In a March 4 meeting, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission denied a stay to the connections of disqualified 2021 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) winner Medina Spirit while the case is appealed. The move, made with a 10-0 vote and without the participation offour members of the commission,backed a decision by KHRC executive director Marc Guilfoil last month not to grant the stay.
The denial means that a 90-day suspension issued to the colt's Hall of Fame trainer, Bob Baffert, for Medina Spirit testing positive for betamethasone in the Derby could begin as early as March 22, barring a successful court challenge. The trainer was also fined $7,500 as part of the ruling against him. A separate KHRC ruling related to the Derby disqualified Medina Spirit from the race at Churchill Downs, elevating Juddmonte's Mandaloun to first and resulting in a loss of purse of more than $1.86 million for Medina Spirit's owner Zedan Racing Stables.
Both rulings have been appealed and are to come before a hearing officer.
The parties now go to court before Franklin Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wingate in an already scheduled hearing March 17 to discuss a stay and a request for a preliminary injunction. Wingate announced this week he would render a decision March 21.
In court earlier this week, Wingate stated that he thought a stay was virtually automatic in his experience in dealing with contested KHRC rulings. However, he acknowledged the circ*mstances of this ongoing case differ from many disputed KHRC rulings, an apparent reference to the Derby and Baffert. He speculated that Baffert and his legal team may wish to "drag this thing out."
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On Friday, commissioners heard arguments from Clark Brewster, an attorney for Baffert and Zedan Racing Stables, and Jennifer Wolsing, general counsel for the KHRC. Mostcommissioners listened via videoconference.
Brewster began first, speaking for his fully allotted time of 10 minutes before his microphone appeared to be silenced. He urged commissioners to be fair and even-handed.
"This shouldn't be a hearing where we're going to protect the stewards ruling or we're going to not allow any of the members of the board or executive office to be taking a position that we retreat from in some way. It's not about that," he remarked."And it certainly isn't about showing support to Churchill Downs, or in some way capitulating to the false narrative in the press. It shouldn't be any of that. It should be simply, 'What are we met with now, and what did we decide?'"
He said a 90-day suspension to the California-based Baffert would be a "devastating virtual death blow," with its lengthrequiring under California Horse Racing Board rules that his barn be disbanded. Through reciprocity, the suspension would be honored across North America, preventing Baffert from racing anywhere for a period of three months this spring.
He questioned why the stewards ruling did not articulate why they rejected their arguments from Baffert and his legal team during the hearing. He furthernoted that the stewards didn't question during the hearing prior medication violations from the trainer over the past year, circ*mstances they used in accessing his suspension.
"This is an overreaction, I believe, but without the factual findingset forth, we don't know what the stewards thought," Brewsteradded.
Wolsing followed Brewster, recapping for commissionersthree other medication positives from Baffert trainees in the year preceding the 2021 Derby, and Baffert's failure to fulfill promises he made in a public statement in the fall of 2020 for improved medication compliance and oversight.
Then after Medina Spirit's positive following the 2021 Derby, Baffert initially failed to accept responsibility, Wolsing said.
He instead "began to hold press conferences, advancing conspiracy theories, stating that there was an unnamed problem in racing, but it was not Bob Baffert, and shifting his story as to the source of the medication positive," she said. "The effect of this was to diminish confidence in an entire industry—breeding, racing, and sales."
She cited a 1975 Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Hubel v. West Virginia Racing Commission, in which a trainer is considered the absolute insurer of a horse.
She cited a portion of the court's ruling that said if "the offense is so serious and the consequences so severe, that absolute protection to the horse and to the public is fully warranted until the matter can be formally resolved." Earlier in that 1975 statement from the court, however, is a reference to "doping"—not treatment of a therapeutic medication such as betamethasone, which is permitted in racehorses but the presence of which is not allowed for racing. The drug has a 14-day withdrawal guideline when given to a horsevia a joint injection.
Commissioners then went into a closed executive session. When they returned, the video meeting resumed, and three commissioners—KerryCauthen,CharlieO'Connor, andLesley Ann May Howard—recused themselves from a vote on the matter, announcing a conflict of interest or the perception of aconflict of interest. Commissioner Dr. Tom Riddle did not casta vote.
Ten other commissioners, many of whom are involved in racing, sales, or breeding in the state,voted in denial of the stay.
The subject of impartiality by the commission came to the forefront this week after a Paulick Report story and accompanying television video footage showedO'Connor and KHRC chairmanJonathan Rabinowitz hugging Baffert shortly after Medina Spirit crossed the wire first in the Derby.Rabinowitz oversaw the proceedings of Friday's hearing and asked commissioners of their votes without voting himself.
Baffert's legal team, which includes attorney Craig Robertson, believes the disqualification of Medina Spirit and sanctions toward the trainer are unjustified. They arguethat Medina Spirit's positive test for betamethasone was from an application on his hindquarters of the veterinarian-prescribed anti-fungal cream Otomax, treatment records they say are noted in records with the California Horse Racing Board and The Jockey Club. Brewster said Otomax was in the groom's tack box and "investigators didn't think anything of it."
According to The Jockey Club, Brewster's reference of Otomax records likely refers to datain theElectronic Treatment Records System. This system was designed and developed by subsidiaries of The Jockey Club and is the first national database for racing regulatory authorities to more efficiently collect and manage the reporting of medications and procedures administered to racehorses in training and in racing.
These prescriptions were submitted to the system well before the Kentucky Derby, CHRB executive director Scott Chaney said.
Otomax contains betamethasone valerate, not betamethasone acetate, which Baffert attorneys say is the prohibited medication in Kentucky regulations. Betamethasone acetate is the specific form of betamethasone used in joint injections.
The KHRC disputes that interpretation of its rules, stating that positive tests for betamethasone are prohibited regardless of the route of administration. The source of betamethasone is scientifically irrelevant, the KHRC argues.
Medina Spirit died in December after collapsing following a workout at Santa Anita Park in an incident considered unrelated to treatment with betamethasone more than seven months earlier. In releasing the results of his necropsy along with a veterinary history summary, the CHRB noted "A skin infection(dermatitis) along the horse's neck, girth area, and hindquarters prompted the following products to bedispensed: topical Otomax (an ointment for bacterial or fungal infections with ingredients gentamicin,betamethasone valerate, and clotrimazole) on 4/9/21 and 4/19/21."
The pendingappeal before the KHRC and a future court date with Wingate are not explicitly related to the private property suspension issued by Churchill Downs Inc. toward Baffert at its tracks through the middle of 2023 for medication violations. That suspension is limited to CDI-owned facilities. CDI has further not allowed his horses to earn qualifying points on its Road to the Kentucky Derby series in races across the country.
Baffert's legal team filed a separate lawsuit March 1 to challenge the actions of CDI.
Brewster released a statement after Friday's hearing, calling the KHRC's decision a "sudden, arbitrary departure from its own 100-year precedent and from the general practice of courts everywhere in the United States." He added, "We look forward to obtaining a stay in an impartial, unbiased court of law."
