bob baffert political affiliation
Hollywood Park closed in 2013, and the saga of the dead horses there faded quickly from the headlines. Following the publication of the report, Baffert tweeted: Im gratified that CHRB completed its investigation & found there was no wrongdoing. 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. It bothers me when hes not considered the Kentucky Derby winner.. PUBLISHED 9:20 AM ET Jul. Fellow trainer D. Wayne Lukas attributed Baffert's success to his "extraordinary eye for a good horse" and his management ability in finding the right opportunities for his charges.[5]. When The Post shared the data on 72 of the horse deaths with Brewster, he and Bafferts lawyer, W. Craig Robertson III, said that one of the horses listed was never in Bafferts care, though it is marked as his horse in CHRB records, and that another was a stable pony not being raced. [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. ), Arthur has defended his handling of the Justify positive. Monty Roberts, a trainer who has agitated for more humane treatment of racehorses throughout his six-decade career, said that Baffert has long been one of the most important voices holding the sport back from reform. When he was 10, his father purchased some Quarter Horses and he practiced racing them on a dirt track. In his analysis, Petersen estimated the states chances of winning at trial to be 50 percent. The colt lost the Belmont Stakes after breaking poorly from the starting gate. Hes the person few in the business want to talk about, but everyone wants to hear about. . I dont see somebody who is doping horses, Martin said after reviewing Bafferts drug-related history. 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. 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.. 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. A 4/C violation meant minor punishment that wouldnt typically involve disqualifying the horse or redistributing winnings. The horse is scheduled to run Saturday in the Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita. The New York Racing Assn. For every Baffert defender, you can find someone on the other side. Bob is trying to put 2020 behind him and move forward in a positive manner, Robertson wrote in an e-mail to Borden. The 90 day ban against Baffert was set to be honored in all 38 racing states. In the next six months, three of his horses tested positive for banned or excessive substances four times in California, Arkansas and Kentucky. Its all because of his success.. After Uncle Sam, a 4-year-old colt, died during a workout at the track the following January, a vet wrote: This is the 3rd for this owner/trainer in about as many months collapsed and died.. 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. He will rub people the wrong way by speaking his mind, sometimes he needs to hit the mute button. 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. When Arthur delivered his report in November 2013, the bill to remove him from office was still pending. Bafferts attorney argued in court that the trainers May suspension by the New York Racing Assn. He views himself as an ambassador for the sport. Teflon."[11]. Cherwa also contributes general interest stories from Florida. Some of the earlier violations do give you pause. Baffert revisited the Derby the next year, sending two top colts, Real Quiet and Indian Charlie, to Louisville. 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. It was an easy suspension to serve as Baffert was in school and not doing much training. Finding a new director every two to four years would cost $300,000 each time, a committee that analyzed the bill found. The bill was introduced by California Assemblyman Adam Gray, a former aide to Cardoza who had been in office for less than three months. This whole thing is ridiculous, Baffert texted back, according to messages obtained by The Post via public records request. You wouldnt know it now.. And Madeline Auerbach, who later became a CHRB commissioner, had partnered with Baffert in thoroughbred breeding. The Post separately obtained start data dating back to 2000 from the Daily Racing Form to put the deaths into context. 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. He built up his training business a step at a time and acquired some prominent owners. In September, Baffert learned via a text message from Barbara Borden, chief steward for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, that his horse Gamine had tested positive for the anti-inflammatory betamethasone at the Kentucky Oaks. But in the most recent election in June, he finished seventh of eight, the only incumbent beaten. 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. Arthur is retiring at the end of June from a job often consumed by the scandals of a single trainer. Two months after Arthur cleared Baffert, the legislation to limit his term died. The lawyer wrote there is evidence suggesting that this matter was handled differently.. Citrus Feed Companys Larry Bell has long supplied Baffert with feed and has previously testified in Bafferts defense, according to CHRB records. 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. 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. By Marty Irby. 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. At the time, she was 42-years-old. 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. Tinsley declined to comment. Pegram persuaded Baffert to try thoroughbreds. "So now even our Kentucky Derby winner, Medina Spirit, is a junky," Trump's statement read. On June 9, Justify won the Belmont and the Triple Crown. Baffert failed in multiple attempts in Kentucky to overturn the track's ban or the start of his suspension, which began April 4. The previous August, Bob Baffert Racing Stables had donated $1,000 to the TOC's political action committee, California records show. 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. The trainer was Baffert. It sounds like hes deflecting, Gagliano said of Baffert. Bafferts breakthrough thoroughbred was Thirty Slews, who won the Breeders Cup Sprint in 1992. 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. The testing levels have become ridiculous, Baffert told a conference of racehorse veterinarians during his keynote speech in 2000, according to a trade publication. But he said it wasnt clear from the records why the CHRB reversed course on filing a complaint against Baffert. Baffert was inducted into Lone Star Park's Hall of Fame in 2007, and in 2009, he was nominated and inducted to the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame, the same year as a filly he trained, Silverbulletday. Four months after that, in May 2014, Arthur issued an advisory that the CHRB was concerned by the apparently indiscriminate use of thyroxine and that the drug must be prescribed for a specific horse for a specific condition. Arthur told The Post that the advisory was a result of the Baffert investigation. But hes a good person, no, a great person. "Bobby" Adair. Hes a very unique personality, a unique sense of humor. In July 2020, Merneith tested positive for dextromethorphan, a drug commonly used in cough medicine. 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. Baffert did not win another classic race until 2001, when he won the Preakness and Belmont Stakes with eventual Hall of Fame member Point Given. The CHRB had not adopted that recommendation. According to Arthurs report, he found that Baffert was dispensing Thyro-L, or thyroxine, a prescription thyroid hormone, to all horses in his care. 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. None of them are considered performance-enhancing in the traditional sense, such as amphetamines or speedballs. Baffert trained Lookin At Lucky, co-owned by Mike Pegram, to win the Preakness Stakes in 2010. He also dismissed complaints that doping was rampant in the sport. It was later discovered that horses from separate barns had also tested positive. Horse trainer Bob Baffert, left, leaves federal court in Brooklyn on July 12. 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. (Pegram and Auerbach did not respond to interview requests. Baffert dedicated American Pharoah's win to Bobby. Baffert, like many trainers, was using a thyroid drug that was cited in the CHRB investigation. He declined to answer further questions. 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. 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. 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. . Yeah, but thats what drives him. There have been so many false narratives that have come up and the hearing process isnt even done yet. The CHRB ruled it was caused by feed contamination, citing six other horses across four barns who also tested positive. The 69-year-old Hall of Fame trainer is suing Churchill Downs Inc. in federal court to end his suspension. That didnt feel appropriate to those of who wanted to see science prevail, Cardoza said. Baffert has had more than 30 drug violations in his 44-year career, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. was unconstitutional after Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit failed a postrace drug test. 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. Horse racing needs to cut off the head of the snake, Ruis said. With private eyes and political muscle, horse racings elite pushed to punish dopers, Throughout the months-long process, CHRB officials had indicated they planned on filing a complaint against Baffert, which would have exposed the failed drug test. That investigation led to the indictments that Baffert said spurred him to embrace more oversight, so the cheaters would be quickly caught and punished.. Baffert went to federal court and had the suspension overturned, but NYRA has called a scheduling conference on the trainer for Oct. 11. In each instance, the death is investigated. The Judge made her ruling based on the NYRA having not allowed Baffert a forum to refute their claims and stated that (they the NYRA).."had held no hearing let alone a prompt one. Medina Spirit departed Churchill Downs in a van before dawn on Monday, bound for Baltimore (a horse van, not Jeff Spicoli's VW bus ). 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. Baffert has trained horses that won fifteen American Classic Races, fifteen Breeders' Cup races, four Dubai World Cups and the inaugural Pegasus World Cup. Baffert is a three-time winner of the Kentucky Derby, and has several top prospects for the May 5 race. The quest to find Jimson weed continued. Its truly painful when you know what the truth is, Baffert told The Times earlier this week in his first interview on the subject since May.
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