Baffert said in his autobiography it was a combination of ignorance and desperation. 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. He claimed that the horse death data provided by the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) was not possible.. 10, 2022. But he said it wasnt clear from the records why the CHRB reversed course on filing a complaint against Baffert. California counts all fatalities of horses in a trainers care, including breakdowns during training, not just racing deaths. Horse racing needs to cut off the head of the snake, Ruis said. By the April 1 ruling, Baffert had already transferred four 3-year-old colts to other trainers. Baffert has had more than 30 drug violations in his 44-year career, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. Once the golden boy of horse racing, Bob Baffert now the face of its disgrace. It sounds like hes deflecting, Gagliano said of Baffert. The 5-year-old mare was the seventh seemingly healthy horse from that barn to drop dead in 16 months. 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. Bob Baffert Family, Net Worth, Parents, Wife, Sons, Education And Anybody who walks with that swagger, people are going to love him or hate him, Pegram said. The bottom line, he said, is if youre a horse in Bob Bafferts barn, youre there to work.. 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. 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. 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. Between November 2011 and March 2013, however, Baffert had seven of his horses die of sudden death, not on the race track. If it surprised me it would be that I expected more, Roberts said. Political Cartoons. The month after that, Grays bill to limit Arthurs term was passed out of a committee. All of the explanations for the positive drug tests are plausible, but collectively they raise questions. [14] It was Baffert's fifth violation in 13 months. Trump: Kentucky Derby Controversy 'Emblematic of What Is - Newsmax One of the biggest assholes and cheats of all time, horse-racing 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. To me, whats in the best interest of the sport is not seeing anyone being dogpiled on.. Early life and career [ edit] It elicited little notice; racehorses die by the hundreds per year in California alone. The month after Gray introduced his legislation, Bafferts seventh sudden death made the deaths at Hollywood Park a national news story. He made the jump to Los Alamitos, where he was running against such legends as Wayne Lukas. Its bizarre, Baedeker said, because you have a deputy attorney general criticizing the board for following the law to the letter.. Teflon."[11]. Baffert, however, wouldnt change the outcome. Baffert grew up on a ranch in Nogales, Arizona, where his family raised cattle and chickens. Now 68, Baffert is seeing his livelihood and reputation under attack after a series of medication infractions have made him an outcast to some in the industry and a pariah to many more outside of it. 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. Hollywood Park closed in 2013, and the saga of the dead horses there faded quickly from the headlines. Less than two weeks later, Medina Spirit won the Kentucky Derby. It basically said something under his control is associated with these fatalities, Arthur said, but regulators couldnt act without evidence of a rules violation. Baffert, one of the most legendary trainers in American horse racing, has faced criticism and suspensions after his 2021 Kentucky Derby champion, Medina . Cherwa also contributes general interest stories from Florida. Bob Baffert: Hall of Fame trainer suspended from participating in - CNN 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 trainer was Baffert. The hearing for a preliminary injunction began in federal court on Thursday afternoon, continuing a nearly two-year-long legal battle between Baffert and the racetrack following his suspension back in 2021. Hearing Officer Recommends 2-Year NYRA Ban for Bob Baffert [15], At a news conference on May 9, Baffert initially said that Medina Spirit was never administered betamethasone. I guess I'm more of an "old school" Republican. 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. 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. 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. 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. Garcia left California horse racing the next year, according to CHRB records; he could not be reached for comment by The Post. PUBLISHED 9:20 AM ET Jul. Baffert says he plans to seek legal recourse wherever necessary. Arthur said the TOC was behind the effort to oust him because of his criticism of Lasix. 'It was cancel culture': Kentucky Derby winner's trainer defends failed ), Arthur has defended his handling of the Justify positive. 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. 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. Baffert failed in multiple attempts in Kentucky to overturn the track's ban or the start of his suspension, which began April 4. In fact, at some point Id like to get back together with Bob, Shah said. It bothers me when hes not considered the Kentucky Derby winner.. 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.. 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.. 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. 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. On Monday, Bell confirmed he helped with the search, adding Jimson weed has plagued California for years.. Baffert grew up on a cattle and chicken farm in Nogales, Ariz., near the Mexico border. A CHRB spokesman said the agency could not comment or make any employees available for an interview, citing the pending litigation. 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. Arthur suggested the board retroactively apply it to the Justify case. Bob survived a heart attack in late March 2012 while in Dubai for a world-class race at Meydan. Two Triple Crown winners and a signature shock of white hair will do that for a man. 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. [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. They had a son in 2004 whom they named "Bode" (/bodi/ BOH-dee), after skier Bode Miller. Bell told an investigator he then checked other bales and found a branch and pods he thought were Jimson weed in the parking lot. Mr. It subsequently said any horses running for a suspended trainer (Baffert) would not be eligible for Kentucky Derby or Oaks qualifying points. But Arthurs report said Hollywood Park used a different sort of poison than that found in the necropsy. In fact, Bafferts horses, at 8.3 deaths per 1,000 starts, have died at a significantly higher rate than Hollendorfers, at 6.25. You could trust him and that never changed.. 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. Bafferts breakthrough thoroughbred was Thirty Slews, who won the Breeders Cup Sprint in 1992. A A Former President Donald Trump released a statement Sunday about the disputed winner of the Kentucky Derby, saying the controversy reflects the current state of the country. Robertson blamed the frequency of Bafferts drug-related violations on how often his horses are tested after winning races and said, Horse racings regulations need to catch up with the sensitivity of modern day testing., Jockey Club President James L. Gagliano dismissed that frequent complaint from Baffert. Arthur also presented exercise histories for the horses that showed they worked harder than average. Once again, the Hall of Fame. The goal, the people familiar said, was to get Baffert to support languishing reforms in the sport. But the sports new governing authority will not take over until mid-2022. Bafferts lawyer called as a defense witness Arthur, who testified that his handling of the case was the fault of Californias cumbersome regulatory process. He declared, I considered this a horse poisoning, not a horse drugging., After the hearing, Santa Anitas Board of Stewards, a three-person panel that rules on drug cases, dismissed the complaints. Former client Kaleem Shah said, "He will rub people the wrong way by speaking his mind, sometimes he needs to hit the mute button.