When Arthur delivered his report in November 2013, the bill to remove him from office was still pending. To me, whats in the best interest of the sport is not seeing anyone being dogpiled on.. 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. In 2007, he joined the 15-member board of the Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC), a nonprofit that represents the roughly 9,000 CHRB-licensed owners in the state. (The trainer and jockey usually get 10 percent each.) Baffert made the. He was fined $1,500. 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. Closing everything and moving forward is in Bobs best interest and the best interest of horse racing. This horse was going to run at the Triple Crown, Arthur said. The trainer was fined $2,500. I told him I thought there was a good indication that these were feed contamination.. The positive test only emerged when the New York Times reported it more than a year later. . 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. But a top veterinary official cleared Baffert, finding that the spate of deaths remains unexplained following a probe that demonstrated the hazards of going after Baffert. During a hearing, records show, Baffert argued the positive test could have been a result of his stable hands eating poppy seed bagels and muffins around the horse. 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 won his first race on that 1970 afternoon but not as a trainer. He declined to answer further questions. Garcia left California horse racing the next year, according to CHRB records; he could not be reached for comment by The Post. The Post separately obtained start data dating back to 2000 from the Daily Racing Form to put the deaths into context.
Hearings begin for Bob Baffert's case against Churchill Downs ban Gary Fenton, chairman of the TOC, declined to be interviewed. 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 . 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. "We live in a different world now. 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]. He rejoined The Times in 2009 and left his post as deputy sports editor late in 2017. He also can be found at the Olympics, having just finished the Tokyo and Beijing double, marking his 11th Olympics. 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. All they show is contamination, and they have really put the trainers heads on the chopping blocks. He paused, then added: Ive learned who my friends are.. The bold statement appeared to put Baffert on the right side of history: By the end of the year, President Donald Trump had signed into law the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, which promised to reform the sport. In the 1980s, Baffert moved to California and worked at Los Alamitos Race Course, where he switched to training Thoroughbreds full-time in 1991. He saddled Paynter in the Belmont Stakes later that year, but that colt, like his stablemate Bodemeister, finished second. 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. He's saddled. The previous August, Bob Baffert Racing Stables had donated $1,000 to the TOCs political action committee, California records show. 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. 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.
EXPLAINER: Why is Bob Baffert not in the Kentucky Derby? - Spectrum News 1 Arthur suggested the board retroactively apply it to the Justify case. In July 2020, Merneith tested positive for dextromethorphan, a drug commonly used in cough medicine. Theres one thing that I will say positive about Bob is that he is a horseman. He built up his training business a step at a time and acquired some prominent owners. Until this summer, Baffert was the longest-serving member on the board of the Thoroughbred Owners of California, having been elected in 2007. 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. [31][32] Additional charges were added on January 3, 2022. He won the aforementioned first race at a sanctioned track in 1970, but his mother insisted he attend college and he enrolled in the University of Arizonas Race Track Industry Program. The New York Racing Assn. After the test result was revealed, Mick Ruis, the trainer and owner of the Santa Anita Derbys runner-up, sued the CHRB, claiming Justifys win should have been erased. The California Horse Racing Boards inner workings during the episode have remained mostly shrouded by official secrecy. The colt lost the Belmont Stakes after breaking poorly from the starting gate. But in this case, Arthur urged a lighter penalty based on his suggestion the CHRB downgrade the drug. The trainer was Baffert. He made the jump to Los Alamitos, where he was running against such legends as Wayne Lukas. 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. He told reporters that he would fight the issue "tooth and nail. This America's different." pic . [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. I think much of the GOP political party is moving too far to the right. My focus will always be on the best care for my horses. Shah, the owner of at least three of the horses, told The Post he had fully trusted Baffert as a trainer and had no reason to suspect that he would harm the horses he loves the horses. Brewster, the attorney, said that Baffert believed the horses had ingested rat poison, traces of which were found in one of them. 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. By then, Bafferts encounters with regulators dated back decades, to 1977, when he served a yearlong suspension for racing a horse on morphine. Baffert wants a preliminary injunction that would keep Churchill Downs from denying his horses entry into races there and at Turfway Park, in Florence, Ky., and from "prohibiting him from earning. 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.
According to Arthurs report, he found that Baffert was dispensing Thyro-L, or thyroxine, a prescription thyroid hormone, to all horses in his care. Baffert has paid out over $20,000 in fines, but compared against over $321 million in career earnings.
Bob Baffert's Life Is Good gallops to win in San Felipe Stakes at Santa [33], In February 2022, Baffert was suspended 90 days and fined $7,500 by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. Biography Bob Baffert is best known as a horse rider. 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. Please answer some questions in this short survey about professional soccer and the 2022 Men's FIFA World Cup. Every investigation over the past 20 years has reached the same conclusion: no rules or regulations have been violated nor has there been any improper activity on Bobs part., Brewster also said that the vast majority of Bafferts drug-related violations, as tracked by ARCI, shouldnt be counted because they were too old or related to overages of otherwise-allowed drugs in a horse, which he dismissed as like coming to work with too much Advil in your system., Robertson said in an e-mail that [n]o one has done more for horse racing and is better for the sport than Bob Baffert, and he listed various awards the trainer has received, including being inducted into four separate Hall of Fames. If you lose 75% of the time, youre considered really, really good. A 4/C violation meant minor punishment that wouldnt typically involve disqualifying the horse or redistributing winnings. Baffert was granted a stay until April 4 to gain time for an appeal. I dont see somebody who is doping horses, Martin said after reviewing Bafferts drug-related history.
Judge Denies Baffert Request to Reverse Churchill Downs Ban According to protocols, the medication is supposed to have a 14-day withdrawal period. Arthur is the CHRBs primary advisor on drug testing, according to state code; the role of determining penalties in individual cases falls to its stewards and commissioners. In raw numbers, most of Baffert's medication violations were for exceeding allowed amounts of authorized medications such as phenylbutazone, a pain medication commonly administered to horses. It hurts racing., In the same speech, Baffert agitated for the continued use of Lasix, which is popular with trainers but increasingly criticized as a potential performance-enhancer and masking agent for other drugs. He was born on January 13, 1953, in Nogales, AZ. The 77-year-old billionaire made headlines last year when he made a $10,000 contribution to opponents of Houston's Equal Rights Ordinance.
Trainer Bob Baffert has heart attack in Dubai - CBS News Two months later, the PAC contributed $2,000 to Grays successful election committee. [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. In each instance, the death is investigated. But Clark Brewster, the attorney representing Medina Spirits owner, Amr Zedan, then contacted The Post and described Baffert as being unfairly maligned. In 2000, for instance, another of his horses, Nautical Look, tested positive for morphine, landing Baffert a two-month suspension. [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. Has his success made people hate him more? The 74 total deaths since 2000 put Baffert third among trainers. From there, he moved to racing at recognized tracks, scoring his first victory at age 17 in 1970. 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. The public backlash, including a letter written by a gay. Baffert won his first race as a thoroughbred trainer Jan. 28, 1979, saddling Flipper Star to a victory at Rillito in Arizona. April 29, 2022 9:00 AM. (A CHRB spokesman declined to comment, citing pending litigation. He married his second wife, Jill, a former television reporter based in Louisville, in 2002. However, Medina Spirit tested positive for the steroid betamethasone.
When a horse dies in California, CHRB records often list medications the horse had been prescribed, based on its medical history. We live and work in a fishbowl, with rumors and accusations flowing constantly, Baffert said. 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.. Mick Ruis, who trained against Baffert for a couple years but now just manages his own racing business, once admired Baffert and his success, but no longer. In the next six months, three of his horses tested positive for banned or excessive substances four times in California, Arkansas and Kentucky. His last day as medical equine director is Wednesday.
Bob Baffert Family, Net Worth, Parents, Wife, Sons, Education And FILE - In this Monday July 12, 2021 file photo, horse trainer Bob Baffert leaves federal court in the Brooklyn borough of New York. And he does know generally when to stop on a horse.. Grays office told the committee that removing Dr. Arthur from his position, while intentional, is not the sole purpose of the bill, records show. Like Baffert, Hollendorfer is in the thoroughbred Hall of Fame. He appeared in an episode of the TV show Take Home Chef. Yakteen rose to Bafferts defense and it ended with a scuffle that slightly injured a security guard. Hes a very unique personality, a unique sense of humor. 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. Horse racing needs to cut off the head of the snake, Ruis said. My heart tells me one thing, but my head tells me something else, said veteran racing journalist Ron Flatter, the managing editor of the website Horse Racing Nation. 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. No horse loving person like Bob or his entire team accepts the reality of a horse death with anything other than sadness and despair, the lawyers said in their statement. The drug was again betamethasone, and Baffert again expressed shock and vowed to clear his name. Thats much higher than the Jockey Clubs widely cited national rates, which never exceed two deaths per 1,000 starts. Baffert revisited the Derby the next year, sending two top colts, Real Quiet and Indian Charlie, to Louisville. 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. "Bobby" Adair. At the time, she was 42-years-old. Share on Facebook TWEET This By age 20, he had developed a reputation as a trainer and was hired by other trainers to run their stables.
Bob Baffert: Judge denies his request to lift two-year Churchill Downs Nothing is more important than the health and safety of our equine and human athletes, Baffert wrote, and nothing impacts their health and safety more than the policies and procedures concerning drugs.. 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.. Baffert also trained the 2018 Triple Crown Winner, Justify and the 2020 Kentucky Derby winner, Authentic. "What a way to come back," said Baffert, whose punishment by the Kentucky Horse . You could trust him and that never changed.. 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. Its not uncommon to find trainers who dont understand medications and how different medications work, Arthur said. 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. 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. Another person who came to Bafferts defense was his former assistant Tim Yakteen, who now runs his own stable. Baffert also has wielded unmatched clout when regulators have discovered banned or excessive substances in his horses. "This is emblematic of what is happening to our country. 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. In his teens, he worked as a jockey for $100 a day in informal Quarter Horse races on the outskirts of Nogales. According to data provided by the California Horse Racing Board and supplemented by The Times research, the trainer has had 75 horses die since 2000 either racing, training, or by illness or non-exercise accidents. But by August, the plan had changed. [7] Baffert became a 7-time winner of the Kentucky Derby in 2021 with Medina Spirit. Two months later, the PAC contributed $2,000 to Gray's . Arthur, the equine medical director, took issue with Petersens legal finding that the CHRBs handling of the case could be declared arbitrary or capricious. 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. [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. Baffert has saddled 34 horses in the Derby third-most in history since his first appearance in 1996. Baedeker said that before they made their recommendation to the board, they consulted with the states Office of the Attorney General, for which Petersen works, and received concurrence . 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. 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. Baffert, however, became the first trainer in history to win the Derby and Preakness in back-to-back years. After the Times broke the news of the positive drug test, Ruis sued the CHRB in January 2020. Hal Earnhardt, an Arizona car dealer and Bafferts oldest client, introduced him to Pegram, who made his money in fast-food franchising. 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. [38] This reminded the public that since 2000, at least 74 other horses had died while in Baffert's stables. 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.
He's a cheat and an asshole, and I hope Medina Spirit gets taken down and his connections are denied the $1.8 million first-place check. Medina Spirit had a legal medication in him, ONeill said. 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. In 1997 he won his first Kentucky Derby with Silver Charm.
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