LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – The holiday won’t come for another day, but July 3 was Independence Day of sorts for Hall of Fame thoroughbred trainer Bob Baffert. His 90-day suspension from the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission ended Sunday and horses under his colors were back in training at Santa Anita Park.
California was one of more than 20 states honoring Kentucky’s suspension under a reciprocity agreement, but now that it is complete Baffert is free to race there, and everywhere else, except at Churchill Downs and its properties – Churchill Downs Inc. has banned Baffert for 2 years – and in New York, which last week suspended Baffert for one year, a ban that will end on Jan. 26 of next year.
Still, Baffert was back, and is eligible to send his horses to the Breeders’ Cup races at Keeneland in November, and elsewhere in the country.
“I thought about getting there at 12:01 a.m. and go to the barn and start hammering the signs back up,” Baffert told John Cherwa of The Los Angeles Times. “It was like the first day of school.”
Kentucky's suspension came for a repeat violation involving the race-day banned substance betamethasone, which was found in the blood and urine of Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit after the 2021 running of the race.
As part of the Kentucky suspension, all of the signage on Baffert’s barn at Santa Anita was removed, and all of his personal items had to be taken out of his stable office.
“There was supposed to be no sign of Bob Baffert,” the trainer told the Times.
Baffert told The Racing Form, “I’m not ready to retire,” and praised the work of trainers Tim Yakteen and Sean McCarthy, who worked with his horses in his absence. McCarthy occupied his Santa Anita office. His wife, who already is Baffert’s barn manager, made for a smooth transition.
While some owners moved their horses to other trainers, a great many stayed, and Baffert said he was grateful. He’s still pursuing legal action against Churchill Downs, seeking to have the suspension lifted and Medina Spirit.
His attorneys contend that because the substance was the result of an ointment and not injected as a performance-enhancer, that the disqualification wasn’t called for.
Medina Spirit died suddenly on the track at Santa Anita Park after a routine workout, of an apparent heart attack, last December. A subsequent necropsy revealed no unusual substances.
Baffert told the Times if he had it to do over again, he wouldn’t have held a press conference immediately after learning of the positive test, and he wouldn’t have gone on FOX News claiming to have been “canceled.”
“If I had to do anything different, I wouldn’t have had a press conference,” the Times quoted Baffert as saying. “But it was out there and [the media] was waiting. … I was trying to get ahead of it. I was convinced after talking to my veterinarians, that [the positive] was impossible. Then it dawned on them 48 hours later, be careful with the [ointment] Otomax.”
Baffert expects to return to racing next week at Los Alamitos, and then at Del Mar later this month.
“We’ll be back,” he told the Times.
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