Lawyers say trainers’ business being destroyed
Trainer Bob Baffert and his legal team requested an injunction in Franklin Circuit Court on Monday to set aside his 90-day suspension. The filing painted a dire picture of the trainer’s prospects if a stay were not granted.
The filing came after the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission denied Baffert’s request for a stay on Friday.
According a Franklin Circuit Court clerk, judge Thomas Wingate will hear the case Wednesday.
The suspension, set to begin on March 8 and run through the Triple Crown series to June 5, was handed down last Monday by the state’s stewards who also levied a $7,500 fine against Baffert and disqualified the late Medina Spirit from his 2021 Kentucky Derby win. Such suspensions are routinely honored in other racing states and countries.
“Given the unique nature of the industry, any prolonged suspension of Baffert will also have the effect of destroying his business for a period of time much larger than the suspension itself,” the filing obtained by Horse Racing Nation read. “Most directly, in California – where Baffert is based – any suspension over 60 days will require him to vacate his barns and remove his signage, effectively putting him out of business.”
The filing requested a stay order, a temporary injunction or both in order to set aside the suspension.
A representative for the KHRC did not immediately respond to HRN's request for comment.
Several reasons were stated for a stay to be granted, including what Baffert’s legal team said was a “substantial likelihood” that he will win his appeal, along with a claim that the suspension could cause “irreparable damage to his business.”
Three affidavits were included in the court filing with one coming from Baffert; one from Dr. George Maylin, who tested Medina Spirit’s split urine sample; and one from Dr. Steven Barker, who formerly served as state chemist for the Louisiana State Racing Commission.
The filing from Maylin restated a claim commonly used by Baffert and his legal team, that the betamethasone found in Medina Spirit’s system was due to use of a skin cream known as Otomax and not from an injection.
“The Medina Spirit urine sample did not contain betamethasone acetate,” Maylin said in the affidavit. “This is consistent with a finding that the horse was not given an injection of betamethasone.”
The affidavit from Barker claimed the amount of the drug found in Medina Spirit, 21 picograms per millilitre, would not have made any impact in his performance.
Barker previously testified on Baffert’s behalf in a hearing to help determine whether the trainer should receive a lengthy suspension from the New York Racing Association.
Baffert said in his affidavit that the suspension would do significant damage to his ability to earn a living. Beside the loss of his barn in California, Baffert said he would also lose many of his client horse owners due to the ban.
“If I am suspended and unable to participate in all of the Triple Crown races, I have been informed that those owners may no longer invest in horses to be placed in my care as a trainer,” Baffert said in the affidavit.
