On Monday, Bell confirmed he helped with the search, adding Jimson weed has plagued California for years.. When a horse dies in California, CHRB records often list medications the horse had been prescribed, based on its medical history. Baffert is known for holding court on such ideas at Clockers Corner, a popular hangout for horsemen at Santa Anita Park. From there, he moved to racing at recognized tracks, scoring his first victory at age 17 in 1970. The month after that, Grays bill to limit Arthurs term was passed out of a committee. 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. Arthur said the TOC was behind the effort to oust him because of his criticism of Lasix. 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. 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. Share on Facebook TWEET This 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. Nothing is held back.. Baffert, however, wouldnt change the outcome. 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. Baffert has had two fatalities in the last three years, a low number for a barn of his size. There wasnt any question in my mind, he said recently. He made the jump to Los Alamitos, where he was running against such legends as Wayne Lukas. (The trainer and jockey usually get 10 percent each.) The CHRB had not adopted that recommendation. In fact, at some point Id like to get back together with Bob, Shah said. Garcia left California horse racing the next year, according to CHRB records; he could not be reached for comment by The Post. 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. 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. In his teens, he worked as a jockey for $100 a day in informal Quarter Horse races on the outskirts of Nogales. He followed it with six more Derbies, two of which launched Triple Crown runs, with American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify in 2018. The Baffert who snubbed me on April 29, 2010, that is the real Bob Baffert, not the glib, seemingly affable chap heretofore seen in TV interviews. Baffert often speaks of his life as if its a Shakespearean play, humankinds tragedies mingling with his own existential crises. Bob Baffert's Life Is Good gallops to win in San Felipe Stakes at Santa Bob Baffert Suspended 15 Days for Drug Positives Shah said the two parted over disagreements that should have been resolved, without being specific. For every Baffert defender, you can find someone on the other side. The trainer was fined $2,500. Racing lacks a central clearinghouse for data on deaths nationally, and regulators in many states do not track deaths by trainer. Bob Baffert has taken up more of my time than I ever should have had to deal with, Arthur said, before again coming to the defense of Bafferts treatment of his horses: He certainly puts the pedal to the metal, but he doesnt close his eyes. It went exactly according to the lawyers plan. 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. There were at least 39 trainers with more fatalities to their name than Baffert during that period. Judge nullifies horse trainer Bob Baffert's NY suspension The board agreed not to disqualify Justify. When I won with [Triple Crown winners] American Pharoah and Justify, it was a relief. 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. 'It was cancel culture': Kentucky Derby winner's trainer defends failed Baffert said the horse was off the drug for 18 days before the race. In fact, Bafferts horses, at 8.3 deaths per 1,000 starts, have died at a significantly higher rate than Hollendorfers, at 6.25. April 29, 2022 9:00 AM. Bob Baffert has supporters and detractors in how he deals with jockeys [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. His American Pharaoh horse won the Triple Crown in 2015. It wasn't long after the running of the 123rd Kentucky Derby, where a grey . Without that win, Justify would not have qualified to run in the Kentucky Derby, the first leg of the Triple Crown, a month later. He also won the race in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018 when run as a Grade I event. The CHRB officially opened an investigation. The CHRB provided The Post with death data dating back to late 1990 showing that at least 87 of Bafferts horses have died in California since then. You wouldnt know it now.. Hes won seven, more than anyone else in the 147-year history of the race. You could trust him and that never changed.. Robert A. Baffert is an American Racehorse Trainer who trained the 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify. Bob Baffert blamed "cancel culture" after his horse, Medina Spirit, who won the Kentucky Derby, failed its post-race drug test. It didnt take Baffert long to dominate Rillito Park and Prescott Downs in Arizona. [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. Horse-racing deaths, like much of the sport, are shrouded by a disjointed bureaucracy. John Cherwa is a special contributor to the Los Angeles Times. 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. Betamethasone is mostly injected into the joints of horses to ease inflammation and, if the inflammation is reduced, any associated pain subsides. If it surprised me it would be that I expected more, Roberts said. Arthur B. Hancock III, a prominent thoroughbred owner, has for three decades been a leading proponent for eradicating drugs from the sport. Baffert grew up on a cattle and chicken farm in Nogales, Ariz., near the Mexico border. 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. 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. Pegram persuaded Baffert to try thoroughbreds. 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. The bottom line, he said, is if youre a horse in Bob Bafferts barn, youre there to work.. Baffert responded: Zero tolerance?, Robertson, Bafferts attorney, then tried to negotiate for Baffert to avoid potential suspensions in both Arkansas and Kentucky. It subsequently said any horses running for a suspended trainer (Baffert) would not be eligible for Kentucky Derby or Oaks qualifying points. Bob Baffert says Medina Spirit a victim of cancel culture | Lexington (Pegram and Auerbach did not respond to interview requests. But the sports new governing authority will not take over until mid-2022. There have been so many false narratives that have come up and the hearing process isnt even done yet. 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]. It takes only a minute or so to walk from the racetrack at Santa Anita Park to the barns in back. It was later discovered that horses from separate barns had also tested positive. "Bobby" Adair. But its a lot more difficult when going against a private company, such as Churchill Downs, which can invoke its own penalties. When asked about that plan, attorney Brewster said that in fact 5 Stones did investigate Baffert at the direction of the Jockey Club. Mick Ruis, the owner and trainer of the second-place finisher in the Santa Anita Derby, has sued the CHRB. One of his grooms, Clemintino Abrego Garcia, testified that Baffert called him three or four times attempting to get him to admit that he had eaten baked goods near the horse. In 2015, he trained American Pharoah, the first horse to win the Triple Crown since Affirmed in 1978.. [8] His first suspension was in 1977 for misuse of morphene, but thereafter he had no violations for the next eight years. 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. 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. The board followed their recommendation. Former client Kaleem Shah said, "He will rub people the wrong way by speaking his mind, sometimes he needs to hit the mute button. 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. And he does know generally when to stop on a horse.. 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. "[16][17] Nonetheless, Churchill Downs suspended Baffert from entering any horses at their racetrack pending the outcome of an investigation. Bob Baffert says Derby horse Medina Spirit was 'cancelled.' Here's what Baffert went to federal court and had the suspension overturned, but NYRA has called a scheduling conference on the trainer for Oct. 11. He told reporters that he would fight the issue "tooth and nail. The TOC, of which Baffert is still a board member, did not respond to requests for comment. Baffert was granted a stay until April 4 to gain time for an appeal. 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. He's saddled. The dark side of Bob Baffert's reign - Washington Post This in turn led to a ban from all California Horse Racing Board facilities beginning April 4 due to a rule removing any trainer under a 60 day or higher ban from all CHRB facilities. It was then that Baffert, one of the most accessible trainers in horse racing, stopped talking until this week. This whole thing is ridiculous, Baffert texted back, according to messages obtained by The Post via public records request. Its more the friendship that I miss. Baffert's attorney argued in court that the trainer's May suspension by the New York Racing Assn. (Arthur and those involved with the bill said the actions were unrelated. The. Baffert trained Lookin At Lucky, co-owned by Mike Pegram, to win the Preakness Stakes in 2010. 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. [35], The most notable cases prior to Medina Spirit's test was the disqualification of Gamine after a third place finish in the 2020 Kentucky Oaks, also for betamethasone,[36] and Triple Crown winner Justify, who tested positive for scopolamine after winning the 2018 Santa Anita Derby, but the results did not become public until after the horse won the Triple Crown. 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. One of the biggest assholes and cheats of all time, horse-racing [42] He had been paid $200,000 to allow the Burger King to stand behind him in the grandstand during the televised broadcast of the Belmont, after having turned down $150,000 to allow the mascot to appear with him at the Preakness. They had a son in 2004 whom they named "Bode" (/bodi/ BOH-dee), after skier Bode Miller. This time, he aided the CHRBs search for Jimson weed. Finding a new director every two to four years would cost $300,000 each time, a committee that analyzed the bill found. ), Among the TOCs central crusades was countering the movement against Lasix. Bob Bafferts horses have incurred numerous drug violations over the course of his 44 years as a thoroughbred trainer. 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.. The lawyer wrote there is evidence suggesting that this matter was handled differently.. He acknowledged there was no way to determine if that bale was part of the delivery to Baffert, according to the records, but the CHRB investigator nonetheless submitted the sample for testing. Its so obvious. There are no secrets on the backside.. 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. 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. Why would people want to be betting on horses when there are allegations and there are real positives and hes getting off on technicalities.. He appeared in an episode of the TV show Take Home Chef. [34] However, the Kentucky Court of Appeals rejected Baffert's appeal on April 1. Horse trainer Bob Baffert before the 2020 Breeders Cup at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky. Trainer Bob Baffert pets an outriders horse while watching workouts at Churchill Downs in April. Some of the horses that have died have been my horses, and on each and every instance, I have spoken to Bob and Ive been more than satisfied with the explanation, Shah said. Baffert's horses have won a record six Kentucky Derbies, seven Preakness Stakes, three Belmont Stakes, and three Kentucky Oaks . In July 2020, Merneith tested positive for dextromethorphan, a drug commonly used in cough medicine. Baffert made the. Bob had the personality and he was honest. [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. A complaint is filed in every case where the split sample confirms the original laboratory finding, read an advisory on the CHRB website. He will rub people the wrong way by speaking his mind, sometimes he needs to hit the mute button. It was obvious long before Miners Daughter collapsed in a blood-tinged froth in March 2013 that there was something amiss in Barn 61 at Hollywood Park, the Los Angeles-area racetrack. Baffert, one of the most legendary trainers in American horse racing, has faced criticism and suspensions after his 2021 Kentucky Derby champion, Medina . This was fun. He finished third in the Derby that year with Congaree. But the scuttled test result remained secret until the New York Times reported it in 2019. 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. In the next six months, three of his horses tested positive for banned or excessive substances four times in California, Arkansas and Kentucky. Two Triple Crown winners and a signature shock of white hair will do that for a man. In the 1980s, Baffert moved to California and worked at Los Alamitos Race Course, where he switched to training Thoroughbreds full-time in 1991. Baffert revisited the Derby the next year, sending two top colts, Real Quiet and Indian Charlie, to Louisville. Several members of the Breeders Cup board have used Baffert as their trainer. Baffert, like many trainers, was using a thyroid drug that was cited in the CHRB investigation. Scopolamine, Baedeker wrote, can be injected but very often is the result of feed or straw that has been contaminated with Jimson weed., Arthur had previously suggested he didnt consider Jimson weed contamination to be a serious threat, writing in a 2016 memo that the likelihood under our current procedures of getting a positive from environmental contamination is rather low. In an interview this week, Arthur said he meant that such incidences were infrequent but said that in California, if you have a scopolamine positive, its going to be associated with Jimson weed thats just the reality of it., On April 26, records show, Arthur emailed CHRB officials that he had talked to Bob and informed him the proceedings would not immediately interfere with Justifys Triple Crown schedule. By then, Justify had won the Triple Crown, one of the rarest achievements in sports. He has not been in alliance with us, said Hancock, mentioning Bafferts many positive tests and then listing top trainers who have had one or zero positives in their career. Hollywood Park closed in 2013, and the saga of the dead horses there faded quickly from the headlines. Baffert grew up on a ranch in Nogales, Arizona, where his family raised cattle and chickens. Even then, he would not talk about the specifics of the cases against him. Baffert was fined $10,000. This America's different." pic . When he was 10, his father purchased some Quarter Horses and he practiced racing them on a dirt track. [42][44] A friend of Baffert's and an inductee into the American Quarter Horse Association Hall of Fame, Adair died on Preakness Day, May 16, 2015, at 71. His most serious infraction was also his first. Has his success made people hate him more? 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.
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