Baffert Answers Arguments from NYRA, The Jockey Club

Attorneys representing Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert in his ongoing legal battle with the New York Racing Association filed a 44-page memorandum July 7 bolstering the trainer's argument for a judge to remove a temporary ban issued by the racing association.

The most recent filing is in response to arguments submitted June 30 to the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York by NYRA and The Jockey Club, defending the racing association's decision May 17 to block Baffert from getting stalls or entering horses at Belmont Park, Saratoga Race Course, or Aqueduct Racetrack. The ban was in response to a positive test result for the corticosteroid betamethasone in Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) winner Medina Spirit .

The introduction in Baffert's July 7 filing goes straight to the heart of his argument that the ban is illegal and inequitable.

"Nowhere in NYRA's response is there any contention that Baffert has violated any New York statute or racing rule. In fact, the opposite is true," the memorandum starts. "Despite his distinguished New York racing career, without even a hint of wrongdoing, NYRA believes it has free reign to unilaterally void his constitutional protected property rights and ban him from all activity in New York without notice and for an indefinite period of time based solely on unproven allegations of a minor infraction (an overage of an allowable medication) in another jurisdiction."

The memorandum went on to state that Baffert deserves to have the ban lifted based on two legal grounds: he was not afforded any due process and had no opportunity to be heard before NYRA took its action; and, NYRA does not have the authority to suspend Baffert's license because that authority rests with the New York State Gaming Commission.

NYRA in its earlier response said its action was justifiable considering Baffert's multiple medication violations—he's had five within the past year—and a responsibility to protect the integrity of its racing product. The temporary ban was issued three weeks before the June 5 Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G1).

"Allowing Baffert to enter horses in races and stable horses at the racetracks threatened the reputation of the Belmont Stakes and NYRA," stated NYRA CEO and president David O'Rourke in the association's response. "Baffert did not then have any horses entered in races or stabled at the racetracks. However, with the running of the Belmont on June 5 fast approaching, NYRA needed to act swiftly and resolutely, because it was possible, if not likely, that Baffert might seek to enter Medina Spirit in that race.

"The failure to take swift and decisive action, unencumbered by the delay of a formal trial-type hearing (such as Baffert claims he was entitled), could also result in public scandal and ultimately a decrease in spectatorship, a substantial loss of revenues to the state and the racetrack, and even the potential decline of Thoroughbred racing in general as a sport, with consequent loss of jobs and investments."

Baffert's July 7 memorandum said NYRA acting on behalf of the "integrity of racing" is a "false narrative."

"The fact NYRA routinely allows onto its tracks trainers who have actually been found to have broken New York's rules of racing completely shatters that false narrative," the memorandum states. "NYRA smears Baffert with allegations about other positive tests, without providing the critical context of those, including that they involved minor overages of permitted substances, none of which merited a suspension and some of which, Baffert was, for all practical purposes, vindicated. … It does not serve the 'integrity' of horse racing to suspend first and ask questions later."

The memorandum goes on to outline Baffert's notable accomplishments, including earning Eclipse Award leading trainer titles in 1997-99 and 2015, receiving the Mr. Fitz Award from the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters Association in 1997 as someone who typifies the spirit of racing, and getting honored with the Big Sport of Turfdom Award from the Turf Publicists of America in 1998. The trainer was inducted into the National Racing Hall of Fame in 2009.

"The foregoing hardly sounds like an individual who is a blight on horse racing as NYRA now purports to claim," Baffert's filing states.

The memorandum also challenged the scope of Baffert's medication violations. In an affidavit from O'Rourke, the NYRA executive stated "upon information and belief," Baffert has been cited for drug violations at least 30 times. The number of violations cites a New York Times article from May 9, 2021, about Medina Spirit's failed drug test as its source.

According to The Jockey Club database of regulatory rulings, Baffert's memorandum notes the trainer has had eight violations since 2005 (as far back as these records reportedly go) and none of them occurred in New York. The memorandum goes on to note that among the top 12 trainers for the ongoing Belmont meet, their number of medication violations from the database range from zero up to 15 for two ranked trainers.

"Many of the foregoing trainers not only have more medication-related violations than Baffert, they have medication-related violations in the State of New York—something Baffert has never had in his entire career," the memorandum states. "They all continue to 'ply their trade' to this day and NYRA welcomes them with open arms."

The memorandum cites the case of suspended trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. as an example of Baffert being singled out. Dutrow was reportedly fined nearly 70 times over a 30-year period before receiving a $50,000 fine and a 10-year ban from racing in 2011 after hypodermic needles were found in a desk drawer in his barn office.

"Despite this fact, NYRA took no action and Dutrow continued to race at NYRA for the next year and a half while his suspension was being appealed," the memorandum states.

Baffert's attorneys also cited cases involving trainer Linda Rice, who was fined and suspended for three years for paying for information from racing officials to gain a competitive advantage, but has horses running at NYRA tracks while she appeals her case.

"In other words, NYRA has decided that it will give every other trainer due process except for Baffert," the memorandum states.

Baffert's attorneys continued to emphasize the ban's potential to cause irreparable harm to the trainer's career by denying him the ability to race during the Saratoga meet.

"There is no compensating for the missed opportunity to participate in prestigious races that define the success of a trainer's career and garner goodwill with clients," the memorandum states. "NYRA's argument that Baffert cannot prove irreparable harm because he can still race in other states is missing the mark. First, there is no meet more prestigious than Saratoga and the gravitas and economic benefit that come from New York racing cannot be overstated. ... Baffert's runners in New York win almost three times the amount that they do outside New York. This demonstrates the importance of NYRA racing to Baffert despite the fact that he races in other jurisdictions."

NYRA in its earlier response had stated there was no evidence demonstrating the ban would "effectively put (Baffert) out of business in the State of New York."

"Equally insufficient is Plaintiff's conclusory assertion that the suspension may result in harm to his 'professional reputation.' As a threshold matter, any alleged harm to Plaintiff's reputation stems solely from Plaintiff's own actions, not NYRA's actions," NYRA included in its response.

In addition to damage to his professional career, Baffert's attorneys argued further that a violation of a person's constitutional rights in itself causes irreparable harm.

In other action related to this lawsuit, NYRA's request for a pre-motion conference ahead of an already scheduled hearing July 12 was denied the same day by New York District Court Judge Carol Bagley Amon July 6.

In a July 6 letter to Amon, NYRA requested the pre-motion conference to argue for dismissal of Baffert's complaints in his lawsuit.

"Each of these claims are deficient as a matter of law and should be dismissed," wrote Henry Greenberg, an attorney with Greenberg Traurig, who is representing NYRA.

Amon acknowledged the pre-motion conference request July 6 and ordered without embellishment that the request will be taken up during the already scheduled hearing July 12.

Baffert's attorney W. Craig Robertson III, with Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs, followed with a July 7 letter requesting that the July 12 hearing be limited to attorney arguments "as opposed to presenting live witnesses, and to rely on the evidence submitted along with their respective briefing."

Robertson said if the judge preferred to allow witnesses to testify at the hearing than such testimony would be provided, he simply needed time to make travel arrangements.