LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The announcement came on the day Bob Baffert's original Churchill Downs suspension was to have ended -- The Hall of Fame trainer's exile will be extended through the end of 2024.
Unless Baffert can mount a successful legal challenge — something he has yet been able to do in his battles against Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission — he'll be absent from Kentucky Derby 150.
Baffert's first suspension was tough, but fair. His 2021 Kentucky Derby winner, Medina Spirit, tested positive for a banned race-day substance, betamethasone. Baffert reacted with a rambling news conference and an unfortunate media tour touting various conspiracy theories before finally determining that the drug had come from his own barn, in the form of an ointment.
Now, nobody seriously is arguing that Medina Spirit, who died that December after a routine workout (and without improper substances in his system, according to a necropsy), won the Derby because of that trace of drug in his blood and urine. Had the same race been run under today's new national rules, Medina Spirit would not have been disqualified.
But the drug was present. It's not allowed. It was against the rules, was a repeat offense for Baffert, and the KHRC disqualified Medina Spirit as winner – a result Baffert continues to challenge in court. In addition to the KHRC ruling, Churchill exercised its right to make an example of him.
Bob Baffert at Churchill Downs in 2018.
But after serving that sentence, Baffert watched Churchill Downs move the finish line on Monday. It was like Warden Norton telling Andy Dufrense that he'd get another month in the hole in The Shawshank Redemption.
Churchill's reasoning was a bit sketchy.
"Mr. Baffert continues to peddle a false narrative concerning the failed drug test of Medina Spirit at the 147th Kentucky Derby from which his horse was disqualified by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission," a statement from Churchill Downs Inc. says. ". . . Prior to that race, Mr. Baffert signed an agreement with Churchill Downs which stated that he was responsible for understanding the rules of racing in Kentucky and that he would abide by them. The results of the tests clearly show that he did not comply, and his ongoing conduct reveals his continued disregard for the rules and regulations that ensure horse and jockey safety, as well as the integrity and fairness of the races conducted at our facilities. A trainer who is unwilling to accept responsibility for multiple drug test failures in our highest-profile races cannot be trusted to avoid future misconduct."
Peddling a false narrative? If you couldn't peddle false narratives, backsides of racetracks wouldn't exist. What we have here is a difference of opinion. And what was it Mark Twain said? "It's difference of opinion that makes horse races."
Now, I've been with Churchill to this point. I do think Medina Spirit won the Kentucky Derby, but rules were broken, and I know why Churchill and the KHRC acted decisively to enforce them. Somebody in horse racing needs to act decisively against some of the problems in the sport, and if Churchill has gone over the top in that regard, it should get some leeway. It is the most visible track in American racing. The Derby is no place for cheating – or carelessness.
But this extension feels like something else altogether. The fighting between Baffert and Churchill, in court and in public, feels like it has gotten personal. Churchill CEO Bill Carstanjen beat Baffert to the first legal punch when he spoke to The New York Times about the Baffert lawsuit the track knew was coming.
It successfully fought off a challenge from Baffert to try to get the ban lifted in federal court in Louisville this past winter.
Churchill Downs absolutely has a right, even a responsibility, to move against trainers when they break the rules. And I've even defended the track in matters like the action against Saffie Joseph Jr., when it suspended him after two of his horses died inexplicably after races. The track has a right not only to be cautious, but overly cautions.
But a track's ability to suspend a trainer because of what he says or thinks is getting into territory that should concern all of us.
Baffert returned to the Triple Crown trail to win the Preakness Stakes this past May. According to a Los Angeles Times analysis, he has raced all over the country without a drug offense in 2 years. In that time, he's had 3 horses die, including one who broke down on Preakness Stakes Day, and Medina Spirit himself, who suffered what appeared to be a cardiac issue after a workout at Santa Anita Park.
In short, he has not been a detriment to the sport. Nor has he lashed out at Churchill or Kentucky, even after coming back to win the Preakness – though some of the legal mud-slinging between the two has been fierce.
"I am at a loss to understand Churchill Downs' latest action against me," Baffert said on Monday via Twitter. " ... In the interests of the sport we all love, I have made no public comments on this unfortunate episode for an extended period of time so the suggestion that I 'continue to peddle a false narrative' is patently false."
Maybe the blood has gotten so bad through the legal battles that the track doesn't want to give him a Kentucky Derby platform. Maybe it can't stand the prospect of Baffert winning Kentucky Derby No. 150, a race it will spend the better part of 2 years hyping.
Maybe there are legitimate concerns. If so, Churchill will do well to present them. This extension would seem to leave the barn door open for a new legal challenge. At the very least, it makes Baffert, of all people, a more sympathetic figure.
Everybody knows, you don't go to the whip once you cross the finish line. Yet here we are.
Churchill Downs is the most powerful name in horse racing. But there are limits to anyone's power.
Enforcing this ban might well be a test of that for Churchill Downs. Either way, unless the track intends to make this a lifetime ban, at some point it will have to mend fences with the most successful Kentucky Derby trainer in modern times and put an end to this unfortunate chapter.
It's a short trip from unfortunate to unfair. That's a line Churchill would do well not to cross.
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