This article was published more than1 year ago. I thought wed get fourth. The New York Racing Assn. According to protocols, the medication is supposed to have a 14-day withdrawal period. 10, 2022. [38] This reminded the public that since 2000, at least 74 other horses had died while in Baffert's stables. I guess I'm more of an "old school" Republican. [9] Point Given was nominated in 2009, but elected and inducted in 2010. 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 . The dark side of Bob Baffert's reign - Washington Post 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.. He has often blamed drug positives on trace contamination from substances in a horses barn and has criticized tightening restrictions on the race-day use of bute and other drugs. The goal, the people familiar said, was to get Baffert to support languishing reforms in the sport. Hes a very unique personality, a unique sense of humor. 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. Celebrities Who Are Republicans/Conservatives - HubPages Baffert's attorney argued in court that the trainer's May suspension by the New York Racing Assn. Its truly painful when you know what the truth is, Baffert told The Times earlier this week in his first interview on the subject since May. Early life and career [ edit] Ive heard the rumors on Bobby since we got in the business after winning some Cal Cup races. 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. Baffert, however, wouldnt change the outcome. Baffert made the. [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. The deadliest period came between 2000 and 2005, when 34 of Bafferts horses in California died. 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. John Cherwa is a special contributor to the Los Angeles Times. EXPLAINER: Why Is Bob Baffert Not in the Kentucky Derby? 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. The substance was indeed Jimson weed. 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. "[10], However, over 30 horses Baffert trained have failed drug tests. Earlier data was unreliable, the racing publication said. 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. Santa Anitas 16-day fall season begins Friday with 14 stakes races over three days as trainers and owners take aim at the Breeders Cup at Del Mar. He also won the race in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018 when run as a Grade I event. The last stand of Bob Baffert, horse racing's top trainer - Los Angeles The colt lost the Belmont Stakes after breaking poorly from the starting gate. Only once has a Kentucky Derby winner been disqualified for a medication violation. Even then, he would not talk about the specifics of the cases against him. (Arthur and those involved with the bill said the actions were unrelated. Hes Mr. Teflon.. 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. Baffert wants a preliminary injunction that would keep Churchill Downs from denying his horses entry into races there and at Turfway Park, in Florence, Ky., and from "prohibiting him from earning. 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. Citrus Feed Companys Larry Bell has long supplied Baffert with feed and has previously testified in Bafferts defense, according to CHRB records. 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. 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. In July 2020, Merneith tested positive for dextromethorphan, a drug commonly used in cough medicine. [42] He had been paid $200,000 to allow the Burger King to stand behind him in the grandstand during the televised broadcast of the Belmont, after having turned down $150,000 to allow the mascot to appear with him at the Preakness. Trainer Bob Baffert celebrates after his horse, Authentic, won the Kentucky Derby in September 2020. Baffert also has wielded unmatched clout when regulators have discovered banned or excessive substances in his horses. Some of the earlier violations do give you pause. You wouldnt know it now.. Another day passed before it was discovered the colt was administered a topical ointment for a rash that contained betamethasone. Why would people want to be betting on horses when there are allegations and there are real positives and hes getting off on technicalities.. The trainer was fined $2,500. 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. 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. "What a way to come back," said Baffert, whose punishment by the Kentucky Horse . In that period, 36% of all cardiac related horse deaths in California were animals trained by Baffert. [2] His first winner was Flipper Star at Rillito Park on January 28, 1979. 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. I think much of the GOP political party is moving too far to the right. He started at The Times in 1980 and left in 1995 to be sports editor of the Chicago Tribune and Tribune Co. sports coordinator in 2002. [As for whats going on now,] I dont like it but Im dealing with it. Churchill Downs announced that any points earned in the leadup to the Kentucky Derby by horses associated with a suspended trainer would not be counted a move that seemingly targets Hall of Famer Bob Baffert. The Baffert who snubbed me on April 29, 2010, that is the real Bob Baffert, not the glib, seemingly affable chap heretofore seen in TV interviews. The board followed their recommendation. And he pushes the envelope to the extent that they give their lives for his bank account.. Mick Ruis, the owner and trainer of the second-place finisher in the Santa Anita Derby, has sued the CHRB. There are no secrets on the backside.. Darrell Vienna, Ruiss attorney, said he would not have agreed to those stipulations but was not allowed to intervene. was. Bafferts breakthrough thoroughbred was Thirty Slews, who won the Breeders Cup Sprint in 1992. He claimed that the horse death data provided by the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) was not possible.. Longtime client Mike Pegram explained, "Anybody who walks with that swagger, people are going to love him or hate himhe's a wiseass and irreverent." 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. [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. The owner was Kaleem Shah. His white hair, tinted glasses and accessibility make him a natural to promote the sport. In fact, at some point Id like to get back together with Bob, Shah said. The ARCI rules are recommendations, the associations president, Ed Martin, said in an interview. It was then that Baffert, one of the most accessible trainers in horse racing, stopped talking until this week. With upward of $1 million in yearly revenue drawn from wagering at tracks, the TOCs stated mission included establishing fair and reasonable medication rules and integrity standards., Baffert, the groups resident celebrity, was in business with several of his colleagues. 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. Baedeker this week acknowledged that they handled the process more slowly than usual. 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. Brewster alleged, without providing evidence, that the Jockey Club directed 5 Stones to investigate anybody who doesnt train for them and wins a lot of races and might run in racetracks they dont run at., You know what the conclusion was? Brewster said of the alleged private investigation into Baffert. 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. Bob Baffert wakes up most every day with one thing in mind, winning another Kentucky Derby. Hes good.. Attorneys argue 90-day suspension would end Bob Baffert's racing career Gray said at the time that the bill also would increase the institutional knowledge of Californias central horse drug-testing lab. "So now even our Kentucky Derby winner, Medina Spirit, is a junky," Trump's statement read. Bob Baffert Family, Parents [34] However, the Kentucky Court of Appeals rejected Baffert's appeal on April 1. Baffert often speaks of his life as if its a Shakespearean play, humankinds tragedies mingling with his own existential crises. 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. 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. [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. Kaleem Shah, an owner who split with Baffert in 2016, defended the trainer over the horse deaths. 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. The testing levels have become ridiculous, Baffert told a conference of racehorse veterinarians during his keynote speech in 2000, according to a trade publication. As the Kentucky Derby approached, officials began discussing the possibility of contamination that the positive test had been triggered by something Justify ingested. 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. Bob Baffert blamed "cancel culture" after his horse, Medina Spirit, who won the Kentucky Derby, failed its post-race drug test. Baffert, like many trainers, was using a thyroid drug that was cited in the CHRB investigation. Regardless, the indictments appeared to sway Baffert, whose opinion piece in The Post supported drastic action to fix a broken system. Among the provisions in the federal legislation that Baffert supported is a phaseout of Lasix on race day a reform Baffert had opposed for years. [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. Betamethasone is mostly injected into the joints of horses to ease inflammation and, if the inflammation is reduced, any associated pain subsides. None of them are considered performance-enhancing in the traditional sense, such as amphetamines or speedballs. Gary Fenton, chairman of the TOC, declined to be interviewed. We went there with expectations not very high. However, Medina Spirit tested positive for the steroid betamethasone. [39] California's equine medical director found that Baffert's horses were routinely given Thyro-L, or thyroxine, a thyroid hormone, that could cause heart problems during exercise, but concluded the medication, which Baffert said he had been using routinely for the previous five years, did not cause the heart attacks. Baffert has had more than 30 drug violations in his 44-year career, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.