"This is emblematic of what is happening to our country. They had discussions with David Tinsley, the former DEA supervisor who runs 5 Stones, the people said, but the thoroughbred owners involved scrapped the plan. Before his Kentucky Derby-winning colt, Medina Spirit, tested positive for betamethasone last month which could erase the victory his horses were cited for drug-related violations 29 times, according to the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI). [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. Carson Valley was killed in a freak accident in 2019 at Del Mar when a loose horse crashed into the Baffert trainee. If you lose 75% of the time, youre considered really, really good. 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 paused, then added: Ive learned who my friends are.. He made the jump to Los Alamitos, where he was running against such legends as Wayne Lukas. [33], In February 2022, Baffert was suspended 90 days and fined $7,500 by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. Baffert said the horse ingested hay after a groom, who was taking cough medicine, had urinated in the horses stall. 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. Closing everything and moving forward is in Bobs best interest and the best interest of horse racing. The owner was Kaleem Shah. Garcia left California horse racing the next year, according to CHRB records; he could not be reached for comment by The Post. The Eclipse Award winner for Outstanding Trainer in 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2015, Baffert has won 18 Breeders' Cup races, including four editions of the Classic with . 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. 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 board followed their recommendation. The new classification simply makes more sense pharmacologically, Arthur wrote. [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. Does the drug that could strip Medina Spirit of a Kentucky Derby win enhance performance? 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. Baffert faces unprecedented scrutiny after a positive drug test marred a win by his horse Medina Spirit at this years Kentucky Derby. Instead of promptly filing a public complaint against Baffert, the CHRB kept the positive result secret while Arthur conducted a lengthy investigation. It takes only a minute or so to walk from the racetrack at Santa Anita Park to the barns in back. The Post reported this month that Arthur had previously studied a spate of sudden horse deaths in Bafferts barn. If they didnt adopt those rules, the rules that prevail are the ones they adopted.. American Pharoah next won the 140th Preakness Stakes, making six victories in that race for Baffert, who also finished fourth with Dortmund. But the scuttled test result remained secret until the New York Times reported it in 2019. Horse-racing deaths, like much of the sport, are shrouded by a disjointed bureaucracy. [2] His first winner was Flipper Star at Rillito Park on January 28, 1979. Another day passed before it was discovered the colt was administered a topical ointment for a rash that contained betamethasone. 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. When I won with [Triple Crown winners] American Pharoah and Justify, it was a relief. Bob Baffert Family, Parents Several members of the Breeders Cup board have used Baffert as their trainer. And because of that, he has become arrogant as hell. Hollendorfers lawyer, Drew Couto, has claimed his client is being unfairly blamed for a high-profile spike of deaths at the track. [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. (Pegram and Auerbach did not respond to interview requests. But Arthurs report said Hollywood Park used a different sort of poison than that found in the necropsy. [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. 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. He built up his training business a step at a time and acquired some prominent owners. 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. Baffert has also had his share of horse fatalities, the other metric to which his critics point. I guess I'm more of an "old school" Republican. 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. [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. 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 dark side of Bob Baffert's reign. CHRB brass agreed to follow Arthurs suggestion. On June 1, Baedeker had asked the agencys top lawyer and investigator how close they were to filing the Scopolamine complaints., On July 9, a month after Justifys Belmont triumph, the agencys chief counsel, Robert Brodnik, wrote to the CHRB investigator that they would like to officially file by Monday.. 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. The CHRB had not adopted that recommendation. Its not often that a sport turns against its biggest star, but Churchill Downs has taken that stand. 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. Baffert said the horse was off the drug for 18 days before the race. The 77-year-old billionaire made headlines last year when he made a $10,000 contribution to opponents of Houston's Equal Rights Ordinance. The consolation is knowing the truth will come out as the process plays out. Baffert often speaks of his life as if its a Shakespearean play, humankinds tragedies mingling with his own existential crises. 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. [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. 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. "[29][30] On September 10, 2021 Baffert was charged by NYRA for conduct detrimental to the best interests of racing. The previous August, Bob Baffert Racing Stables had donated $1,000 to the TOCs political action committee, California records show. He was born on January 13, 1953, in Nogales, AZ. But they dont usually die in a cluster from a single barn for no clear reason. (At least one death of a Baffert horse identified by The Post was not included in the agencys data.) He has never apologized to the public for trashing the game. 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. Baffert, however, became the first trainer in history to win the Derby and Preakness in back-to-back years. 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. As he did so, a political group with Baffert on its board was involved in legislation that would result in Arthur losing his job. View . By the April 1 ruling, Baffert had already transferred four 3-year-old colts to other trainers. Racing does not have a historical database for violations, with most of the information kept on the state level. Baffert's horses have won seven Kentucky Derbies, seven Preakness Stakes, three Belmont Stakes and three Kentucky Oaks. I told him I thought there was a good indication that these were feed contamination.. 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. The trainer was fined $2,500. It will all be settled by lawyers and judges and that takes time. Baffert is the biggest name in horse racing, even bigger than the animals he conditions. Obviously if we can get the Kentucky case resolved, Arkansas will have the benefit of knowing that result before a final decision is made in that case. 10, 2022. Baffert failed in multiple attempts in Kentucky to overturn the track's ban or the start of his suspension, which began April 4. It wasn't long after the running of the 123rd Kentucky Derby, where a grey . Until this summer, Baffert was the longest-serving member on the board of the Thoroughbred Owners of California, having been elected in 2007. April 29, 2022 9:00 AM. That didnt feel appropriate to those of who wanted to see science prevail, Cardoza said. When he was 10, his father purchased some Quarter Horses and he practiced racing them on a dirt track. 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. Baffert failed in multiple attempts in Kentucky to overturn the track's ban or the start of his suspension, which began April 4. [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. 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. In New York, chefs are redefining it. [As for whats going on now,] I dont like it but Im dealing with it. From there, he moved to racing at recognized tracks, scoring his first victory at age 17 in 1970. 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. 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. But its a lot more difficult when going against a private company, such as Churchill Downs, which can invoke its own penalties. Pegram persuaded Baffert to try thoroughbreds. He routinely challenges most sanctions, usually agreeing to accept fines but vigorously fighting suspensions. Baedeker and Arthur said in interviews that no matter how it was handled it would have been impossible to resolve the case that quickly. And he does know generally when to stop on a horse.. He got his first big break in 1992 when he won his first Breeder's Cup race with Thirty Slews. His reasoning was that Baffert also administered thyroxine to horses outside of Hollywood Park, where his horses did not suffer sudden deaths. Its not uncommon to find trainers who dont understand medications and how different medications work, Arthur said. Ruis horse, Bolt dOro, finished second. Baffert dedicated American Pharoah's win to Bobby. (A CHRB spokesman declined to comment, citing pending litigation. 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.