Attorney: Baffert hoped end of case vs. Churchill would stop ban

According to his attorney, trainer Bob Baffert was caught off guard when Churchill Downs Inc. extended his two-year suspension through the end of 2024, because he agreed to drop his court fight in exchange for being welcomed back to the company’s racetracks.

Clark Brewster told Horse Racing Nation on Thursday that CDI “asked that (Baffert) not pursue the appeal in the federal case against Churchill, and we obliged them on that point. We let that case lapse and didn’t file the appeal out of a sense of goodwill and cooperation and with a forgiving attitude.”

Brewster differed with an earlier characterization by HRN that a firm agreement had been in place. “There was no deal,” he said. “There was no quid pro quo.”

A spokesperson for CDI told HRN on Thursday afternoon that company attorneys were looking over the story but had no response just yet.

A statement Monday from CDI said the suspension would remain in place because Baffert was still adamant he did not break any rules that led to Medina Spirit testing positive for betamethasone after finishing first in the 2021 Kentucky Derby.

“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 in accordance with Kentucky law and regulations,” the CDI statement said. Later it said, “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. Mr. Baffert will remain suspended from entering horses at all racetracks owned by CDI through 2024. After such time, we will re-evaluate his status.”

Baffert’s original suspension was imposed in June 2021 to run more than two years through Monday. While the two sides continued to argue about whether there was a violation of KHRC rules, Baffert was forbidden from competing at CDI racetracks, leaving him out of the last two runnings of the Derby. As it stands, he will miss the next one, too.

“Bob has not had any public statements about these issues in probably the last year-and-a-half,” Brewster said in the interview for Friday’s episode of HRN’s Ron Flatter Racing Pod. “He’s been fully transparent and cooperative with both the racing commission and any investigatory bodies that had inquiry. So Churchill’s announcement just came out of the dark, and we really don’t understand the basis for it.”

Brewster said it was too soon to know whether Baffert would pursue new legal action because of the extended suspension.

“I don’t think a decision has been made,” he said. “I don’t want to take some legal action that just keeps him in the crosshairs of persons that react in the way that we saw Churchill react. Any legal action has to be weighed with regard to what it might cause going forward to goodwill and a common understanding for the best within the sport.”

Brewster went on to say, “I have not given that advice yet, but I honestly am quite taken aback by the more recent move, especially when Bob took their suggestion and allowed this civil case to go away.”

Directly asked about any future court action, Baffert said in a Monday text message to HRN that “there is no pending litigation against Churchill.”

In May, Kentucky federal judge Rebecca Grady Jennings ruled against Baffert’s request to throw out the suspension. Separately in the same month, his call to have Medina Spirit’s Derby victory restored was rejected by a Kentucky state hearing officer, but the KHRC has not acted yet on that recommendation.