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From there, he moved to racing at recognized tracks, scoring his first victory at age 17 in 1970. The CHRB had not adopted that recommendation. He tried his hand at substitute teaching before he started training horses full time. 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. Between November 2011 and March 2013, however, Baffert had seven of his horses die of sudden death, not on the race track. 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. Baffert, however, wouldnt change the outcome. Ruis horse, Bolt dOro, finished second. Racing does not have a historical database for violations, with most of the information kept on the state level. Jerry Hollendorfer has the most deaths with 122. (Arthur and those involved with the bill said the actions were unrelated. 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. Arthur B. Hancock III, a prominent thoroughbred owner, has for three decades been a leading proponent for eradicating drugs from the sport. He finished third in the Derby that year with Congaree. 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]. "[16][17] Nonetheless, Churchill Downs suspended Baffert from entering any horses at their racetrack pending the outcome of an investigation. CHRB regulations state that its foreign substances guidelines are based on ARCI recommendations as modified by the state board. Rick Arthur, Californias medical equine director, who the documents show played a central role in the scuttling of the Justify matter, said the only part of the CHRBs handling of the case that disappointed him was the secrecy. But in this case, Arthur urged a lighter penalty based on his suggestion the CHRB downgrade the drug. (Pegram and Auerbach did not respond to interview requests. Baffert is the biggest name in horse racing, even bigger than the animals he conditions. The 77-year-old billionaire made headlines last year when he made a $10,000 contribution to opponents of Houston's Equal Rights Ordinance. Once again, the Hall of Fame. 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. The previous August, Bob Baffert Racing Stables had donated $1,000 to the TOCs political action committee, California records show. He also can be found at the Olympics, having just finished the Tokyo and Beijing double, marking his 11th Olympics. was. 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. But he said it wasnt clear from the records why the CHRB reversed course on filing a complaint against Baffert. Baffert also has wielded unmatched clout when regulators have discovered banned or excessive substances in his horses. He followed it with six more Derbies, two of which launched Triple Crown runs, with American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify in 2018. By then, Arthur already had a years-long, tangled history with Baffert. 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. [21][22] Sports Illustrated suggested that the positive drug test was a sign that Baffert's "leaking credibility" had reached "the saturation point. However, Medina Spirit tested positive for the steroid betamethasone. State investigators found that his staff was mixing a potentially dangerous prescription drug into the feed of every horse in his care. Bafferts breakthrough thoroughbred was Thirty Slews, who won the Breeders Cup Sprint in 1992. It bothers me when hes not considered the Kentucky Derby winner.. [18] Baffert responded by saying the situation "was like a cancel culture kind of a thing," a remark which earned him noticeable criticism from the press. 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. 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. He married his second wife, Jill, a former television reporter based in Louisville, in 2002. "[29][30] On September 10, 2021 Baffert was charged by NYRA for conduct detrimental to the best interests of racing. The Judge made her ruling based on the NYRA having not allowed Baffert a forum to refute their claims and stated that (they the NYRA).."had held no hearing let alone a prompt one. The colt skipped the Belmont Stakes but became the champion three-year-old colt that year. Share on Facebook TWEET This By Marty Irby. 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. 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. The board followed their recommendation. Racing officials ruled that the positive test was a result of contamination and the wins of Charlatan and Gamine were restored. See, I bet you didnt know I was a jockey? Baffert said. In 2000, for instance, another of his horses, Nautical Look, tested positive for morphine, landing Baffert a two-month suspension. (At least one death of a Baffert horse identified by The Post was not included in the agencys data.) [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. Baffert is known for holding court on such ideas at Clockers Corner, a popular hangout for horsemen at Santa Anita Park. In that period, 36% of all cardiac related horse deaths in California were animals trained by Baffert. 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. As he did so, a political group with Baffert on its board was involved in legislation that would result in Arthur losing his job. 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. 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. American Pharoah next won the 140th Preakness Stakes, making six victories in that race for Baffert, who also finished fourth with Dortmund. 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. It wasn't long after the running of the 123rd Kentucky Derby, where a grey . 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. Cherwa also contributes general interest stories from Florida. The drug was again betamethasone, and Baffert again expressed shock and vowed to clear his name. 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. Anybody who walks with that swagger, people are going to love him or hate him, Pegram said. This whole thing is ridiculous, Baffert texted back, according to messages obtained by The Post via public records request. Theres a recognition that certain substances are normal in equine care, Martin said, but if that horse still requires that, then maybe you shouldnt run the horse., Martin made a distinction between doping horses with banned substances and running them with too much medication. Hes a very unique personality, a unique sense of humor. Shortly after Petersen sent the analysis of the states chances, the CHRB agreed to settle Ruiss lawsuit. In 2021, the post-race test of Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit showed 21pg/mL of betamethasone. With private eyes and political muscle, horse racings elite pushed to punish dopers, Throughout the months-long process, CHRB officials had indicated they planned on filing a complaint against Baffert, which would have exposed the failed drug test. It wasnt long before Baffert was making pocket change riding the horses in match races. When asked about that plan, attorney Brewster said that in fact 5 Stones did investigate Baffert at the direction of the Jockey Club. Once the golden boy of horse racing, Bob Baffert now the face of its disgrace. And he does know generally when to stop on a horse.. Following the 2015 Belmont win, Baffert outlined several charities that he and his wife Jill supported. If they didnt adopt those rules, the rules that prevail are the ones they adopted.. Its just disheartening. Baffert has had more than 30 drug violations in his 44-year career, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. 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. It basically said something under his control is associated with these fatalities, Arthur said, but regulators couldnt act without evidence of a rules violation. [2] His first winner was Flipper Star at Rillito Park on January 28, 1979. The quest to find Jimson weed continued. Drop dead while galloping, read a California Horse Racing Board vets account of the first horses death in November 2011. "Bobby" Adair. We have a real conundrum to sort out, Arthur wrote in an email to top CHRB officials, explaining he believed a disqualification would be terribly unfair. More than a year earlier, the Association of Racing Commissioners International, which creates model rules for the sports various state bodies, had reclassified scopolamine from a 3/B to a 4/C drug. According to Arthurs report, he found that Baffert was dispensing Thyro-L, or thyroxine, a prescription thyroid hormone, to all horses in his care. He appeared in an episode of the TV show Take Home Chef. "This is emblematic of what is happening to our country. A CHRB spokesman said the agency could not comment or make any employees available for an interview, citing the pending litigation. 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. 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. 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. Again, we can most likely agree to most anything in Kentucky except a suspension.. But after learning that Justify and another Baffert horse had tested positive for the same drug, Arthur announced in an e-mail to CHRB officials: The scopolamine cases will be handled differently than usual. Arthur said in a recent interview that he was referring to the logistics of what was clearly going to be a high-profile case that needed to be handled carefully.. "We live in a different world now. There have been so many false narratives that have come up and the hearing process isnt even done yet. In September, Baffert learned via a text message from Barbara Borden, chief steward for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, that his horse Gamine had tested positive for the anti-inflammatory betamethasone at the Kentucky Oaks. [15], At a news conference on May 9, Baffert initially said that Medina Spirit was never administered betamethasone. [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 has saddled 34 horses in the Derby third-most in history since his first appearance in 1996. 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. Baffert faces unprecedented scrutiny after a positive drug test marred a win by his horse Medina Spirit at this years Kentucky Derby. Hal Earnhardt, an Arizona car dealer and Bafferts oldest client, introduced him to Pegram, who made his money in fast-food franchising. If the complaint was ruled on quickly enough, it would have made Justify ineligible for the Kentucky Derby. Baffert, however, became the first trainer in history to win the Derby and Preakness in back-to-back years. 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. A recent conversation about the tragedy of horse deaths wended its way back to the defense of his reputation. [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. Baffert failed in multiple attempts in Kentucky to overturn the track's ban or the start of his suspension, which began April 4. The Post reported this month that Arthur had previously studied a spate of sudden horse deaths in Bafferts barn. Bob Baffert Family, Parents According to protocols, the medication is supposed to have a 14-day withdrawal period. But the scuttled test result remained secret until the New York Times reported it in 2019. I thought wed get fourth. 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. The 69-year-old Hall of Fame trainer is suing Churchill Downs Inc. in federal court to end his suspension. "[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. 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. 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. I dont see somebody who is doping horses, Martin said after reviewing Bafferts drug-related history. Carson Valley was killed in a freak accident in 2019 at Del Mar when a loose horse crashed into the Baffert trainee. But hes a good person, no, a great person. Two months later, the PAC contributed $2,000 to Gray's . Political Cartoons. Real Quiet won the race that year, and Baffert also finished third with Indian Charlie. The longest his suspension from Kentucky would be is 30 days, which would be honored by all racing jurisdictions. 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. The goal, the people familiar said, was to get Baffert to support languishing reforms in the sport. There is nothing new here, he wrote. 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. Kentucky regulators taped calls without consent with Baffert after Medina Spirit test. [13] In Kentucky, any amount of betamethasone detected in post-race testing is a violation and could result in a disqualification. In each instance, the death is investigated. Asked whether he was surprised by the finding that Bafferts barn was the deadliest in California, Roberts laughed. 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.). 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. There are highs and lows and a lot of disappointment. Its not often that a sport turns against its biggest star, but Churchill Downs has taken that stand. 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. [14] It was Baffert's fifth violation in 13 months. 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. Baffert grew up on a cattle and chicken farm in Nogales, Ariz., near the Mexico border. Nothing is held back.. CHRB brass agreed to follow Arthurs suggestion. In an email Monday, Bafferts attorney, W. Craig Robertson III, referred to the CHRBs initial decision to dismiss the test and a hearing last year in which officials ruled they had no authority to overturn that decision. California keeps track of horse deaths by trainer, but there are errors and limits to the data. 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.. Two months later, the PAC contributed $2,000 to Grays successful election committee. 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. The Kentucky Derby winner is staying ahead of . 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. The. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Churchill Downs goes after suspended trainer Bob Baffert with new policy. John Cherwa is a special contributor to the Los Angeles Times. 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. Real Quiet won the Preakness as well, but, like Silver Charm, the horse was denied a Triple Crown win and finished second in the Belmont Stakes by a nose. He also dismissed complaints that doping was rampant in the sport. His American Pharaoh horse won the Triple Crown in 2015. Racing lacks a central clearinghouse for data on deaths nationally, and regulators in many states do not track deaths by trainer. 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. They had a son in 2004 whom they named "Bode" (/bodi/ BOH-dee), after skier Bode Miller. 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. 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. 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. This time, he aided the CHRBs search for Jimson weed. Yakteen rose to Bafferts defense and it ended with a scuffle that slightly injured a security guard. Bob Baffert wakes up most every day with one thing in mind, winning another Kentucky Derby. There are no secrets on the backside.. . Petersen opined it would have been unfair to punish Baffert for what he called an oversight by CHRB staff and said there is no evidence to suggest a nefarious motive by the board. The New York Racing Assn. Medina Spirit died after a training session on 6 December 2021 and an ensuing necropsy on 11 February 2022 was inconclusive. Gary Fenton, chairman of the TOC, declined to be interviewed. Hes won seven, more than anyone else in the 147-year history of the race. Horse-racing deaths, like much of the sport, are shrouded by a disjointed bureaucracy. On Monday, Bell confirmed he helped with the search, adding Jimson weed has plagued California for years.. As the trainer battles to protect his legacy, the records offer a new window into how those charged with running horse racings disjointed regulatory system have appeared to treat the powerful trainer with deference. Officials worked secretly to clear Bob Bafferts Justify amid 2018 Triple Crown run, records show. The month after that, Grays bill to limit Arthurs term was passed out of a committee. 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. Several members of the Breeders Cup board have used Baffert as their trainer. 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. You wouldnt know it now.. Baffert says he plans to seek legal recourse wherever necessary. Mr. But Californias adoption of ARCI guidelines is not a given. The veterinarian chalked up Bafferts response to ignorance. In fact, Bafferts horses, at 8.3 deaths per 1,000 starts, have died at a significantly higher rate than Hollendorfers, at 6.25. But Clark Brewster, the attorney representing Medina Spirits owner, Amr Zedan, then contacted The Post and described Baffert as being unfairly maligned. He views himself as an ambassador for the sport. [31][32] Additional charges were added on January 3, 2022. At first it was believed the substance came from a pain-relief patch that Bafferts longtime assistant Jimmy Barnes was wearing because of back pain. 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. Mick Ruis, the owner and trainer of the second-place finisher in the Santa Anita Derby, has sued the CHRB. The trainer was fined $2,500. 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. 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. 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.. to move forward. Petersen did not respond to an interview request. He told reporters that he would fight the issue "tooth and nail. In the 1980s, Baffert moved to California and worked at Los Alamitos Race Course, where he switched to training Thoroughbreds full-time in 1991. Thats much higher than the Jockey Clubs widely cited national rates, which never exceed two deaths per 1,000 starts. The ARCI rules are recommendations, the associations president, Ed Martin, said in an interview. He was born on January 13, 1953, in Nogales, AZ. Bafferts lawyers have made explicit that he will accept fines but not a suspension, and state regulators have continually obliged him. 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. Even then, he would not talk about the specifics of the cases against him. PUBLISHED 9:20 AM ET Jul. Baffert is America's pre-eminent active trainer. The testing levels have become ridiculous, Baffert told a conference of racehorse veterinarians during his keynote speech in 2000, according to a trade publication. 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. [10][12] However, his violations for use of prohibited medications has sparked controversy. 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. He was fined $1,500. The board agreed not to disqualify Justify. When the CHRB also decided to run DNA tests on the horses blood samples, the records show Arthur said the request would be a big deal and asked if they could wait until after the Preakness, which was 10 days away. Bob Baffert blamed "cancel culture" after his horse, Medina Spirit, who won the Kentucky Derby, failed its post-race drug test. 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. Baffert is a three-time winner of the Kentucky Derby, and has several top prospects for the May 5 race. He saddled Paynter in the Belmont Stakes later that year, but that colt, like his stablemate Bodemeister, finished second. But in 2018, Arthur was still on the job when another Baffert-trained horse tested regulators willingness to challenge him. Baffert has also had his share of horse fatalities, the other metric to which his critics point. We went there with expectations not very high. 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.