Baffert waits for court ruling to end Churchill Downs ban

Louisville, Ky.

After seven hours of arguments from lawyers and testimony the past two days from witnesses including trainer Bob Baffert, a federal judge said Friday she will rule “within the next period of time” on whether to grant the Hall of Fame trainer’s request for a preliminary injunction against Churchill Downs Inc.

Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings also said she will decide whether to dismiss the case against CDI, which has been defending a two-year suspension of Baffert that was brought on by the late Medina Spirit’s failed drug test after the 2021 Kentucky Derby.

During nearly two hours on the stand Friday, Baffert was challenged by CDI attorneys to show how the suspension crippled his career, as he had predicted.

“It did hurt me,” Baffert told New York attorney Orin Snyder, who is on the CDI legal team. “It’s all about my prestige and reputation. ... My horses should have made much more money than they did. I’m just holding on. I had to let people go.”

He also said he had almost no notice to try to defend himself against the suspension, which was announced May 9, 2021.

“I just remember they put out a statement,” he said. “They called me, and the statement came out two minutes later.”

Baffert also defended himself for holding a May 9, 2021, news conference at Churchill Downs the day after he learned results of the drug test had gotten into media reports so quickly.

“If they had not broken my confidentiality,” he said, “I never would have held the press conference. ... I was on the defensive. At the time I was sure we had not violated any rules.”

Later, Churchill Downs racetrack president Mike Anderson admitted he was part of a small group of CDI executives who decided to suspend Baffert over “just a lack of respect for the rules and regulations. Mr. Baffert has been in the business for a very long time, and he should have known what was being administered to his horses.”

Anderson also told CDI lawyer Christine Demana from Dallas that the 2019 revelation of a scopolamine positive for 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify was a factor in suspending Baffert. Baffert’s attorney, Clark Brewster, then confronted Anderson with a California Horse Racing Board finding that the scopolamine came from a spoiled batch of feed that affected six horses in four other barns.

Asked if he was aware Baffert had been exonerated in that case and that the late former CHRB chairman Chuck Winner said so to the Los Angeles Times, Anderson said, “I'm not aware of this investigation had been closed. I'm not aware of this comment. I need all the facts and circumstances before I opine on that.”

Brewster seized on that, saying, “You’re right. You need all the facts and circumstances to suspend a trainer.”

Both sides took turns zeroing in on Baffert’s record of medication violations with each painting it a different way.

“I actually run a tight ship,” Baffert said, also confirming he has had no violations since the 2021 Derby. “Most definitely I get tested more, because they always test the winner. They also test the losing favorite, and I have the favorite a lot of times.”

Anderson disagreed with that framing of the picture. He also took issue with Baffert’s mindset in the wake of Medina Spirit’s betamethasone positive.

“Continued denials, a lack of ownership of drug violations, his media tour,” Anderson said. “He could not come up with a reason why for the positive. He had a lack of understanding what his horse was being administered.”

Saying that Churchill Downs CEO Bill Carstanjen made the final decision to suspend after meeting with fellow executives, Anderson remembered the image of the company and the Derby were at stake.

"We wanted to make a clear distinction to all trainers,” Anderson said. “A statement to drug violators. ... We felt like it was a reasonable consequence to deter people.”

Grady Jennings spent a good deal of time trying to keep the hearing on point after declaring it had run far afield into what she felt was irrelevant repeating of the argument over whether the betamethasone was legally administered.

Late in the three-hour session Thursday, she held a private, five-minute sidebar at her bench with three of the attorneys. Thirteen minutes later, the hearing was over.

“I finally got to tell my story in a non-biased atmosphere,” Baffert told reporters outside the courthouse. “I’m hoping for the best. Hopefully we’ll be here.”

“Here” being for the Kentucky Derby on May 6. That would depend in part on a preliminary injunction being granted by Grady Jennings.

“I would expect we should have something in the next several days, really,” Brewster said.

Either way, the losing side would have the option to go to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati to try to set aside whatever result comes out of the Louisville courthouse.

A separate hearing with an officer appointed by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission will resume March 1. It was interrupted in September when it was discovered the previous hearing officer Clay Patrick unknowingly sold a horse at auction to Brewster.

The hearing in Frankfort, Ky., will ultimately determine whether Medina Spirit should be restored as the winner of the 2021 Derby and whether Baffert would have his name cleared after serving a 90-day suspension last year.