Stewards dismiss last calls to disqualify Justify, Hoppertunity

In what may have been the last formal word on the matter, Santa Anita stewards decided Wednesday to throw out appeals that could have disqualified Justify and Hoppertunity from graded-stakes victories in April 2018 after they failed drug tests.

The combined cases were brought after the two Bob Baffert-trained horses were found to have had trace levels of scopolamine in their systems in post-race urinalysis. Justify tested positive after winning the Santa Anita Derby (G1). Hoppertunity was flagged after he finished first in the Tokyo City Cup Stakes (G1).

“After considering the evidence and testimony presented, (the complaints) are both dismissed,” the stewards said in a statement. “The CHRB (California Horse Racing Board) has already ruled on this matter, in executive session, at the Aug. 23, 2018, CHRB meeting in Del Mar, Calif., and voted not to move forward with the complaints.”

“I’m happy with the decision most importantly for Justify,” Baffert said in a text message Wednesday night. “He is a great horse and deserves his undefeated record.”

The whole matter was the catalyst for a lawsuit by Mick Ruis, owner of Santa Anita Derby runner-up Bolt d’Oro. He believed he was robbed of a victory when the CHRB did not disqualify Justify, who without the win would not have qualified for the Kentucky Derby and then won the Triple Crown.

The suit led to an out-of-court settlement that called for the CHRB to file new complaints that were heard in new four-hour hearing before the Santa Anita stewards in October. Stewards John B. Herbuveaux, Kim Sawyer and Ron Church signed Wednesday’s decision not to reconsider the complaints, deciding that there was no new evidence compelling them to fly in the face of the CHRB’s ruling two years ago.

“Even if the panel were to disagree with the CHRB’s decision to dismiss these matters or the way the CHRB handled the situation, it cannot be argued that the CHRB lacked the authority to do so,” the stewards said in their conclusion Wednesday. “The law specifically allows such actions to take place, and the CHRB followed the law.”

Asked for his reaction to Wednesday’s outcome, Ruis texted, “All a bunch of crooks.”

Original testimony from veterinarian Dr. Rick Arthur said that the illegal substance scopolamine “was the result of environmental contamination” that turned up not only in Justify and Hoppertunity but in five other horses.

Considered a low-level drug and anything but a performance enhancer, the scopolamine was widely believed to have come from jimson weed that accidentally wound up in feed eaten by the seven horses that tested positive around the same time.

“This was a case of innocent environmental contamination of hay,” Baffert’s lawyer Craig Robertson said during the October hearing. “It was not a case of intentional administration of any drug or medication.”

The CHRB was criticized for keeping the matter covered up until it was first reported in September 2019 by The New York Times.