Hes a very unique personality, a unique sense of humor. What we knew about horses you could put in a thimble. It elicited little notice; racehorses die by the hundreds per year in California alone. When Did threshold change and what were they before?, No amount of betamethasone is permitted in Kentucky races now, Borden wrote. Another person who came to Bafferts defense was his former assistant Tim Yakteen, who now runs his own stable. (Arthur and those involved with the bill said the actions were unrelated. He married his second wife, Jill, a former television reporter based in Louisville, in 2002. Two Triple Crown winners and a signature shock of white hair will do that for a man. In each instance, the death is investigated. When Arthur delivered his report in November 2013, the bill to remove him from office was still pending. 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. But they dont usually die in a cluster from a single barn for no clear reason. Several members of the Breeders Cup board have used Baffert as their trainer. A CHRB investigator, searching for Jimson weed, had found a leafy substance at Santa Anita Park, the records show, and following the Derby, Arthur and the CHRBs lawyer agreed to have it tested. By the April 1 ruling, Baffert had already transferred four 3-year-old colts to other trainers. 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. Being a horse trainer is tough enough because its such an up-and-down, emotional roller coaster, Baffert said. The bottom line, he said, is if youre a horse in Bob Bafferts barn, youre there to work.. 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. Trainer Bob Baffert celebrates after his horse, Authentic, won the Kentucky Derby in September 2020. [citation needed], According to his supporters, Baffert's style and personality, combined with his success, have made him a target for controversy. 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. But until now, those violations, some of which Baffert has succeeded in getting overturned or reduced, have resulted in roughly $20,000 in fines against $321 million in career earnings. (Pegram and Auerbach did not respond to interview requests. The 69-year-old Hall of Fame trainer is suing Churchill Downs Inc. in federal court to end his suspension. 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 has also had his share of horse fatalities, the other metric to which his critics point. 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. Baffert said in his autobiography it was a combination of ignorance and desperation. He will rub people the wrong way by speaking his mind, sometimes he needs to hit the mute button. Baffert, a La Caada Flintridge resident who is currently training his horses at Santa Anita, has not officially been charged with anything related to Medina Spirit. In 2012, Baffert saddled Bodemeister, named for the trainer's youngest son, Bode, to second-place finishes in the Derby and Preakness. 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.. He has won the Kentucky Oaks three times: first in 1999 with Silverbulletday, who was later selected for the Hall of Fame, then with Plum Pretty in 2011 and with Abel Tasman in 2017. Hes the person few in the business want to talk about, but everyone wants to hear about. Hes won seven, more than anyone else in the 147-year history of the race. 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. The board agreed not to disqualify Justify. By then, Bafferts encounters with regulators dated back decades, to 1977, when he served a yearlong suspension for racing a horse on morphine. Baffert, one of the most legendary trainers in American horse racing, has faced criticism and suspensions after his 2021 Kentucky Derby champion, Medina . 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. Teflon."[11]. 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.. Another day passed before it was discovered the colt was administered a topical ointment for a rash that contained betamethasone. 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. 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. 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. 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. [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. Carson Valley was killed in a freak accident in 2019 at Del Mar when a loose horse crashed into the Baffert trainee. 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. [19][20] On May 11, Baffert stated Medina Spirit had dermatitis, for which an ointment containing betamethasone was used. Hollendorfers lawyer, Drew Couto, has claimed his client is being unfairly blamed for a high-profile spike of deaths at the track. 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 made the. 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. American Pharoah next won the 140th Preakness Stakes, making six victories in that race for Baffert, who also finished fourth with Dortmund. [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. (The trainer and jockey usually get 10 percent each.) The goal, the people familiar said, was to get Baffert to support languishing reforms in the sport. He won his first race on that 1970 afternoon but not as a trainer. Baffert was fined $10,000. A recent conversation about the tragedy of horse deaths wended its way back to the defense of his reputation. [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. See, I bet you didnt know I was a jockey? Baffert said. The substance was indeed Jimson weed. The rise and fall of Jorge Navarro, the alleged doping king of horse racing. The ARCI rules are recommendations, the associations president, Ed Martin, said in an interview. Shortly after Petersen sent the analysis of the states chances, the CHRB agreed to settle Ruiss lawsuit. 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. The cluster of sudden deaths remains unexplained and there was no evidence whatsoever CHRB rules or regulations have been violated or any illicit activity played a part in the deaths, Arthurs report concluded. It wasnt long before Baffert was making pocket change riding the horses in match races. He was born on January 13, 1953, in Nogales, AZ. 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. Without that win, Justify would not have qualified to run in the Kentucky Derby, the first leg of the Triple Crown, a month later. Betamethasone is mostly injected into the joints of horses to ease inflammation and, if the inflammation is reduced, any associated pain subsides. The owner was Kaleem Shah. 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. Baffert, however, became the first trainer in history to win the Derby and Preakness in back-to-back years. "This is emblematic of what is happening to our country. Grays office told the committee that removing Dr. Arthur from his position, while intentional, is not the sole purpose of the bill, records show. 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. "[29][30] On September 10, 2021 Baffert was charged by NYRA for conduct detrimental to the best interests of racing. Mr. Horse owner and racing reform advocate Barry Irwin has stated, "He's Mr. Yeah, but thats what drives him. But the scuttled test result remained secret until the New York Times reported it in 2019. Does his love of the camera sometimes bite him? asked longtime owner and friend Mike Pegram. Political Cartoons. 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. 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. This America's different." pic . 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. 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. Robert A. Baffert is an American Racehorse Trainer who trained the 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify. How carefully the dosage was followed was not determined, Arthur wrote. 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. Then, when American Pharoah won the 2015 Belmont Stakes, the win was the fourth attempt at a Triple Crown for Baffert, who at age 62 became the second-oldest trainer to win a Triple Crown.[6]. Its more the friendship that I miss. 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 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. [14] It was Baffert's fifth violation in 13 months. Medina Spirit departed Churchill Downs in a van before dawn on Monday, bound for Baltimore (a horse van, not Jeff Spicoli's VW bus ). 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. Hollywood Park closed in 2013, and the saga of the dead horses there faded quickly from the headlines. Yakteen rose to Bafferts defense and it ended with a scuffle that slightly injured a security guard. 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. Arthur also presented exercise histories for the horses that showed they worked harder than average. In a scheme typical of the high-stakes warring behind the scenes in racing, four thoroughbred owners entered talks in 2015 with a private intelligence agency to dig up drug-related dirt on Baffert, according to multiple people with direct knowledge. Finding a new director every two to four years would cost $300,000 each time, a committee that analyzed the bill found. Board member Michael E. Pegram had for decades hired Baffert to train his top horses, including the winner of the 1998 Kentucky Derby, Real Quiet. Decorated racehorse trainer who won multiple Kentucky Derbies, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes. Bob Baffert blamed "cancel culture" after his horse, Medina Spirit, who won the Kentucky Derby, failed its post-race drug test. Baffert won his first race as a thoroughbred trainer Jan. 28, 1979, saddling Flipper Star to a victory at Rillito in Arizona. It then changed the classification of scopolamine so that its detection in a horse would trigger only a fine and not disqualification and loss of the races purse. [13] In Kentucky, any amount of betamethasone detected in post-race testing is a violation and could result in a disqualification. Two months later, the PAC contributed $2,000 to Gray's . The drug was again betamethasone, and Baffert again expressed shock and vowed to clear his name. 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. Bafferts attorney argued in court that the trainers May suspension by the New York Racing Assn. California counts all fatalities of horses in a trainers care, including breakdowns during training, not just racing deaths. 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. FILE - In this Monday July 12, 2021 file photo, horse trainer Bob Baffert leaves federal court in the Brooklyn borough of New York. That didnt feel appropriate to those of who wanted to see science prevail, Cardoza said. 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. 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. Even then, he would not talk about the specifics of the cases against him. The quest to find Jimson weed continued. [31][32] Additional charges were added on January 3, 2022. 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. 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. Baffert said the horse was off the drug for 18 days before the race. A 23-page analysis of that case, sent to the CHRB by a California deputy attorney general in July and obtained by The Post, suggests the states lawyers were concerned about the way the agency responded to the failed drug test. 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." [9] Point Given was nominated in 2009, but elected and inducted in 2010. It went exactly according to the lawyers plan. If it surprised me it would be that I expected more, Roberts said. It was then that Baffert, one of the most accessible trainers in horse racing, stopped talking until this week. Baffert is a three-time winner of the Kentucky Derby, and has several top prospects for the May 5 race. 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. 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. The groom denied it. He also dismissed complaints that doping was rampant in the sport. And he pushes the envelope to the extent that they give their lives for his bank account.. But Clark Brewster, the attorney representing Medina Spirits owner, Amr Zedan, then contacted The Post and described Baffert as being unfairly maligned. (At least one death of a Baffert horse identified by The Post was not included in the agencys data.) [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. The Post reported this month that Arthur had previously studied a spate of sudden horse deaths in Bafferts barn. That investigation led to the indictments that Baffert said spurred him to embrace more oversight, so the cheaters would be quickly caught and punished.. Share on Facebook TWEET This But in this case, Arthur urged a lighter penalty based on his suggestion the CHRB downgrade the drug. 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. Baffert is America's pre-eminent active trainer. The consolation is knowing the truth will come out as the process plays out. He saddled Paynter in the Belmont Stakes later that year, but that colt, like his stablemate Bodemeister, finished second. 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. The Kentucky Derby winner is staying ahead of . He was fined $1,500. 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. He told reporters that he would fight the issue "tooth and nail. 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. He also can be found at the Olympics, having just finished the Tokyo and Beijing double, marking his 11th Olympics. I went under the radar. After Arthur cleared Baffert of wrongdoing, the legislation was abandoned. The bill was introduced by California Assemblyman Adam Gray, a former aide to Cardoza who had been in office for less than three months. Darrell Vienna, Ruiss attorney, said he would not have agreed to those stipulations but was not allowed to intervene. Earlier data was unreliable, the racing publication said. He routinely challenges most sanctions, usually agreeing to accept fines but vigorously fighting suspensions. Nothing is held back.. The longest his suspension from Kentucky would be is 30 days, which would be honored by all racing jurisdictions. 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 horses positive test for a banned substance, according to confidential records obtained by The Washington Post that fully detail the saga for the first time. [34] However, the Kentucky Court of Appeals rejected Baffert's appeal on April 1. We live and work in a fishbowl, with rumors and accusations flowing constantly, Baffert said. When I won with [Triple Crown winners] American Pharoah and Justify, it was a relief. But hes a good person, no, a great person. 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. Both trainers were fined $500.
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