In a meeting March 4, the Kentucky Equestrian Commission refused to stay in the games of the 2021 knockout Kentucky race presented by the Woodford Reserve (G1) winner. Medina Spirit while the case is being appealed. The move, taken by a 10-0 vote and without the participation of four members of the committee, backed KHRC chief executive Marc Guilfoil’s decision last month not to allow the stay. .
The denial means a 90-day suspension for Colt’s Hall of Fame coach Bob Baffert, as a positive Medina Spirit test for betamethasone during the Derby could start as early as March 22, except successful court challenge case. The trainer was also fined $7,500 as part of a judgment against him. A separate KHRC ruling regarding the Derby has disqualified Medina Spirit from racing at Churchill DownsElevate Juddmonte’s Mandaloun first and resulted in a loss of more than $1.86 million for the owner of Medina Spirit’s Zedan Racing Stables.
Both rulings have been appealed and will be presented before a hearing officer.
The parties appeared before Judge Thomas Wingate of Franklin Circuit Court in a hearing scheduled for March 17 to discuss the stay and request a preliminary order. This week, Wingate announced that he will make a decision on March 21.
In court earlier this week, Wingate stated that he thought the stay was mostly automatic given his experience in dealing with controversial KHRC rulings. However, he acknowledged the circumstances of this ongoing case were different from many of the disputed KHRC rulings, a clear example of the Derby and Baffert games. He speculated that Baffert and his legal team might want to “get this thing out.”
On Friday, the commissioners heard arguments from Clark Brewster, an attorney for Baffert and Zedan Racing Stables, and Jennifer Wolsing, KHRC’s general counsel. Most of the commissioners listened via videoconference.
Brewster started first, speaking for the full allotted 10 minutes before his microphone appeared to be muted. He called on the commissioners to be fair and equitable.
“This is not a hearing where we will defend a manager’s judgment or we will not allow any member of the board or executive office to take up a position where we retreat in a way. It’s not about that,” he commented. “And it’s certainly not showing support for Churchill Downs, or in a way, giving in to false narratives in the press. It’s not anything like that. It simply, ‘What are we in now, and what have we decided?'”
He said the 90-day suspension for California-based Baffert would be a “devastating virtual death blow,” with its length requiring under California Jockey Board rules that his barn be released. canopy. Through reciprocity, suspensions will be implemented across North America, preventing Baffert from racing anywhere for a three-month period this spring.
He questioned why the manager’s ruling did not specify why they rejected the arguments of Baffert and his legal team during the hearing. He also noted that administrators did not question during hearings prior drug violations from the trainer over the past year, cases they used to access his suspension. ta.
“I believe this is an overreaction, but if no actual results come out, we don’t know what the managers think,” Brewster added.
Wolsing followed Brewster, referring the commissioners to three other drug-positive tests from Baffert’s interns the year before the 2021 Derby, and Baffert’s failure to live up to promises he had made in a statement publicly available in the fall of 2020 to improve drug monitoring and compliance.
Bob Baffert with Medina Spirit the morning after the 2021 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs
Then, after Medina Spirit’s activism after the 2021 Derby, Baffert initially took no responsibility, Wolsing said.
Instead, he “started holding press conferences, pitching conspiracy theories, saying there was an unnamed problem in racing, but it wasn’t Bob Baffert, and switched his story on. become the source of positive medicine,” she said. “The effect of this is to reduce confidence in the entire industry — breeding, racing and sales.”
She cites the 1975 Fourth Court of Appeals decision in Hubel against the West Virginia Racing Commission, in which the trainer is considered the absolute underwriter of a horse.
She cited part of a court ruling that said if “the offense is so serious and the consequences are severe, the absolute protection of the horse and the public is fully guaranteed until the matter can be formally resolved.” However, earlier in the court’s 1975 statement, it referred to “doping” – not a therapeutic drug such as betamethasone, which is authorized for racehorses but whose presence is not permitted for racing. The drug has instructions to relieve the pain for 14 days when given to horses via the joint injection.
The commissioners then entered a closed executive session. When they returned, the video conference resumed and the three commissioners — Kerry Cauthen, Charlie O’Connor and Lesley Ann May Howard — withdrew their own vote on the matter, announcing a conflict of interest or perception. about conflicts of interest. Commissioner, Dr Tom Riddle did not vote.
Ten other commissioners, many of whom are involved in racing, trade or livestock in the state, voted against staying.
The topic of committee fairness came to the fore this week after The Paulick Report The accompanying story and TV footage shows O’Connor and KHRC president Jonathan Rabinowitz hugging Baffert shortly after Medina Spirit’s first cross of the box in the Derby. Rabinowitz oversaw the hearing process on Friday and asked the commissioners to cast their votes without voting themselves.
Baffert’s legal team, which includes attorney Craig Robertson, believes Medina Spirit’s disqualification and sanctions against the trainer are unreasonable. They claim that Medina Spirit’s positive betamethasone test result was from an application for Otomax antifungal cream prescribed by a veterinarian, a treatment record, which they say is recorded in Racing Board records California Horse and Jockey Club. Brewster said Otomax was in the groom’s box and “investigators thought nothing of it.”
According to The Jockey Club, Brewster’s reference to the Otomax record likely refers to data in the Electronic Treatment Record System. The system is designed and developed by the Jockey Club subsidiaries and is the first national database for racing authorities to collect and more effectively manage reporting on racing events. Drugs and procedures administered to racehorses in training and racing.
CHRB CEO Scott Chaney said the prescriptions were submitted to the system before the Kentucky Derby.
Otomax contains betamethasone valerate, not betamethasone acetate, which Baffert’s attorney says is a prohibited drug under Kentucky regulations. Betamethasone acetate is the specific form of betamethasone used in joint injections.
The KHRC countered that interpreting its rules, stating that positive tests for betamethasone is prohibited regardless of the route of use. The KHRC argues that the source of betamethasone is scientifically inappropriate.
Medina Spirit died in December after collapsing after a training session at Santa Anita . Park in an incident deemed unrelated to betamethasone treatment more than seven months earlier. In publishing the results of his autopsy along with a summary of his veterinary history, the CHRB noted “A skin infection (dermatitis) along the horse’s neck, girth, and hind legs had caused the The following products were distributed: Otomax topical (an ointment for bacterial or fungal infections with gentamicin, betamethasone valerate, and clotrimazole) on 4/9/21 and 4/19/21.”
The pending appeal before KHRC and the future court date with Wingate are not expressly related to the suspension of private property issued by Churchill Downs Inc. brought against Baffert in mid-2023 for drug violations. That suspension is limited to CDI-owned facilities. CDI did not allow its horses to earn qualifying points in the Road to the Kentucky Derby series in races around the country.
Baffert’s legal team filed a separate lawsuit on March 1 to oppose CDI’s actions.
Brewster released a statement following Friday’s hearing, calling the KHRC’s decision an “abrupt, arbitrary departure from its own 100-year precedent and from the general practice of the courts. everywhere in the United States.” He added, “We look forward to staying in a fair, impartial court of law.”
