Baffert Suspension Delayed; KHRC Stay Hearing March 4

The start of a 90-day suspension issued by Kentucky stewards to trainer Bob Baffert has been delayed until after March 21 pending a stay request before the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, Franklin Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wingate ruled March 2. His decision came after he consulted with parties involved in the case.

According to a discussion between attorneys at Wednesday's hearing with Wingate, a March 4 meeting with the KHRC is scheduled related to the request. Last month, Kentucky stewards issued rulings against the Hall of Fame trainer and his horse, Medina Spirit , who was disqualified from victory in the 2021 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) at Churchill Downs. 

On Friday, the KHRC could elect to reverse a decision by KHRC executive director Marc Guilfoil not to grant the stay. Alternately, the commission could back his decision.

The original dates of Baffert's suspension were March 8-June 5. If such a suspension takes place, all racing jurisdictions in North America will honor the suspension with reciprocity among regulators.

The meeting before the KHRC is not the formal appeal of the rulings, Baffert attorney Craig Robertson said Wednesday morning after the court session. He said that appeal will come before a hearing officer with a date still to be scheduled.

Should no stay be granted Friday, the matter would return before Wingate in a hearing set for March 17. He would render a decision by March 21, the judge said. Baffert's suspension could begin thereafter if it remains intact.

The 90-day suspension to Baffert and a $7,500 fine were handed down due to the Zedan Racing Stables-owned Medina Spirit testing positive for betamethasone after crossing the wire first in the Kentucky Derby. Stewards declared Juddmonte's Mandaloun  the winner with Medina Spirit's disqualification.

Wingate stated that in his experience in often dealing with contested KHRC rulings, he thought a stay was virtually automatic.

Robertson agreed, mentioning that if a stay had not been granted in a prior Kentucky medication case in 2015 involving trainer Graham Motion, the trainer would have begun serving dates that the KHRC later threw out. The KHRC reduced the trainer's penalty to a $500 fine upon appeal.

That case ultimately came before Wingate, who overturned the commission's fine to Motion and the KHRC's disqualification of George Strawbridge Jr.'s Kitten's Point  from the 2015 Bewitch Stakes (G3T) at Keeneland for methocarbamol. Wingate called into question Kentucky's absolute-insurer rule for trainers, whether a hearing officer afforded Motion and Strawbridge proper due process, and whether the rule defining the methocarbamol threshold was proper.

Later, the Commonwealth of Kentucky Court of Appeals overruled Wingate's decision, and the Kentucky Supreme Court declined to hear the case. 

On Wednesday, Wingate noted that the circumstances of this ongoing case differ from many disputed KHRC rulings since it involves the Kentucky Derby.

He speculated that Baffert and his legal team may wish to "drag this thing out." A ruling on the Kentucky Derby was not issued by the KHRC until nine months after the Derby, partially delayed by Baffert's legal team requesting ingredient-specific follow-up drug testing conducted at the New York Equine Drug Testing and Research Laboratory.

Those laboratory findings confirmed some of the ingredients found in the anti-fungal cream Otomax, Baffert's attorneys argue. The trainer says he used the veterinarian-prescribed medication to treat a skin condition on the colt's hindquarters leading up to the Derby. 

Otomax contains betamethasone valerate, not betamethasone acetate, which they say is the prohibited medication in Kentucky regulations. 

The KHRC disputes that interpretation of its rules, with KHRC general counsel and other KHRC attorneys writing to Wingate in advance of Wednesday's hearing that "the Commission's regulations prohibit a horse from carrying betamethasone in its body during a race, regardless of the route of administration." They added that "the source of the betamethasone is scientifically irrelevant to its pharmacological effect."

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.

KHRC representatives declined to comment after Wednesday's court session, standard practice for the regulator in dealing with active regulatory matters.

An appeal before the KHRC and a future court date with Wingate is 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 suit March 1 to challenge CDI's actions.