Baffert’s lawyer: Judge should drop out over conflict of interest

Bob Baffert’s case against Churchill Downs Inc. took another odd turn Friday when the trainer’s lawyer filed a claim that the federal judge who heard arguments in her Louisville, Ky., courtroom last week had a conflict of interest.

“Her husband is the lobbyist for The Jockey Club,” attorney Clark Brewster told Horse Racing Nation. “They hired him after she was appointed the judge in this case and paid him $64,000 (actually $66,264.69). How does she not tell us?”

FLASHBACK: Baffert waits for court ruling to end Churchill ban.

In his motion to disqualify judge Rebecca Grady Jennings, Brewster wrote that her “impartiality is in question, because her husband … Patrick Jennings and his firm Commonwealth Alliances are legislative agents employed by The Jockey Club. The Jockey Club has actively intervened publicly and litigiously in the litigation surrounding the Bob Baffert-Medina Spirit matter since the beginning of (the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and CDI) action against Mr. Baffert.”

Patrick Jennings did not immediately respond Friday to a voice-mail request for reaction that was left at his Louisville office telephone number by HRN.

The filing went on to point out that one of CDI’s co-defendants in this case is Alex Rankin, “a senior, influential member of The Jockey Club (who) serves as a Jockey Club steward.”

Brewster said he confirmed Patrick Jennings’s association with The Jockey Club when he read a Monday filing with the Kentucky Executive Branch Ethics Commission.

“He’s also representing The Stronach Group,” Brewster said. “I mean there’s no way that she should not have disclosed that.”

The filing Friday came two days after the judge scolded Brewster in a written ruling against his first motion to disqualify her. Brewster felt disadvantaged when Baffert was called to answer questions first from CDI attorney Orin Snyder rather than from him. Brewster asked if there had been some private communication between Snyder and Grady Jennings beforehand.

“Plaintiffs’ unsubstantiated claim that the court engaged in improper (private) communications is serious,” the judge wrote Wednesday. “Plaintiffs are warned that any future conduct implicitly threatening the court, attempting to create or fabricate a situation suggesting recusal or made for other advantage or litigation tactic will not be tolerated and may result in a show-cause hearing and disciplinary action.”

Now it will be up to Grady Jennings to decide if she should accept Brewster’s new call to remove herself from the case. If she were to do so, then the matter theoretically could be back at square one.

In Baffert’s case, time is of the essence. He faces a Feb. 28 deadline to move his Kentucky Derby 2023 contenders to other trainers eligible for the May 6 race. Arabian Knight, the 6-1 futures favorite in Las Vegas futures, conceivably would be among those horses. Baffert is not eligible, because CDI suspended him for two years after the late Medina Spirit finished first in the 2021 race and then failed what has become a contentious drug test.

Brewster, working for Baffert and Medina Spirit’s owner Amr Zedan, had asked Grady Jennings for a preliminary injunction that would keep the Feb. 28 deadline from being enforced while also setting aside the suspension. That was the subject of a two-day, seven-hour hearing in the judge’s courtroom last Thursday and Friday. Grady Jennings has yet to rule on that motion or on CDI’s call to throw out the whole case.

In the case of the preliminary injunction, the loser is likely to go to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati to seek a temporary restraining order.

“I will immediately, if we don’t get a preliminary injunction,” Brewster said. “Which we should.”

Brewster’s new claim was the second example of a possible conflict of interest in this drama. Clay Patrick, a hearing officer appointed for the case between Baffert and the KHRC, recused himself in September after hearing six days of testimony from both sides in August. That was after he learned Brewster bought a horse at auction not knowing Patrick had put it up for sale.

After saying she would not hold a whole new hearing, Patrick’s replacement Eden Davis Stephens called the two sides to appear before her March 1 in Frankfort, Ky. Eventually, she will make a non-binding recommendation to the KHRC as to whether Medina Spirit should be restored as the winner of the 2021 Derby and if Baffert should have his name cleared.