testing failures threatens public confidence in thoroughbred racing and the reputation of the Kentucky Derby, said Bill Carstanjen, chief executive of Churchill Downs Inc. Given these repeated failures over the last year, including the increasingly extraordinary explanations, we firmly believe that asserting our rights to impose these measures is our duty and responsibility.. This America's different." pic . [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. Two Triple Crown winners and a signature shock of white hair will do that for a man. 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. 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. The board agreed not to disqualify Justify. Only once has a Kentucky Derby winner been disqualified for a medication violation. 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. 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]. Several members of the Breeders Cup board have used Baffert as their trainer. 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. 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. Hes always wanted to be a rock star and some people dont think racing should have one.. Mr. 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. Baffert did not have another medication violation for eight years. The California Horse Racing Boards inner workings during the episode have remained mostly shrouded by official secrecy. Nine died in 2000, all but one from breakdowns. This pattern has bred frustration among some horsemen. But hes Bob, he has to speak his mind.. Once again, the Hall of Fame. If it surprised me it would be that I expected more, Roberts said. Last October Gamine was disqualified from third to last in the Kentucky Oaks after betamethasone, an anti-inflammatory, was discovered in the horses system. Baffert also trained the 2018 Triple Crown Winner, Justify and the 2020 Kentucky Derby winner, Authentic. The consolation is knowing the truth will come out as the process plays out. Biography Bob Baffert is best known as a horse rider. 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. Baffert says he plans to seek legal recourse wherever necessary. Hollywood Park closed in 2013, and the saga of the dead horses there faded quickly from the headlines. Baffert went to federal court and had the suspension overturned, but NYRA has called a scheduling conference on the trainer for Oct. 11. Similarly, cases against two horses who tested positive in Arkansas in 2020 for lidocaine were dismissed as being the result of accidental transfer from an assistant trainer who was using the medication on himself. 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. Medina Spirit had a legal medication in him, ONeill said. This article was published more than1 year ago, LOS ANGELES In March 2020, horse racings most recognizable figure, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, declared that his sport was in crisis.. Arthur indicated in his report that thyroxine was suspected to cause heart problems for horses during exercise, and at least four of the sudden deaths involved confirmed or suspected cardiac failure. Two months later, the PAC contributed $2,000 to Gray's . He followed it with six more Derbies, two of which launched Triple Crown runs, with American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify in 2018. 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. Hes the person few in the business want to talk about, but everyone wants to hear about. He also won the race in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018 when run as a Grade I event. Closing everything and moving forward is in Bobs best interest and the best interest of horse racing. [19][20] On May 11, Baffert stated Medina Spirit had dermatitis, for which an ointment containing betamethasone was used. 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. Hes Mr. Teflon.. By then, Justify had won the Triple Crown, one of the rarest achievements in sports. 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. But in 2018, Arthur was still on the job when another Baffert-trained horse tested regulators willingness to challenge him. I dont see somebody who is doping horses, Martin said after reviewing Bafferts drug-related history. It wasn't long after the running of the 123rd Kentucky Derby, where a grey . He was fined $1,500. Arthur, the equine medical director, took issue with Petersens legal finding that the CHRBs handling of the case could be declared arbitrary or capricious. I told him I thought there was a good indication that these were feed contamination.. I believe there is some precedent in criminal law when a law is changed from a felony to a misdemeanor how they should be prosecuted even before the new law becomes effective, wrote Arthur, whose job before medical equine director was as a racetrack veterinarian. 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. Hes good.. His American Pharaoh horse won the Triple Crown in 2015. 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. In 2012, Baffert saddled Bodemeister, named for the trainer's youngest son, Bode, to second-place finishes in the Derby and Preakness. And he does know generally when to stop on a horse.. 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. Mick Ruis, who trained against Baffert for a couple years but now just manages his own racing business, once admired Baffert and his success, but no longer. 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. [2] Baffert and his family reside in California. "[10], However, over 30 horses Baffert trained have failed drug tests. There wasnt any question in my mind, he said recently. . No horse loving person like Bob or his entire team accepts the reality of a horse death with anything other than sadness and despair, the lawyers said in their statement. [10], Controversy deepened when on December 6, 2021, Medina Spirit died of an apparent heart attack after a workout at Santa Anita Park. Another person who came to Bafferts defense was his former assistant Tim Yakteen, who now runs his own stable. His white hair, tinted glasses and accessibility make him a natural to promote the sport. LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. High Connection won the $125,000 Los Alamitos Derby by 1 3/4 lengths Saturday, giving trainer Bob Baffert his second victory on the card in his return to competition after serving a 90-day suspension. 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. Betamethasone is mostly injected into the joints of horses to ease inflammation and, if the inflammation is reduced, any associated pain subsides. For every Baffert defender, you can find someone on the other side. The trainer was Baffert. [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. He rejoined The Times in 2009 and left his post as deputy sports editor late in 2017. The owner was Kaleem Shah. CNN Hall of Fame horse trainer Bob Baffert will miss the Kentucky Derby for a second straight year after a federal judge denied his request to have a two-year ban by Churchill Downs Inc.. By then, Arthur already had a years-long, tangled history with Baffert. 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. 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. 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 . Baffert is the biggest name in horse racing, even bigger than the animals he conditions. (At least one death of a Baffert horse identified by The Post was not included in the agencys data.)