Jockey Club wants to stick up for NYRA in Baffert case

The Jockey Club wants to support the New York Racing Association in its legal dispute with trainer Bob Baffert.

The organization has asked for permission to file an amicus, or friend-of-the-court, brief in the lawsuit that Baffert filed against the New York Racing Association.

NYRA suspended Baffert after he announced that Medina Spirit tested positive for betamethasone after winning the Kentucky Derby. Baffert then filed suit against NYRA in an attempt to end the suspension.

In a June 22 letter to Judge Carol Bagley Amon of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern district of New York, attorney Susan Phillips Read said The Jockey Club's brief would be in opposition to Baffert's motion for a preliminary injunction and in support of NYRA's suspension of the trainer.

The Jockey Club "has access to information not necessarily available to the parties," Read wrote. "As a result, we believe that we are in a unique position to assemble material to assist the Court with issues of irreparable injury, balance of hardships and the public interest. The Jockey Club does not intend to duplicate the parties' legal argument."

According to the letter, NYRA's counsel has consented to the amicus brief submittal but Baffert's counsel has not.