Baffert won the Derby a third time in 2002 with War Emblem. By Marty Irby. Racing lacks a central clearinghouse for data on deaths nationally, and regulators in many states do not track deaths by trainer. A 4/C violation meant minor punishment that wouldnt typically involve disqualifying the horse or redistributing winnings. None of them are considered performance-enhancing in the traditional sense, such as amphetamines or speedballs. Baffert says he plans to seek legal recourse wherever necessary. Some of the earlier violations do give you pause. 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. Another person who came to Bafferts defense was his former assistant Tim Yakteen, who now runs his own stable. But a top veterinary official cleared Baffert, finding that the spate of deaths remains unexplained following a probe that demonstrated the hazards of going after Baffert. Bob Baffert wakes up most every day with one thing in mind, winning another Kentucky Derby. A three-member hearing panel has made the decision to suspend Hall of Fame horse trainer Bob Baffert for one year, effective immediately, the New York Racing Association announced Thursday. He tried his hand at substitute teaching before he started training horses full time. Baffert has trained horses that won fifteen American Classic Races, fifteen Breeders' Cup races, four Dubai World Cups and the inaugural Pegasus World Cup. California counts all fatalities of horses in a trainers care, including breakdowns during training, not just racing deaths. 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. Baffert is known for holding court on such ideas at Clockers Corner, a popular hangout for horsemen at Santa Anita Park. Whether youre a lifelong resident of D.C. or you just moved here, weve got you covered. The bottom line, he said, is if youre a horse in Bob Bafferts barn, youre there to work.. And promote he does, chatting with people he met one minute ago as if they were long-lost friends. ), Among the TOCs central crusades was countering the movement against Lasix. 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. Arthur said the TOC was behind the effort to oust him because of his criticism of Lasix. I thought wed get fourth. There were at least 39 trainers with more fatalities to their name than Baffert during that period. In that period, 36% of all cardiac related horse deaths in California were animals trained by Baffert. After Uncle Sam, a 4-year-old colt, died during a workout at the track the following January, a vet wrote: This is the 3rd for this owner/trainer in about as many months collapsed and died.. Baffert revisited the Derby the next year, sending two top colts, Real Quiet and Indian Charlie, to Louisville. He has never apologized to the public for trashing the game. Two Triple Crown winners and a signature shock of white hair will do that for a man. Two months later, the PAC contributed $2,000 to Gray's . Arthur B. Hancock III, a prominent thoroughbred owner, has for three decades been a leading proponent for eradicating drugs from the sport. LOS ANGELES In 2018, as star trainer Bob Baffert led his thoroughbred Justify to the Triple Crown, California regulators embarked on a secret effort to exonerate Baffert after the horse's. Clark Brewster, a nationally known trial attorney who represented adult film actress Stormy Daniels in her defamation suit against President Trump, will be Bafferts attorney in any litigation against Churchill Downs. The trainer was fined $2,500. 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. 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. In 1977, as a part-time trainer, he was suspended for a year when one of his horses tested positive for morphine. The 69-year-old Hall of Fame trainer is suing Churchill Downs Inc. in federal court to end his suspension. 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. Does the drug that could strip Medina Spirit of a Kentucky Derby win enhance performance? It elicited little notice; racehorses die by the hundreds per year in California alone. But Baffert and his lawyers had since established a reputation for pugnaciousness when regulators attempted to discipline him. 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. 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. Baffert sued in federal court, claiming the two months off could cost him $11 million in purses. He won his first race on that 1970 afternoon but not as a trainer. That didnt feel appropriate to those of who wanted to see science prevail, Cardoza said. Baffert is a three-time winner of the Kentucky Derby, and has several top prospects for the May 5 race. [7] Baffert became a 7-time winner of the Kentucky Derby in 2021 with Medina Spirit. The dark side of Bob Baffert's reign. 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. California keeps track of horse deaths by trainer, but there are errors and limits to the data. It subsequently said any horses running for a suspended trainer (Baffert) would not be eligible for Kentucky Derby or Oaks qualifying points. A week after that, Baffert learned of the positive test. I think much of the GOP political party is moving too far to the right. 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. He views himself as an ambassador for the sport. The substance was indeed Jimson weed. Horse-racing deaths, like much of the sport, are shrouded by a disjointed bureaucracy. 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. When Did threshold change and what were they before?, No amount of betamethasone is permitted in Kentucky races now, Borden wrote. 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. There wasnt any question in my mind, he said recently. He routinely challenges most sanctions, usually agreeing to accept fines but vigorously fighting suspensions. 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.. Hospital food is a punchline. Arthur and CHRB investigators inspected Bafferts barn, reviewed veterinary records and interviewed Baffert, who was flanked by an attorney. Once the golden boy of horse racing, Bob Baffert now the face of its disgrace. Former Democratic congressman Dennis Cardoza, also on the board, was co-owner with Pegram of Shakin It Up, a successful thoroughbred trained by Baffert. The rise and fall of Jorge Navarro, the alleged doping king of horse racing. 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. . He's a cheat and an asshole, and I hope Medina Spirit gets taken down and his connections are denied the $1.8 million first-place check. Once again, the Hall of Fame. 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. The bill was introduced by California Assemblyman Adam Gray, a former aide to Cardoza who had been in office for less than three months. 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. And because of that, he has become arrogant as hell. Robert A. Baffert is an American Racehorse Trainer who trained the 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify. What we knew about horses you could put in a thimble. He will rub people the wrong way by speaking his mind, sometimes he needs to hit the mute button. 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. Baffert said the horse ingested hay after a groom, who was taking cough medicine, had urinated in the horses stall. Mr. After finishing last season strong, CJ Abrams is ready for more. But the sports new governing authority will not take over until mid-2022. The veterinarian chalked up Bafferts response to ignorance. How carefully the dosage was followed was not determined, Arthur wrote. Hes a very unique personality, a unique sense of humor. 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. 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. The previous August, Bob Baffert Racing Stables had donated $1,000 to the TOCs political action committee, California records show. Hes good.. [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. 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. April 29, 2022 9:00 AM. Officials worked secretly to clear Bob Bafferts Justify amid 2018 Triple Crown run, records show. It was then that Baffert, one of the most accessible trainers in horse racing, stopped talking until this week. Following the 2015 Belmont win, Baffert outlined several charities that he and his wife Jill supported. He paused, then added: Ive learned who my friends are.. He has also won the Preakness Stakes five times and the Belmont Stakes once. On June 2, with the Belmont Stakes a week away, the owner of a feed operation showed up at the CHRB office carrying plant samples he said he found more than a month earlier, the records show. [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. Baffert, like many trainers, was using a thyroid drug that was cited in the CHRB investigation. Medina Spirit departed Churchill Downs in a van before dawn on Monday, bound for Baltimore (a horse van, not Jeff Spicoli's VW bus ). A complaint is filed in every case where the split sample confirms the original laboratory finding, read an advisory on the CHRB website. May 10, 2021. 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. FILE - In this Monday July 12, 2021 file photo, horse trainer Bob Baffert leaves federal court in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Justify faced disqualification from his victory in the Santa Anita Derby that would cost his owners a partnership of wealthy interests their share of the $600,000 first-place purse. Tinsley declined to comment. And Madeline Auerbach, who later became a CHRB commissioner, had partnered with Baffert in thoroughbred breeding. Betamethasone is mostly injected into the joints of horses to ease inflammation and, if the inflammation is reduced, any associated pain subsides. 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. Baffert has had two fatalities in the last three years, a low number for a barn of his size. 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. 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 told him I thought there was a good indication that these were feed contamination.. In the 1980s, Baffert moved to California and worked at Los Alamitos Race Course, where he switched to training Thoroughbreds full-time in 1991. In 2015, the Daily Herald ran a profile on Jill Baffert, explaining that she was a former journalist and waitress from Centerville. Baffert has paid out over $20,000 in fines, but compared against over $321 million in career earnings. The bold statement appeared to put Baffert on the right side of history: By the end of the year, President Donald Trump had signed into law the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, which promised to reform the sport. The trainer was Baffert. [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. If they didnt adopt those rules, the rules that prevail are the ones they adopted.. Bob had the personality and he was honest. The longest his suspension from Kentucky would be is 30 days, which would be honored by all racing jurisdictions. Baffert failed in multiple attempts in Kentucky to overturn the track's ban or the start of his suspension, which began April 4. 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. Among them, according to interviews and records obtained by The Post: a push to have the veterinary official removed from office, supported by a trade group with Baffert among its directors. The 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. 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. Baffert did not have a horse hit the board again in any of the Triple Crown races until 2009, when he trained Pioneerof The Nile to a second-place finish in the Derby. Until this summer, Baffert was the longest-serving member on the board of the Thoroughbred Owners of California, having been elected in 2007. And Ive warned them that this was not going to stay a secret at the time, he testified of the CHRB, but that was their decision, not mine. (Baedeker, who retired last year, told The Post they couldnt legally disclose the test results because CHRB did not file a complaint.). It wasnt long before Baffert was making pocket change riding the horses in match races. But the overall record indicates that he may not be running as tight a ship as he should.. The owners ultimately abandoned the plan after Bafferts horse, American Pharoah, won the Triple Crown that year, fearing their effort could damage the sport, one of those people said. Ive heard the rumors on Bobby since we got in the business after winning some Cal Cup races. ), 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. This was fun. [9] Point Given was nominated in 2009, but elected and inducted in 2010. We went there with expectations not very high. Decorated racehorse trainer who won multiple Kentucky Derbies, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes. The CHRB had not adopted that recommendation. Why would people want to be betting on horses when there are allegations and there are real positives and hes getting off on technicalities.. 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. "[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. [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. 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. 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. [citation needed], According to his supporters, Baffert's style and personality, combined with his success, have made him a target for controversy. Finding a new director every two to four years would cost $300,000 each time, a committee that analyzed the bill found. Anybody who walks with that swagger, people are going to love him or hate him, Pegram said. Nothing is held back.. 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.
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