The month after Gray introduced his legislation, Bafferts seventh sudden death made the deaths at Hollywood Park a national news story. Its all because of his success.. Baedeker and Arthur said in interviews that no matter how it was handled it would have been impossible to resolve the case that quickly. was. 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. Hollendorfers lawyer, Drew Couto, has claimed his client is being unfairly blamed for a high-profile spike of deaths at the track. There is nothing new here, he wrote. From there, he moved to racing at recognized tracks, scoring his first victory at age 17 in 1970. There have been so many false narratives that have come up and the hearing process isnt even done yet. A 4/C violation meant minor punishment that wouldnt typically involve disqualifying the horse or redistributing winnings. 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. On May 5, Justify won the Kentucky Derby, upping the stakes of the investigation. ), Among the TOCs central crusades was countering the movement against Lasix. The California Horse Racing Board cleared Baffert of any wrongdoing, but with reservation, calling such a cluster of deaths a less than 1-in-1,000 occurrence. I think much of the GOP political party is moving too far to the right. 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. I guess I'm more of an "old school" Republican. 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. And Madeline Auerbach, who later became a CHRB commissioner, had partnered with Baffert in thoroughbred breeding. Medina Spirit departed Churchill Downs in a van before dawn on Monday, bound for Baltimore (a horse van, not Jeff Spicoli's VW bus ). 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. He was born on January 13, 1953, in Nogales, AZ. Its just disheartening. He got his first big break in 1992 when he won his first Breeder's Cup race with Thirty Slews. Bell told an investigator he then checked other bales and found a branch and pods he thought were Jimson weed in the parking lot. The winner's share of the $600 purse was $330. 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. On a recent afternoon, Baffert appeared largely unperturbed by the firestorm surrounding him when he answered his door in Arcadia, Calif. This is the first Ive learned of it, Baffert responded when told of The Posts finding that he had the highest rate of horse deaths among other top trainers in the state. In 2000, for instance, another of his horses, Nautical Look, tested positive for morphine, landing Baffert a two-month suspension. [13] In Kentucky, any amount of betamethasone detected in post-race testing is a violation and could result in a disqualification. This included Baffert's home track at Santa Anita, although Baffert horse Shaaz won the sixth race on April 2. The dark side of Bob Baffert's reign. 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. Its so obvious. 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. Bob Baffert blamed "cancel culture" after his horse, Medina Spirit, who won the Kentucky Derby, failed its post-race drug test. Other people may have made a different decision, but to say that there was no basis for that decision is pure bulls---, said Arthur, who announced his retirement this year. Baffert did not have another medication violation for eight years. The horse is scheduled to run Saturday in the Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita. The majority of the deaths in Bafferts care are attributed to breakdowns, though others have died suddenly without explanation and some of the horses suffered illness including his most recent death, Noodles, in May where pneumonia was the suspected cause. Whether youre a lifelong resident of D.C. or you just moved here, weve got you covered. Political Cartoons. (A CHRB spokesman declined to comment, citing pending litigation. The drug was again betamethasone, and Baffert again expressed shock and vowed to clear his name. CHRB brass agreed to follow Arthurs suggestion. The previous August, Bob Baffert Racing Stables had donated $1,000 to the TOCs political action committee, California records show. In the settlement, which records show did not include monetary damages, CHRB agreed to file a complaint against Justify. 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. He rejoined The Times in 2009 and left his post as deputy sports editor late in 2017. When he was 10, his father purchased some Quarter Horses and he practiced racing them on a dirt track. It was later discovered that horses from separate barns had also tested positive. That investigation led to the indictments that Baffert said spurred him to embrace more oversight, so the cheaters would be quickly caught and punished.. Bob Bafferts horses have incurred numerous drug violations over the course of his 44 years as a thoroughbred trainer. The month after that, Grays bill to limit Arthurs term was passed out of a committee. Between November 2011 and March 2013, however, Baffert had seven of his horses die of sudden death, not on the race track. In 2010, Misremembered, a horse he bred, owned by his wife Jill and their friend George Jacobs, won the Santa Anita Handicap, marking Baffert's first Grade I win as a breeder instead of a trainer. The 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. Ive heard the rumors on Bobby since we got in the business after winning some Cal Cup races. And Bafferts veterinarians were prescribing it at his request without conducting laboratory tests to see whether the horses needed the drug, according to Arthurs later report. But its a lot more difficult when going against a private company, such as Churchill Downs, which can invoke its own penalties. It was then that Baffert, one of the most accessible trainers in horse racing, stopped talking until this week. Arthur suggested the board retroactively apply it to the Justify case. In 2021, the post-race test of Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit showed 21pg/mL of betamethasone. Nonetheless, in that case, Arkansas suspended Baffert for 15 days. But Clark Brewster, the attorney representing Medina Spirits owner, Amr Zedan, then contacted The Post and described Baffert as being unfairly maligned. Jerry Hollendorfer has the most deaths with 122. (Arthur and those involved with the bill said the actions were unrelated. In 1997 he won his first Kentucky Derby with Silver Charm. 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. By age 20, he had developed a reputation as a trainer and was hired by other trainers to run their stables. Betamethasone is mostly injected into the joints of horses to ease inflammation and, if the inflammation is reduced, any associated pain subsides. But the overall record indicates that he may not be running as tight a ship as he should.. Between 1997 and 1999, he won the Eclipse Award as outstanding trainer three years running and was voted the 1997 Big Sport of Turfdom Award. By Marty Irby. 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. We went there with expectations not very high. 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. He also won the race in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018 when run as a Grade I event. Former Democratic congressman Dennis Cardoza, also on the board, was co-owner with Pegram of Shakin It Up, a successful thoroughbred trained by Baffert. In 1977, as a part-time trainer, he was suspended for a year when one of his horses tested positive for morphine. In the next six months, three of his horses tested positive for banned or excessive substances four times in California, Arkansas and Kentucky. Arthur B. Hancock III, a prominent thoroughbred owner, has for three decades been a leading proponent for eradicating drugs from the sport. Baffert's horses have won a record six Kentucky Derbies, seven Preakness Stakes, three Belmont Stakes, and three Kentucky Oaks. Medina Spirit died after a training session on 6 December 2021 and an ensuing necropsy on 11 February 2022 was inconclusive. All of the drugs were legal, just not in the amounts found on race day. The bottom line, he said, is if youre a horse in Bob Bafferts barn, youre there to work.. Drop dead while galloping, read a California Horse Racing Board vets account of the first horses death in November 2011. And because of that, he has become arrogant as hell. He declined to answer further questions. It subsequently said any horses running for a suspended trainer (Baffert) would not be eligible for Kentucky Derby or Oaks qualifying points. 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.. Shortly after Petersen sent the analysis of the states chances, the CHRB agreed to settle Ruiss lawsuit. followed up and ruled Baffert would not be allowed to run in New York. The new classification simply makes more sense pharmacologically, Arthur wrote. In his claustrophobic and cluttered office at Santa Anita Barn 5, Bob Baffert, the hall of fame trainer, was pushing papers and moving stacks, hunting for a faded photo of his 17-year-old self aboard a long-forgotten quarter horse from a small racing circuit in Arizona. But even in those cases, which were handled according to established rules, the horses were disqualified and their winning purses were forfeited. [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 scheme involved digging up drug-related dirt on Baffert and then telling him that the evidence could disappear tomorrow if he were to endorse the federal reforms of the sport, one of the people said. It takes only a minute or so to walk from the racetrack at Santa Anita Park to the barns in back. Arthur also presented exercise histories for the horses that showed they worked harder than average. Several members of the Breeders Cup board have used Baffert as their trainer. 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. [25][26] On June 14, 2021, Baffert sued the NYRA alleging the association had no authority to suspend his license and that suspension "without prior notice" was a violation of the law. Hollywood Park closed in 2013, and the saga of the dead horses there faded quickly from the headlines. [2] His first winner was Flipper Star at Rillito Park on January 28, 1979. [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. Being a horse trainer is tough enough because its such an up-and-down, emotional roller coaster, Baffert said. Baffert's horses have won a record six Kentucky Derbies, seven Preakness Stakes, three Belmont Stakes, and three Kentucky Oaks . When I won with [Triple Crown winners] American Pharoah and Justify, it was a relief. 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. All of the explanations for the positive drug tests are plausible, but collectively they raise questions. But he said it wasnt clear from the records why the CHRB reversed course on filing a complaint against Baffert. 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 . A complaint is filed in every case where the split sample confirms the original laboratory finding, read an advisory on the CHRB website. The rise and fall of Jorge Navarro, the alleged doping king of horse racing. There were at least 39 trainers with more fatalities to their name than Baffert during that period. 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. By then, Arthur already had a years-long, tangled history with Baffert. Bob Baffert wakes up most every day with one thing in mind, winning another Kentucky Derby. Yeah, but thats what drives him. Baffert, however, wouldnt change the outcome. The 69-year-old Hall of Fame trainer is suing Churchill Downs Inc . Share on Facebook TWEET This Baffert was suspended by the NYRA on May 17 -- a big deal as it barred the legendary horse trainer from entering into the prestigious June 5 Belmont Stakes race. 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. He's saddled. The veterinarian chalked up Bafferts response to ignorance. As the Kentucky Derby approached, officials began discussing the possibility of contamination that the positive test had been triggered by something Justify ingested. 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. But hes a good person, no, a great person. 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. I told him I thought there was a good indication that these were feed contamination.. 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 . Horse trainer Bob Baffert, left, leaves federal court in Brooklyn on July 12. Trainer Bob Baffert stands outside his barn at Churchill Downs on May 2, 2016, in Louisville, Ky. Medina . Hes good.. 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. His white hair, tinted glasses and accessibility make him a natural to promote the sport. 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. How carefully the dosage was followed was not determined, Arthur wrote. 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. 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.. 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. 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. [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. 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. 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. 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. [2], Baffert graduated from the University of Arizona's Race Track Industry Program with a Bachelor of Science degree,[3] got married, and began training quarter horses at a Prescott, Arizona farm. Please answer some questions in this short survey about professional soccer and the 2022 Men's FIFA World Cup. 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. Arthur, the equine medical director, took issue with Petersens legal finding that the CHRBs handling of the case could be declared arbitrary or capricious. Has his success made people hate him more? Other trainers seem to navigate just fine.. The suspension was scheduled to run March 8 through June 5. Were going to get through it.. Gagliano, the Jockey Club president, denied that the group had any knowledge of whom 5 Stones investigated, outside of the eventual indictments. 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. If it surprised me it would be that I expected more, Roberts said. State investigators found that his staff was mixing a potentially dangerous prescription drug into the feed of every horse in his care. In New York, chefs are redefining it. Baedeker this week acknowledged that they handled the process more slowly than usual. Yeah, sure, hes a wiseass and irreverent. And he pushes the envelope to the extent that they give their lives for his bank account.. When asked about that plan, attorney Brewster said that in fact 5 Stones did investigate Baffert at the direction of the Jockey Club. [14] It was Baffert's fifth violation in 13 months. 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 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. [10][12] However, his violations for use of prohibited medications has sparked controversy. 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. Once again, the Hall of Fame. There are no secrets on the backside.. But Californias adoption of ARCI guidelines is not a given. But hes Bob, he has to speak his mind.. Hes won seven, more than anyone else in the 147-year history of the race. But when factoring in the number of races run, Bafferts horses have died at the highest rate of the 10 trainers who have had the most horse deaths. Some of the horses that have died have been my horses, and on each and every instance, I have spoken to Bob and Ive been more than satisfied with the explanation, Shah said. (The trainer and jockey usually get 10 percent each.) Its not uncommon to find trainers who dont understand medications and how different medications work, Arthur said. Hes always wanted to be a rock star and some people dont think racing should have one.. 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. 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. [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. To the newspaper, she. The trainer was Baffert. The Kentucky Derby winner is staying ahead of . 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 . [8][37] That case was eventually dismissed as the regulators concluded the facts supported an instance of feed contamination. Petersen noted that in a previous case the board had exonerated the trainers of three horses who had tested positive for scopolamine, finding the flunked tests were a result of Jimson weed. The owner was Kaleem Shah. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Churchill Downs goes after suspended trainer Bob Baffert with new policy. You could trust him and that never changed.. "We live in a different world now. Instead of promptly filing a public complaint against Baffert, the CHRB kept the positive result secret while Arthur conducted a lengthy investigation. LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) A federal judge denied Bob Baffert's request to lift his two-year suspension by Churchill Downs Inc., ruling Friday that the Hall of Fame trainer did not prove its. . 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. 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. He will rub people the wrong way by speaking his mind, sometimes he needs to hit the mute button. ), 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. 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 July 2020, Merneith tested positive for dextromethorphan, a drug commonly used in cough medicine. They had a son in 2004 whom they named "Bode" (/bodi/ BOH-dee), after skier Bode Miller. Bafferts breakthrough thoroughbred was Thirty Slews, who won the Breeders Cup Sprint in 1992. The New York Racing Assn. Baffert is America's pre-eminent active trainer. He claimed the boards cover up cost him damages including the $400,000 difference between the first-place and second-place purses in the Santa Anita Derby. Some of the earlier violations do give you pause. He told reporters that he would fight the issue "tooth and nail. The attorney generals office referred all questions to the CHRB. The groom denied it. 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. 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]. Ruis horse, Bolt dOro, finished second. Baffert has been married twice and has five children: four with his first wife, Sherry: Taylor, Canyon, Forest, and Savannah. He views himself as an ambassador for the sport. [2] Baffert and his family reside in California. But that number may drop to six if the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission disqualifies this years winner, Medina Spirit, for a medication violation, the trainers fifth since May 2020. . At the time, she was 42-years-old. [9] Point Given was nominated in 2009, but elected and inducted in 2010. Baffert also has wielded unmatched clout when regulators have discovered banned or excessive substances in his horses. Once the golden boy of horse racing, Bob Baffert now the face of its disgrace. Medina Spirit had a legal medication in him, ONeill said. 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.