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Hollywood Park closed in 2013, and the saga of the dead horses there faded quickly from the headlines. 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. FILE - Trainer Bob Baffert walks out to the winner's circle after the Brooklyn Invitational Stakes horse race at Belmont Park, Saturday, June 9, 2018, in Elmont, N.Y. . And promote he does, chatting with people he met one minute ago as if they were long-lost friends. Bafferts record of testing failures threatens public confidence in thoroughbred racing and the reputation of the Kentucky Derby, said Bill Carstanjen, chief executive of Churchill Downs Inc. Given these repeated failures over the last year, including the increasingly extraordinary explanations, we firmly believe that asserting our rights to impose these measures is our duty and responsibility.. In that period, 36% of all cardiac related horse deaths in California were animals trained by Baffert. Between November 2011 and March 2013, however, Baffert had seven of his horses die of sudden death, not on the race track. The first two infractions occurred in May 2020, when the horses Charlatan and Gamine tested positive in Arkansas for lidocaine, a numbing agent. He saddled Paynter in the Belmont Stakes later that year, but that colt, like his stablemate Bodemeister, finished second. 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. ), Among the TOCs central crusades was countering the movement against Lasix. It subsequently said any horses running for a suspended trainer (Baffert) would not be eligible for Kentucky Derby or Oaks qualifying points. Less than two weeks later, Medina Spirit won the Kentucky Derby. In each instance, the death is investigated. Thats the only time I ever had to deal with somebody who tried to go to federal court to stop a state administrative action., Finally, in 2005, after the matter had returned to state court, the CHRB dismissed the suspension after an administrative law judge concluded Baffert had nothing to gain and a great deal to lose by the use of a banned substance on this horse., Baffert further solidified his influence in the ensuing years. At the time, she was 42-years-old. 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. That was one of the most exciting and enjoyable Derbies, Baffert said. If they didnt adopt those rules, the rules that prevail are the ones they adopted.. He appeared in an episode of the TV show Take Home Chef. CHRB brass agreed to follow Arthurs suggestion. Following the 2015 Belmont win, Baffert outlined several charities that he and his wife Jill supported. Bell told an investigator he then checked other bales and found a branch and pods he thought were Jimson weed in the parking lot. The groom denied it. Baffert made the. "[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. Arthur and CHRB investigators inspected Bafferts barn, reviewed veterinary records and interviewed Baffert, who was flanked by an attorney. 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. 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. [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. We went there with expectations not very high. Horse trainer Bob Baffert, left, leaves federal court in Brooklyn on July 12. By Marty Irby. But in 2018, Arthur was still on the job when another Baffert-trained horse tested regulators willingness to challenge him. Justify tested positive for scopolamine, an anti-nausea medication said to have potential performance-enhancing effects in horses, after winning the Santa Anita Derby in April 2018. He won his first race on that 1970 afternoon but not as a trainer. Hes a very unique personality, a unique sense of humor. Garcia left California horse racing the next year, according to CHRB records; he could not be reached for comment by The Post. 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." Gary Fenton, chairman of the TOC, declined to be interviewed. He also won the race in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018 when run as a Grade I event. The ARCI rules are recommendations, the associations president, Ed Martin, said in an interview. "We live in a different world now. 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. The Post separately obtained start data dating back to 2000 from the Daily Racing Form to put the deaths into context. The owner was Kaleem Shah. I told him there would be nothing from CHRB before the KY Derby, unlikely before the Preakness and possibly not until after the Belmont, Arthur wrote. When he was 10, his father purchased some Quarter Horses and he practiced racing them on a dirt track. Baffert says he plans to seek legal recourse wherever necessary. Tinsley declined to comment. Baffert faces unprecedented scrutiny after a positive drug test marred a win by his horse Medina Spirit at this years Kentucky Derby. 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. 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. 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. In 2010, Misremembered, a horse he bred, owned by his wife Jill and their friend George Jacobs, won the Santa Anita Handicap, marking Baffert's first Grade I win as a breeder instead of a trainer. "Bobby" Adair. And he does know generally when to stop on a horse.. "We live in a different world now. Drop dead while galloping, read a California Horse Racing Board vets account of the first horses death in November 2011. 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. Cardoza, who now works for a law firm, denied in an interview last month that the TOC was involved: Not at all. But he then said, TOCs involvement in that bill had nothing to do with Bob Baffert., Instead, Cardoza said, the drive to oust Arthur was over his opposition to Lasix. As The Post reported in April, the Jockey Club, an industry group of top thoroughbred owners, then hired the same private agency, 5 Stones Intelligence, to probe suspected dopers. "So now even our Kentucky Derby winner, Medina Spirit, is a junky," Trump's statement read. 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. 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. The 90 day ban against Baffert was set to be honored in all 38 racing states. Baffert has been married twice and has five children: four with his first wife, Sherry: Taylor, Canyon, Forest, and Savannah. 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. 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. In 2012, Baffert saddled Bodemeister, named for the trainer's youngest son, Bode, to second-place finishes in the Derby and Preakness. Bob is trying to put 2020 behind him and move forward in a positive manner, Robertson wrote in an e-mail to Borden. His reasoning was that Baffert also administered thyroxine to horses outside of Hollywood Park, where his horses did not suffer sudden deaths. Bob Baffert Family, Parents Until this summer, Baffert was the longest-serving member on the board of the Thoroughbred Owners of California, having been elected in 2007. Its all because of his success.. Anybody who walks with that swagger, people are going to love him or hate him, Pegram said. Yeah, sure, hes a wiseass and irreverent. Bob had the personality and he was honest. Baffert failed in multiple attempts in Kentucky to overturn the track's ban or the start of his suspension, which began April 4. [15], At a news conference on May 9, Baffert initially said that Medina Spirit was never administered betamethasone. By age 20, he had developed a reputation as a trainer and was hired by other trainers to run their stables. Hes Mr. Teflon.. There have been so many false narratives that have come up and the hearing process isnt even done yet. The 77-year-old billionaire made headlines last year when he made a $10,000 contribution to opponents of Houston's Equal Rights Ordinance. Teflon."[11]. Grays office told the committee that removing Dr. Arthur from his position, while intentional, is not the sole purpose of the bill, records show. The dark side of Bob Baffert's reign. But the star trainers sudden support belied the fact that Baffert has for years been entangled with the very problems he blamed for his sports potential demise: drugs, dead horses and a feckless regulatory system. [10], Controversy deepened when on December 6, 2021, Medina Spirit died of an apparent heart attack after a workout at Santa Anita Park. Bob Baffert blamed "cancel culture" after his horse, Medina Spirit, who won the Kentucky Derby, failed its post-race drug test. What we knew about horses you could put in a thimble. On June 9, Justify won the Belmont and the Triple Crown. Ruis is suing the CHRB for absolving Baffert of a positive for scopolamine, a byproduct of jimsonweed, after Justify tested for the drug after winning the 2018 Santa Anita Derby. In his claustrophobic and cluttered office at Santa Anita Barn 5, Bob Baffert, the hall of fame trainer, was pushing papers and moving stacks, hunting for a faded photo of his 17-year-old self aboard a long-forgotten quarter horse from a small racing circuit in Arizona. In July 2020, Merneith tested positive for dextromethorphan, a drug commonly used in cough medicine. But by August, the plan had changed. But Arthurs report said Hollywood Park used a different sort of poison than that found in the necropsy. We live and work in a fishbowl, with rumors and accusations flowing constantly, Baffert said. Baffert, like many trainers, was using a thyroid drug that was cited in the CHRB investigation. Both trainers were fined $500. We might have gone to the board sooner, but obviously because of the high-profile nature of this thing we were making sure we had everything buttoned up, he said.