Kentucky Commission to make decision on Friday next
Attorneys for Bob Baffert and the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission agreed in a courtroom Wednesday to postpone the trainer’s 90-day suspension that was the result of the late Medina Spirit’s disqualification as the winner of the 2021 Kentucky Derby.
Franklin Circuit Court judge Thomas Wingate proposed the solution, which allows the KHRC to consider granting a stay that its executive director denied last week. The commission’s hearing on that matter will be Friday.
The two sides will reconvene in Wingate’s courtroom March 17 with a ruling March 21 on the request for a stay order that would postpone the suspension longer.
“I just don’t want Mr. Baffert to have to move horses out of his barn in California,” Wingate said, explaining how he came up with the proposal.
Due to the length of the suspension that would have begun next week, Baffert would have been required to give up his stall space and disperse his stable at Santa Anita, where he is based. His attorneys said in a filing that the suspension effectively would have put him out of business.
Attorneys for the KHRC declined to comment after the hearing, saying they were bound by regulation. However, the commission was agreeable to Wingate’s proposal.
The Friday KHRC meeting will be to decide only if Baffert should get the stay order he wants while the appeals process unfolds. Baffert’s attorney Craig Robertson confirmed a hearing officer has been appointed in the full case and would be meeting with him by video conference later Wednesday to begin the scheduling process.
Robertson said he was hopeful the KHRC would grant the stay after Wingate said during the hearing he had never seen such an order denied in an equine case. Robertson said he would expect the commission to rule on a stay the same day as the hearing.
“I’m cautiously optimistic they’ll do the right thing,” Robertson said. “But we’ll see.”
The attorney said he had expected the case to move forward Wednesday, but the delay was acceptable to him.
“That eliminates the urgency and gives us the opportunity or the commission the opportunity to consider the request for a stay,” Robertson said. “Had there not been the March 8 deadline looming, we would have allowed the commission to proceed accordingly.”
The suspension originally was set to begin Tuesday and run through June 5. The timing would have caused Baffert to miss several major races, including the Preakness and Belmont Stakes.
Kentucky stewards gave Baffert the 90-day suspension and a $7,500 fine on Feb. 21 because Medina Spirit tested positive for betamethasone after last year’s Derby. CDI issued its own two-year ban shortly after the test results were announced and declared Baffert’s horses ineligible for the next two runnings of the Derby.
Baffert filed a complaint in district court on Monday seeking the stay. Separately, he and his attorneys also announced a lawsuit Tuesday in federal court in an attempt to force Churchill Downs Inc. to allow him to race at its tracks and let his horses earn Kentucky Derby points.
Baffert and his lawyers have maintained Medina Spirit’s positive test was due to use of a skin cream and not due to an injection of betamethasone. They said use of the cream was not a rule violation. Kentucky stewards rejected that claim.
