Thoroughbred Racing

[BullNBear52]

At Churchill Downs, Humans Failed the Horses Again
Despite recent efforts to make horse racing safer, seven horses died at the track in the lead-up to the Kentucky Derby. Whose fault was it?

By Joe Drape
Published May 7, 2023
Updated May 8, 2023, 8:16 a.m. ET
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The morning after the 2022 Kentucky Derby, horse racing took an exuberant and hopeful victory lap. Rich Strike had reintroduced the sport to the dreamer in all of us, winning at odds of 80-1.

His trainer, Eric Reed, was an everyday Kentucky hardboot from the casino racetracks. His rider, Sonny Leon, had washed out on the more glamorous Florida circuit before finding success riding every race possible in Ohio.

Suddenly, after winning the first leg of the Triple Crown races, they were stars, modest ones, but for all the right reasons.

By all rights, a colt named Mage, the Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano and the trainer Gustavo Delgado should share that same status.

The modestly bred Mage rumbled down the stretch to win this year’s Kentucky Derby on Saturday at 15-1 odds. Castellano, one of the most admired gentlemen in his profession, finally won at the only big race where victory had eluded him. And Delgado, like Castellano a native of Venezuela, was standing in the winner’s circle that he had dreamed of being in as a boy.

HIGHLIGHTSRead more about Kentucky Derby 149.
But their accomplishments were eclipsed by the death of seven horses at Churchill Downs in the lead-up to the Derby. Four horses were scratched because of veterinarians’ concerns about their health. A fifth was scratched because, well, the Lords of Churchill were suspicious of the trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. after two of his horses collapsed and died following races.

Officials declared their racetrack safe and suspended Joseph indefinitely from competing in the Derby or at any other tracks owned by Churchill Downs Inc.

After two more horses, on the Derby undercard, suffered fatal injuries and were subsequently euthanized, it was clear that this was not all Joseph’s fault.

So whose fault was it?

Long after the Derby was over and the lights were going out on a tragic day, first, Churchill Downs, then the newly minted Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, released statements with the same message: It wasn’t them.

“While each incident reported has been unique, it is important to note that there has been no discernible pattern detected in the injuries sustained,” Churchill Downs said in its statement. “Our track surfaces are closely monitored by industry experts to ensure their integrity.”

The authority, established under the oversight of the Federal Trade Commission, agreed that Churchill’s surfaces were safe and that regulatory veterinarians had proclaimed the two horses that were put down fit to race. Churchill Downs said it would work with the authority and the state racing commission to investigate the deaths.

“If a horse is deemed unfit to race by the regulatory veterinarians, it will be scratched, as was the case in a number of circumstances this week,” the statement read. “Both Chloe’s Dream and Freezing Point passed all inspections without incident.”

Do the math. Seven horses dead. It doesn’t add up.

What does is the data that shows America’s oldest sport is losing its athletes, its revenues and its fans.

In 2002, more than $15 billion was bet on races in the United States; last year, the handle fell to $12 billion. In 2000, nearly 33,000 thoroughbred foals were registered, almost double the number from last year, and there were 4,300 stallions, four times the number from last year, according to the fact book released by the Jockey Club, a leading industry organization.

Image
Horses race on a dirt track, with three side by side in the front row. The jockey on the horse in the middle stands in his stirrups and pumps his right fist in celebration.
Mage, center, won the Kentucky Derby with 15-1 odds. Credit...Xavier Burrell for The New York Times

Horse racing in the United States has long admitted that it has a culture of drugs and lax regulation and a far higher rate of horses breaking down and being euthanized than most other places in the world.

In 1991, the horse breeder and owner Arthur Hancock III delivered what he called his “drugs and thugs speech” at an industry symposium, telling his colleagues what they already knew: Too many horses were running on performance-enhancing drugs or were so doped up on anti-inflammatories and painkillers that they were running unnaturally fast and hurting themselves, often fatally.

He offered up the Horse Racing Act of 1992, which called for drug-free racing, uniform rules backed by stiff penalties and a central office to enforce them. Thirty years later, finally, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority exists, but not without continuing legal challenges and stubborn resistance from its own community.

Now, it needs to do its job.

Enforce the rules. Punish the wrongdoers. Throw them out. Take responsibility for the health and welfare of the human and the equine athletes.

The sport has shown that it can make progress when the outliers are wrangled and pointed toward a common goal. But it took hearings before Congress to do so.

After the filly Eight Belles was injured and euthanized following a second-place finish in the 2008 Derby, the Jockey Club created the Equine Injury Database to analyze how the injuries occurred and how they could be prevented.

In 2009, its first year, thoroughbreds had fatal injuries at the rate of two per 1,000 starts. Last year, there were 1.25 fatalities per 1,000 starts compared to 1.39 fatalities per 1,000 starts in 2021. It was the fourth consecutive year that the rate had decreased and the first time it had been below 1.3 fatalities per 1,000 starts.

Seven horses died on horse racing’s biggest stage in the past week and a half. Not only do animal rights advocates want to know who is responsible, but so does anyone who bets a dollar on the action or merely watches and marvels at a thoroughbred in motion.

It is the horses that are feeding everyone in a multibillion-dollar industry. It is the humans who are letting them down.


Joe Drape has been writing about the intersection of sports, culture and money since coming to The Times in 1998. He has also pursued these lines of reporting as the author of two best-selling books. @joedrape

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/07/sports/horse-racing/kentucky-derby-churchill-downs-horse-deaths.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

[blackcat]

It's wonderful to have a companion like that.

[BullNBear52]

Her story was very similar to my dad's.



Scout was a half Arabian and a tremendous jumper. He lived to be over 28 and the bond between them was amazing.

He bought Scout when he was 15 and supposedly put out to pasture. Every summer we'd enter him in shows and he would bring home the blue ribbons.

We also had a little pony for companionship. Scout figured out how to open his stall and then let the pony out.

Scout at night would come back to the house and look in the window where my dad was and say time for bed.

[blackcat]

That's a good story.

[BullNBear52]

Two Lives Long Harnessed Together, Until One Could Not Go On
Rush may have been the longest-lived thoroughbred in American history when he died at 39. For three decades, his owner said, “He would fight for me, and I would fight for him.”


Rush, known during his racing days as Dead Solid Perfect, with his owner, Bridget Eukers, in January. Credit...Barbara D. Livingston

By Mike Wilson
Mike Wilson, a deputy Sports editor who is a Connecticut native, reported this story from Windsor, Conn.

Nov. 22, 2022
WINDSOR, Conn. — Bridget Eukers paused in the barn, her thoughts seemingly far away, and touched her horse’s halter like an amulet. On the floor just outside his empty stall lay a scattering of yellow chrysanthemums left by a sympathetic friend.

Eukers explained she hadn’t often used the halter on the horse. She and Rush had an understanding.

“I would only really put it on to exercise him because we could go in and out of the barn without it,” she said, her fingers lingering on a strap. “I would just put my hand on his mane and we’d walk in and out.”

It had been just over a week since Rush had died on the concrete floor a few feet from where she stood. Eukers was still grieving, but also celebrating Rush’s extraordinary legacy. He was 39 years and 188 days old when he died, making him perhaps the longest-lived thoroughbred ever in the United States.

The record is hard to pin down. The Jockey Club, the industry’s breed registry, does not keep longevity statistics, so people in horse racing go by word of mouth. The horse thought to be the previous American record-holder was 38 years and 203 days old when he died in 2016, according to the racing publication BloodHorse, which first reported Rush’s death. An Australian thoroughbred lived to be 42, according to Guinness World Records. A typical thoroughbred lives into its late 20s.

Whatever Rush’s rank among senior horses, his death marked the end of a 30-year partnership — Eukers’s word — with horse and owner showing a level of dedication to each other that would be extraordinary for any two beings, equine or human.

“He would fight for me, and I would fight for him,” Eukers said. “Whether it’s your relationship with your horse, with your friends, or with your life partner, that’s what it comes down to. You’ll fight for me, and I’ll fight for you.”

They forged their relationship competing in equestrian events. Six days a week for six years, separated only by a saddle, they honed their skills, moving fluidly together and soaring over obstacles, three feet high at first and then three and a half. For Eukers, being with her horse became a way of life.

She attended college close to home so she could stay near Rush, turned down jobs that would have cut into her time with him, didn’t socialize much and never went on vacation. The longest she ever spent away from Rush was one week, for a school trip.


In return, he gave her joy by carrying her on his back — around show rings and across Windsor’s quilt of farmlands, often at a thundering pace fit for a racetrack. “It really is a special thrill to feel a racing thoroughbred at full speed underneath you. It’s just magic,” she said.

Beyond that, he gave her a purpose, and a measure of peace. The simple routines of feeding Rush, cleaning his stall and giving him medicine made her feel useful and freed her mind. He was a job she loved doing. “It’s one of those Zen things,” Eukers said. “You have that rhythm, and it somehow centers your life.”

Through all of life’s challenges — angst about the prom, hard days at work, dates that didn’t happen, her father’s death — Rush was there for her. Eukers said she occasionally wept into his neck. He actually didn’t love that.

“He would sit and listen,” she said, “but he would get to a certain point that was like, ‘OK Mom, you cried. We’re good. I’m going to go have my hay now.’”

The horse who became known as Rush was foaled in Kentucky on May 4, 1983. He was sold as a yearling for $60,000 ($170,000 today) and registered as Dead Solid Perfect. He ran 16 times and won once, in 1986 at the Meadowlands, according to the horse racing statistics site Equibase, with the Hall of Fame jockey Julie Krone up. After his racing career, he was sold to a new owner and trained in dressage.

Eukers’s parents bought the horse for her when she was in her early teens. Already named Rush, he was a beautiful athlete, Eukers said, with massive shoulders that swayed like a lion’s when he walked. He was also a scaredy cat, unnerved at different times by flowers, squirrels and a mosquito lamp.

“His mission in life at that point was to worry about things and he was really good at it,” Eukers said.

They grew to understand each other. She fed and groomed him and protected him from everyday objects. And when she asked him to clear a fence, he did, even though he was afraid.

“If I asked him to try, he would always try, and he would try and try,” she said. She still keeps the ribbons they won in riding competitions.

Eukers believes Rush’s diet contributed to his longevity. At 30, he indicated that he wanted a change from commercial horse feed. (“He started to tell me: ‘You know what? This just doesn’t work.’”) She began giving him organic meals of alfalfa pellets and whole grains. When the grains were too hard for Rush to chew, she turned them to mush in a slow cooker.

Last week, she still had two bags of bright green hay in the back of her car. It was made for guinea pigs, but Rush liked it.

Eukers stopped riding Rush when he was 35. He was still able to carry her, she said, but she now had a different priority: Her father had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Caring for Rush had to be balanced with researching treatments for her dad and just being with him. When her father died in 2019, she said, Rush was no longer fit to be ridden.

The once-brown horse was now mostly gray. He spent his days at Windsor Hunt Stables under an apple tree, communing with dogs named Wilson and Lola, red-winged blackbirds, wrens, a yellow barn cat and a quarter horse called Cowboy, who stole his hay.

Day after day, Eukers walked Rush up and down the little hill next to the barn, steering him away from the gravel path because the stones hurt his feet. She massaged him with essential oils while he napped. She tied a rope to him and had him trot in a circle around her. She experimented with all kinds of dietary supplements, and Dr. Michael Stewart, Rush’s veterinarian for more than 20 years, gave him steroids to keep him strong.

People would ask Eukers how old Rush was, and when she told them, they would follow up with what she considered an indelicate question: “How long do horses live?”

Last summer, Rush somehow hit his head when he was alone. Eukers could tell by the swelling and his behavior. It took him a long time to recover. He also suffered from an abscess on his left front hoof and persistent breathing difficulties. Amid it all, Cowboy, his companion of 14 years, died at 26, leaving Rush bereft.

About that time, Eukers, who worked in administration for an aerospace company, began receiving frequent texts at work alerting her that Rush was lying down, and she’d have to hurry to help him.

It is fine for horses to lie down, Dr. Stewart said in an interview, but because of the way their digestive systems work, they must get up to survive. Eukers always managed to get Rush back on his feet, often with help, but as time passed she felt less and less comfortable leaving him alone. She began to spend nights in the barn, placing a chair outside Rush’s stall and wrapping herself in horse blankets as she listened to his breathing.

“You and I would be lucky to have somebody care for us like she cared for him,” Dr. Stewart said.

On the night of Nov. 7, Eukers stayed with Rush until late, then went home to get a couple of hours’ sleep in her bed. When she returned at 5:30 a.m., Rush was down, spilling out of his stall onto the cold barn floor. Eukers called her mother, then Dr. Stewart. For hours they worked to get him up, but the cramped space and the slope of the floor worked against them.

In recent years, Eukers said, people often told her that animals can sense when they are dying. He’ll tell you when it’s time, they would say to her. But Rush didn’t do that, she said. Even after she rubbed his forehead and told him, “You’ve done enough, you don’t have to try anymore,” he kept struggling to lift his head and scrabbling to get his feet under him.

Finally, Eukers asked Dr. Stewart if he thought this was the end, and when he said yes, she made her decision. She had fought for Rush as long as she could. She knew that even if they got him up, they would be back here again soon, and Rush would be suffering, and he would try for her again.



Mike Wilson is a deputy sports editor. A former editor of The Dallas Morning News, he has also worked for FiveThirtyEight, The Tampa Bay Times and The Miami Herald. @mWilstory

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/22/sports/horse-racing/old-thoroughbred-horse.html

[blackcat]

Because I never liked Rich Strike- thought his KD win was a fluke- and I always bet the filly, and thought the only horse that could beat her was Mo Donegal- I had a pretty good day.

[BullNBear52]

The owner of Mo Donegal grew up in Queens and is a Mets fan. He had two horses in the Belmont yesterday both wearing Mets color silks.

They finished 1-2. A $1 Exacta bet paid $13.80.

[BullNBear52]

The one time I picked the winner and I failed to get a bet in.

Nuts.

[BullNBear52]

Mo Donegal Wins the Belmont, Ending Rich Strike’s Magical Story
The favorite at post time, Mo Donegal won by three lengths, becoming the third horse to win a Triple Crown race in 2022. The Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike was sixth.

By Joe Drape
June 11, 2022
So, fairy tales do not have legs in horse racing.

If they did, Sonny Leon aboard Rich Strike would have been ding-donging down the stretch of the 154th running of the Belmont Stakes on Saturday.

Instead, a colt named Mo Donegal, trained by Todd Pletcher, who is based in New York, and ridden by the nation’s top rider — another New Yorker, Irad Ortiz Jr. — made sure the trophy for what is known as the Test of the Champion stayed home.

The results attest to the mundane nature of the final leg of the Triple Crown: Mo Donegal lived up to his status as a nearly 3-to-1 favorite, finishing the mile-and-a-half marathon in a final time of 2:28.29. The colt paid its backers $7.20 for a $2 bet and rewarded its owners, Donegal Racing and Repole Stable, with an $800,000 first-place check.

Mo Donegal left little doubt that he was the best horse on Saturday. He blew passed the early pacesetter We the People in the stretch and held off his stablemate Nest, a filly, for an easy three-length victory. Skippylongstocking was a distant third.

Image
Ortiz is congratulated after outlasting Nest to win by three lengths.
Ortiz is congratulated after outlasting Nest to win by three lengths.Credit...Desiree Rios/The New York Times

“I thought both horses were traveling really great the whole way,” Pletcher said. “The one thing I told Irad was to be patient, and I think he got the best trip in the race.”

Give your grad all of The Times.
News, plus Cooking, Games and Wirecutter.
Rich Strike ran in the back of the pack and never found the gut-busting gear that had powered him down the stretch of Churchill Downs and to victory at impossible 80-1 odds. He was ridden once again by Sonny Leon, the little known jock from the Midwest grits-and-hard-toast circuit who had thrown down a masterpiece of big-time race-riding at Churchill Downs — a swerving, rail-skimming trip worthy of a tear of appreciation from the Mona Lisa.

His unlikely victory had captivated sports fans who were taken by the colt’s humble beginnings. He was bought for $30,000 out of a claiming race by an owner who had only one horse in training: Rich Strike. Eric Reed, the horse’s trainer, and Leon were accomplished horsemen who had won plenty of races but who were not widely known because their successes came mostly at the casino racetracks in Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia.

Reed took the blame for Rich Strike’s lackluster finish at Belmont Park. He had asked Leon to keep the colt off the rail and to take him wide for a stretch run down the middle of the racetrack.

Why, especially after Leon and Rich Strike hugged the rail in Kentucky and flashed by Epicenter and Zandon in the race’s final yards?

Reed did not really have an explanation.

Image
Mo Donegal pulls away down the stretch.
Mo Donegal pulls away down the stretch.Credit...Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

“We were hoping we could have been a little closer, and our pace was slow,” Reed said. “Our biggest change was deciding to stay a little off the rail and try to give him a good, open run where he could take off.”

But in the backstretch Reed saw that decision had been a mistake, when his colt was fighting Leon and trying to bull his way to the rail.

“The whole way, his head turned, and he was trying to get to the inside. I guess we made a mistake not putting him on the fence,” Reed said.

Ortiz, aboard Mo Donegal, knew he had plenty of horse. He had been working the colt in the morning and had already won twice on the late runner.

“I liked him every time I got on him,” he said.

Image
Ortiz celebrates with his trophy after winning the Belmont Stakes aboard Mo Donegal.
Ortiz celebrates with his trophy after winning the Belmont Stakes aboard Mo Donegal.Credit...Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

Uplifting stories have been hard to come by in America’s oldest sport these days. Bob Baffert, who trained Medina Spirit — last year’s Derby winner until he was disqualified for failing a post-race drug test — had kept horse racing in the news by contesting the penalty. In April, Baffert was sidelined for the Triple Crown by a 90-day suspension from Kentucky regulators.

This Triple Crown season needed a break from Baffert and the controversies that accompanied him. He has won six Derbies and swept the Triple Crown twice in the last seven years. But he has had persistent troubles in the test barn — his horses have failed 30 drug tests over four decades, including four in a 13-month period leading up to Medina Spirit’s failed Derby test.

The victory of Rich Strike on the first Saturday in May was an antidote to Baffert and horse racing’s ongoing rap as an unfair and unsafe sport.

Two weeks later, when Early Voting won at the Preakness, newer personalities took a turn in the spotlight. The colt’s owner, the hedge fund investor Seth Klarman, a Baltimore native, celebrated his 65th birthday at Pimlico Race Course, a few blocks from where he grew up. He chose to keep Early Voting in his barn for the Belmont.

It might not have been the best ending for horse racing’s annual five weeks of fame, but it was an honest one. For that, anyone who believes in horse racing is grateful.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/11/sports/horse-racing/belmont-stakes-winner.html

[BullNBear52]

Another question for the vet. And someone didn't notice that the male horsies weren't interested.

[blackcat]

What I find difficult to understand is you have a mare who doesn't come into season for 5 years. I'd have had her checked by the vet to see why not. How do you sell "her" as "potential broodmare" under those circumstances?

[BullNBear52]

Dr. Karen Wolfsdorf signed off on the certificate

She has some explaining to do.

[blackcat]

I have never heard of this!

A New York-bred stakes winner that sold for $150,000 at Keeneland as a broodmare prospect is actually a male, according to a lawsuit pending in Fayette Circuit Court in Lexington.

Kept True went through the Keeneland January 2021 Horses of All Ages Sale, where she was purchased as a 5-year-old broodmare prospect by Michelle and Albert Crawford's Crawford Farms near Lexington. Over the course of the previous 27 months, Kept True had compiled a race record of five wins, two seconds, and two thirds from 14 starts and earnings of $323,659 running against females at Aqueduct Racetrack, Belmont Park, and Saratoga Race Course.

Owner-breeder Jeff Treadway raced Kept True (as Treadway Racing Stables) and secured Hidden Brook as consignor for the January Sale. According to Crawford's lawsuit, Hidden Brook, as agent for Treadway, engaged Hagyard Equine Medical Institute to issue a certificate of reproductive status as to whether Kept True was pregnant, or if not pregnant, suitable for mating according to American Association of Equine Practitioners standards. Such a certificate is required by Keeneland for horses offered as broodmare prospects.

Dr. Karen Wolfsdorf signed off on the certificate, which was submitted to Keeneland's record repository, and according to Crawford, Kept True was bought in reliance upon the same. Bloodstock agent John Moynihan assisted Crawford in buying Kept True and other broodmare prospects at the sale, according to Crawford attorney Mike Meuser of Lexington.

Without having Kept True examined by its own veterinarian before the horse was removed from Keeneland's grounds, Crawford took possession of Kept True only to be told later, through a series of examinations and tests, Kept True (Yes It's True ) is a mare in outward appearance only.

Rest here.

https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/259056/suit-alleges-stakes-winning-broodmare-prospect-is-male?utm_source=BHTW&utm_medium=social

[BullNBear52]

Expert Picks: Who Will Win the Preakness?
Joe Drape and Melissa Hoppert look at the contenders for the 147th Preakness Stakes.

Give this article


5
Rich Strike, right, with Sonny Leon aboard, slipped past Epicenter, ridden by Joel Rosario, to win the Kentucky Derby. Rich Strike will skip the Preakness, where Epicenter is a favorite to win.
Rich Strike, right, with Sonny Leon aboard, slipped past Epicenter, ridden by Joel Rosario, to win the Kentucky Derby. Rich Strike will skip the Preakness, where Epicenter is a favorite to win.Credit...Mark Humphrey/Associated Press

Joe DrapeMelissa Hoppert
By Joe Drape and Melissa Hoppert
Published May 19, 2022
Updated May 21, 2022, 10:24 a.m. ET
Rich Strike, the 80-1 shot ridden by Sonny Leon and trained by Eric Reed, mounted a furious and improbable rally to capture the 148th Kentucky Derby on May 7. He was not even in the field until another horse was scratched the day before the race.

But after initially pointing the colt toward the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, Rich Strike’s owner said last week the horse would skip the Preakness and run in the Belmont Stakes on June 11 instead. There won’t be a Triple Crown on the line, but there is sure to be plenty of drama, with the filly Secret Oath, winner of the Kentucky Oaks, taking on the boys, including the Derby runner-up, Epicenter.

Below, the Preakness horses are listed in order of post position, with comments by Joe Drape and Melissa Hoppert of The New York Times. The morning-line odds were set by Keith Feustle of Pimlico Race Course.

How to watch: Coverage on Saturday begins on CNBC at 2 p.m. Eastern time and moves to NBC at 4 p.m. Coverage will also be streamed on NBCSports.com.

Purse: $1.5 million guaranteed

Distance: 1 3/16 miles

Track record: 1 minute 52? seconds (Farma Way, 1991)

Weight: 126 pounds

Post time: 7:01 p.m. Eastern

Our Picks
Joe Drape’s win-place-show picks: Secret Oath, Epicenter, Early Voting

Melissa Hoppert’s picks: Early Voting, Epicenter, Secret Oath

Here’s how we see the field:

Image
Simplification being comforted by Tami Bobo, his owner, as he was washed after a morning workout Tuesday at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.
Simplification being comforted by Tami Bobo, his owner, as he was washed after a morning workout Tuesday at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.Credit...Jerry Jackson/The Baltimore Sun, via Associated Press

1. Simplification
Trainer: Antonio Sano Jockey: John Velazquez Odds: 6-1

Drape: This colt was running at the end of the Derby and finished fourth, but it is unlikely that he will get the fast pace that sets up his late kick.

Hoppert: He has hit the board in six of eight races and seems to be thriving at Pimlico. But Jose Ortiz, who was aboard him for his last three starts, thinks he has a better shot with Early Voting and chose to ride him instead.

2. Creative Minister
Trainer: Kenny McPeek Jockey: Brian Hernandez Jr. Odds: 10-1

Drape: This late bloomer has shown improvement in each of his three starts, two of which were wins. Another move forward puts him in the hunt.

Hoppert: His first race was in March, and this will be his stakes debut. But his owners believe in him enough to have paid a $150,000 supplemental fee to make him eligible for the last two Triple Crown races. Might as well take a take chance, too, and throw him in your exotics.

3. Fenwick
Trainer: Kevin McKathan Jockey: Florent Geroux Odds: 50-1

Drape: His only victory in six starts came when he broke keenly and led every step of the way. He is most likely the pacesetter.

Hoppert: The 11th-place Blue Grass finisher is a son of the 2007 Preakness winner Curlin. But that’s about all he has going for him.

Image
Secret Oath, a filly, won the Kentucky Oaks and will be among the favorites at the Preakness.
Secret Oath, a filly, won the Kentucky Oaks and will be among the favorites at the Preakness. Credit...Rob Carr/Getty Images

4. Secret Oath
Trainer: D. Wayne Lukas Jockey: Luis Saez Odds: 9-2

Drape: This filly has shown she belongs with the boys, finishing third to them in the Arkansas Derby despite a horrible trip. The pick.

Hoppert: No Rich Strike? No problem. The Kentucky Oaks winner has a solid shot at becoming the seventh filly to win the Preakness, which would give Lukas a record-tying seven Preakness victories.

Sign up for the Sports Newsletter Get our most ambitious projects, stories and analysis delivered to your inbox every week. Get it sent to your inbox.
5. Early Voting
Trainer: Chad Brown Jockey: Jose Ortiz Odds: 7-2

Drape: He’s lightly raced and quick of foot. This colt is not impossible.

Hoppert: The second-place finisher in the Wood Memorial bypassed the Derby to point toward the Preakness. Brown and the colt’s owner, Seth Klarman, used this playbook before with the 2017 Preakness victor Cloud Computing.

Image
Happy Jack ran 14th at the Kentucky Derby.
Happy Jack ran 14th at the Kentucky Derby.Credit...Charlie Riedel/Associated Press

6. Happy Jack
Trainer: Doug O’Neill Jockey: Tyler Gaffalione Odds: 30-1

Drape: He was a handful to load into the Derby gate and caused mayhem early in the race. This one needs to chill.

Hoppert: The 14th-place Derby finisher is a son of Oxbow, who won this race in 2013. That, plus the addition of blinkers, is not enough to help him here.

7. Armagnac
Trainer: Tim Yakteen Jockey: Irad Ortiz Odds: 12-1

Drape: So far, he has merely proven to be an also-ran against high-caliber horses.

Hoppert: While he picks up Ortiz, he has missed the board in his two graded stakes races and is definitely a cut below others who were previously trained by the embattled Bob Baffert, such as Taiba and Messier.

Image
Joel Rosario aboard Epicenter before the Kentucky Derby.
Joel Rosario aboard Epicenter before the Kentucky Derby.Credit...Mark Humphrey/Associated Press

8. Epicenter
Trainer: Steve Asmussen Jockey: Joel Rosario Odds: 6-5

Drape: This one was going to be the post-time favorite even if Rich Strike came. A consistent sort that ran big in the Derby.

Hoppert: He came oh-so-close in the Derby, fighting on to finish second after a blazing-fast pace in the first half wore out the rest of the top contenders. He’ll be in the mix again late, but how much did the Derby take out of him?

Image
Skippylongstocking working out at Pimlico.
Skippylongstocking working out at Pimlico.Credit...Mitch Stringer/USA Today Sports, via Reuters

9. Skippylongstocking
Trainer: Saffie Joseph Jr. Jockey: Junior Alvarado Odds: 20-1

Drape: He has worked well since finishing third in the Wood Memorial. He may hit the board.

Hoppert: He is a son of the 2016 Preakness winner Exaggerator and the most experienced in the field, having run nine races. But he has won only two.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/19/sports/horse-racing/preakness-stakes-picks-odds-predictions.html

[blackcat]

Per Rick Dawson, owner of Rich Strike, the colt will "pass on running in the Preakness, and point toward the Belmont in approximately 5 weeks. " Story to come at http://bloodhorse.com

[BullNBear52]

Yesterday I did the same thing. Cooked steaks on the grill under an umbrella.

[BullNBear52]

Or a longer lead the outrider had him a short leash so to speak. I agree the jockey really should have dismounted and taken the lead himself.

Horses can be very stubborn. I remember once at my dad's house during a raging snow storm his horse and pony didn't come back top the barn. I grabbed 2 leads and went out to look for them and found both of them under some pine trees with about 2 inches of snow on them. Hooked the horse up and the pony just followed along. The only thing I could ever figure out since they were quite a distance off from the barn was they decided to shelter down under the pine trees.

[blackcat]

Nice. Jay's cooking ribs in the Weber- even if it is raining again. Still.

[blackcat]

The problem was that RS was very likely to go after another horse if the outrider let go- which basically he's not allowed to do if at all possible. He needs some serious schooling- with a disposition like that he should not have an outrider.

[BullNBear52]

Cooking in. Her favorite, lobsters.

[BullNBear52]

It was obvious Rich Strike wanted no part of the outrider and kept pulling his head away. The jockey should have told the outrider to let go so he could cool Rich down and get him to the winner's circle.

[blackcat]

Nice timing! Are you taking her out or cooking?

[BullNBear52]

Yesterday was the kid's birthday. 23 years ago today on Mother's day we brought him home from the hospital.

[blackcat]

Well- the jockey should have tried to control the horse better than he did. RS was trying to savage the outrider horse. At the least the jockey should have shown him the whip (not hit him) the same way you do when a horse starts to drift out going down the track. Ideally, he would have dismounted and led the horse the rest of the way to the circle.

[blackcat]

He did and for about the first 1/4 of a mile.

Thanks and the same to your wife.

[BullNBear52]

He looked good coming out of the gate. lol.

Happy Mother's Day.

[BullNBear52]

BTW the jockey should have let the guy have it with his racing crop for punching Rich Strike.
https://www.kentucky.com/sports/horses/kentucky-derby/article261216567.html

[blackcat]

You knew he was going to be trouble when he escaped from his pony rider in the PP and tried to lose his jockey!

[BullNBear52]

I picked Summer is Tomorrow. He finished dead last 64 lengths behind.

Kentucky Derby 2022 full finish order
1. Rich Strike

2. Epicenter

3. Zandon

4. Simplification

5. Mo Donegal

6. Barber Road

7. Tawny Port

8. Smile Happy

9. Tiz the Bomb

10. Zozos

11. Classic Causeway

12. Taiba

13. Crown Pride

14. Happy Jack

15. Messier

16. White Abarrio

17. Charge It

18. Cyberknife

19. Pioneer of Medina

20. Summer Is Tomorrow

[BullNBear52]

Churchill Downs Draws a Hard Line With Bob Baffert
Anticipating a lawsuit that would challenge its ban of the Hall of Fame trainer, the track accused Baffert of “inventing excuses.”

By Joe Drape
Jan. 10, 2022
Bill Carstanjen, the chief executive of Churchill Downs, had a clear message to lawyers for Bob Baffert on Monday: We will see you in court.

With the Kentucky Derby approaching, Baffert has threatened to sue Churchill Downs and Carstanjen if the track in Louisville, Ky., does not lift the two-year ban he was given last May after last year’s winner, Medina Spirit, failed a drug test.

In a wide-ranging draft complaint obtained by The New York Times, Baffert says that his right to due process was violated by the ban and that he has been unlawfully excluded from Churchill Downs and America’s greatest race.

Baffert wants a preliminary injunction that would keep Churchill Downs from denying his horses entry into races there and at Turfway Park, in Florence, Ky., and from “prohibiting him from earning points to qualify for the Kentucky Derby,” according to the complaint that has yet to be filed. The document also demands that the company recognize qualifying points that his horses have already earned. Baffert also seeks millions of dollars in compensatory and punitive damages.

Carstanjen said the threatened case was “completely meritless.” He said that Churchill Downs Inc. is a private company and that on April 7, 2021, Baffert signed an agreement — as the track requires all horse trainers to do — that he would follow its conduct and medication rules.

Carstanjen emphasized that Baffert was a repeat offender. Medina Spirit tested positive for betamethasone, a corticosteroid. It is the same substance that was found in the Baffert-trained filly Gamine after she finished third in the 2020 Kentucky Oaks, a showcase for 3-year-old fillies at Churchill Downs. Baffert’s horses have failed 30 drug tests over four decades, including five in a recent 13-month period.

Last month, Medina Spirit died of an apparent heart attack after a timed workout. A necropsy is underway to determine more details about his death. A final report will be made public upon its conclusion.

“This threatened lawsuit is yet another tactic from Mr. Baffert’s well-worn playbook of obfuscating the facts, inventing excuses to explain positive drug tests and attempting to blame others to avoid responsibility for his own actions,” Carstanjen said.

He also did not rule out countersuing Baffert.

“We are considering any and all legal options available to us to set the record straight and ensure Mr. Baffert is held accountable for all the reputational damage he has caused us,” Carstanjen said. “The irony is not lost on us that despite all of his violations, he is the one threatening to file lawsuits claiming to be aggrieved.”

Baffert’s lawyer, Clark Brewster, said: “The complaint was sent as a centerpiece for discussion. It was intended to generate honest discussion and avoid litigation. There is nothing wrong with the complaint. The facts are in our corner. It has been rebuffed and they have invited litigation, and that’s where we will be.”

Sign up for the Sports Newsletter Get our most ambitious projects, stories and analysis delivered to your inbox every week. Get it sent to your inbox.
He did not say when or where the complaint would be filed.

Churchill Downs is drawing a hard line against a man who has been a fixture there, signaling a major break in the relationship between the storied track and Baffert, a Hall of Fame trainer who has won the Derby seven times.

It comes at a time when the Triple Crown season is heating up and the quest for qualifying points to earn a spot in the Derby’s starting gate is getting urgent. Once more, the Baffert barn is loaded with talented 3-year-olds winning important races, but they are not earning qualifying points to compete on the first Saturday in May.

In the Sham Stakes on Jan. 1 at Santa Anita Park, the Baffert-trained colts Newgrange and Rockefeller ran first and second. Churchill Downs, however, has refused to award points to any horses trained by Baffert.

The Baffert camp had hoped to persuade Churchill Downs to negotiate a settlement, relieving his owners of having to give his horses to other trainers or risk missing the Kentucky Derby. The race is not only prestigious, but a male Derby winner increases his potential stallion value by tens of millions.

The death of Medina Spirit does not resolve whether his Derby victory will be allowed to stand. Baffert’s lawyers have challenged the test in federal courts, and the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission has yet to hold a hearing. At stake for the horse owner Amr Zedan is the Derby’s $1.8 million first-place check, which will be awarded to the owners of Mandaloun, the second-place finisher, if Medina Spirit’s victory is invalidated.

The trainer’s reputation and broader future in the sport are in the balance. This month, the New York Racing Association will seek a suspension of Baffert from its tracks before a hearing officer.

Carstanjen said the track’s rules were created for the safety and well-being of the horses and riders who compete.

“I continue to hold out hope that Mr. Baffert will finally take responsibility for what has occurred under his care and on his watch and we can move on to what we should really be focused on, namely hosting the 148th running of the Kentucky Derby in just a few short months,” he said. “Until then, we will fight to defend our rights, our reputation, the integrity of Churchill Downs and, most importantly, the safety of these horses.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/10/sports/horse-racing/churchill-downs-bob-baffert.html

[BullNBear52]

Expert Picks: Who Will Win the 2022 Kentucky Derby
Joe Drape and Melissa Hoppert assess the field for the 148th running of the Kentucky Derby.

By Joe Drape and Melissa Hoppert
May 5, 2022
The horses in the 148th running of the Kentucky Derby are listed in order of post position, with comments by Joe Drape and Melissa Hoppert of The New York Times. The morning-line odds were set by Mike Battaglia of Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

Ethereal Road was scratched Friday. Rich Strike, the first horse on the also-eligible list, drew into the field and will assume Post 20.

How to watch: Coverage begins Saturday at noon, Eastern time, on USA Network, and will continue on NBC at 2:30 p.m. It will also be streamed on NBCSports.com.

Post time: 6:57 p.m.

Purse: $3 million guaranteed

Distance: 1¼ miles

Track record: 1:59? (Secretariat, 1973)

Weight: 126 pounds

Our Picks
Joe Drape’s win-place-show picks: Smile Happy, Crown Pride, Mo Donegal

Melissa Hoppert’s picks: Epicenter, Messier, Zandon

Here’s how we see the field:

Image
The Kentucky Derby entrant Mo Donegal is a son of Uncle Mo, who has produced a Derby winner.
The Kentucky Derby entrant Mo Donegal is a son of Uncle Mo, who has produced a Derby winner.Credit...Charlie Riedel/Associated Press

1. Mo Donegal
Trainer: Todd Pletcher Jockey: Irad Ortiz Jr. Odds: 10-1

Drape: This colt was my pick until he got the No. 1 hole. It is extremely difficult to navigate a clean trip from this spot, especially for a closer like Mo.

Hoppert: He has finished in the money in all five starts and turned heads with an impressive rally in the Wood Memorial. He’s also a son of Uncle Mo, who has already produced a Derby winner (Nyquist in 2016) and who has a leading jockey on his back.

2. Happy Jack
Trainer: Doug O’Neill Jockey: Rafael Bejarano Odds: 30-1

Drape: My son’s name is Jack, and he is happy. He can do what he wants with his allowance.

Editors’ Picks

Marie Kondo Is Here to Tidy Up Your Pandemic Clutter — if You Want To

Jack Harlow Knows What He Wants. And Where He Stands.

New York’s Dancehall Parties Are ‘A Different Type of Turn Up’
Hoppert: The Calumet homebred finished third in two Santa Anita prep races but was never a factor. He won’t be at the Derby, either.

3. Epicenter
Trainer: Steve Asmussen Jockey: Joel Rosario Odds: 7-2

Drape: Here’s your likely post-time favorite, and I cannot blame anyone who bets on him. But he is not a lock.

Hoppert: I’ll take my chances. This winner of four of six races, including three preps in Louisiana, has a lot going for him: a versatile running style, a top jockey and a Hall of Fame trainer who is long overdue in adding the Run for the Roses to his résumé.

Image
Summer Is Tomorrow was the second-place finisher in the U.A.E. Derby.
Summer Is Tomorrow was the second-place finisher in the U.A.E. Derby.Credit...Charlie Riedel/Associated Press

4. Summer Is Tomorrow
Trainer: Bhupat Seemar Jockey: Mickael Barzalona Odds: 30-1

Drape: He has two wins in Dubai. This race is a big step up from those.

Hoppert: The second-place finisher in the U.A.E. Derby was bred by the former Kentucky governor Brereton C. Jones. He’ll come out running Saturday, but he won’t be around at the finish.

5. Smile Happy
Trainer: Kenny McPeek Jockey: Corey Lanerie Odds: 20-1

Drape: He won here as a 2-year-old, and McPeek knows how to point them at big races. My pick.

Hoppert: He turned heads during his 2-year-old season, but he has finished second in two starts this year. A real question mark.

Image
Messier is trained by Tim Yakteen.
Messier is trained by Tim Yakteen.Credit...Ashley Landis/Associated Press

6. Messier
Trainer: Tim Yakteen Jockey: John Velazquez Odds: 8-1

Drape: A seasoned sort who was beaten by his stablemate Taiba in the Santa Anita Derby.

Hoppert: You know what they say: Never count out a Bob Baffert — er, Tim Yakteen — horse. (Yakteen is Baffert’s former assistant.) Messier has finished first or second in all six of his starts and has a solid chance to become only the third Canada-bred to win the Derby. I’m chalking up his Santa Anita Derby showing to the two months between races.

7. Crown Pride
Trainer: Koichi Shintani Jockey: Christophe Lemaire Odds: 20-1

Drape: Japanese horses have won big races in Saudi Arabia and Dubai, so why not here? This one has been touting himself training in the morning.

Hoppert: The first-place finisher in the U.A.E. Derby is definitely the buzz horse on the backside, and not only for his lightning-fast works: He warms up by prancing in circles like a dressage horse.

Image
Charge It during morning training for the Kentucky Derby this week.
Charge It during morning training for the Kentucky Derby this week.Credit...Andy Lyons/Getty Images

8. Charge It
Trainer: Todd Pletcher Jockey: Luis Saez Odds: 20-1

Drape: A lightly raced and talented gray. Looks like Pletcher is sitting on a good one.

Hoppert: The runner-up in the Florida Derby has raced only three times, but he has shown promise, and with a clean trip can improve.

Sign up for the Sports Newsletter Get our most ambitious projects, stories and analysis delivered to your inbox every week. Get it sent to your inbox.
9. Tiz the Bomb
Trainer: Kenny McPeek Jockey: Brian Hernandez Jr. Odds: 30-1

Drape: He has won five of eight, but his best running has been done on a synthetic surface.

Hoppert: The last time he ran on dirt he finished seventh, and with rain in the forecast, you should look elsewhere.

Image
Zandon arrives at the Kentucky Derby with a hot jockey and a trainer looking for his first Derby win.
Zandon arrives at the Kentucky Derby with a hot jockey and a trainer looking for his first Derby win.Credit...Charlie Riedel/Associated Press

10. Zandon
Trainer: Chad Brown Jockey: Flavien Prat Odds: 3-1

Drape: Another horse who has looked great in morning training. He runs from the back, a style that has not paid off in recent editions.

Hoppert: You can’t miss this nearly jet-black horse on the racetrack, and you shouldn’t overlook him at the betting window, either. Paired with a red-hot jockey, this speedy Blue Grass Stakes winner gives his successful trainer his best chance yet to notch a Derby victory.

11. Pioneer of Medina
Trainer: Todd Pletcher Jockey: Joe Bravo Odds: 30-1

Drape: He is a solid racehorse and will win down the road. Not here.

Hoppert: This will be the fifth racetrack and seventh jockey for the third-place finisher in the Louisiana Derby. Pass.

Image
Tim Yakteen in his barn with Taiba.
Tim Yakteen in his barn with Taiba.Credit...Ashley Landis/Associated Press

12. Taiba
Trainer: Tim Yakteen Jockey: Mike Smith Odds: 12-1

Drape: The undefeated colt is trying to win after two dazzling starts, a feat accomplished only once, by a horse named Leonatus in 1883.

Hoppert: His owner pushed to enter him in the Santa Anita Derby with only one race under his belt, a risk that paid off. But with so little experience, can he flash the same talent against 19 other horses? Smith, his rider, is well seasoned, though: At 56, he would become the oldest jockey to win a Derby.

13. Simplification
Trainer: Antonio Sano Jockey: Jose Ortiz Odds: 20-1

Drape: Two others ran by him in the Florida Derby. He would be a surprise.

Hoppert: All of his races have been at Gulfstream Park, and he’s not as fast as many of his counterparts.

Image
Barber Road is owned by the former chief executive of Walmart, who purchased him for $15,000.
Barber Road is owned by the former chief executive of Walmart, who purchased him for $15,000.Credit...Andy Lyons/Getty Images

14. Barber Road
Trainer: John Ortiz Jockey: Reylu Gutierrez Odds: 30-1

Drape: A hard-trying colt who has a case of seconditis — four runner-up finishes.

Hoppert: The second-place finisher in the Arkansas Derby hasn’t won this year, but his story is a winner: This is the first Derby for his trainer, his jockey and his owner, the former chief executive of Walmart, William Simon, who purchased him for $15,000. How’s that for everyday low pricing?

15. White Abbario
Trainer: Saffie Joseph Jr. Jockey: Tyler Gaffalione Odds: 10-1

Drape: This gray has won four of five and proved himself as the best horse in Florida.

Hoppert: The Florida Derby winner’s only loss came at Churchill Downs.

Image
Cyberknife comes to the Derby after back-to-back wins.
Cyberknife comes to the Derby after back-to-back wins.Credit...Andy Lyons/Getty Images

16. Cyberknife
Trainer: Brad Cox Jockey: Florent Geroux Odds: 20-1

Drape: This is a champion trainer bringing a colt in off back-to-back wins. Respect.

Hoppert: With a convincing victory in the Arkansas Derby, he stamped himself as the best of Cox’s trio. He’ll also be a sentimental pick: He’s named after a treatment for cancer.

17. Classic Causeway
Trainer: Brian Lynch Jockey: Julien Leparoux Odds: 30-1

Drape: Which Classic Causeway do we get? The dominant Tampa Derby champion, or the colt who spun his wheels in the Florida Derby? Your guess is as good as mine.

Hoppert: He’ll be running early but is definitely a question mark after finishing last in the Florida Derby.

Image
This will be Tawny Port’s third race in five weeks.
This will be Tawny Port’s third race in five weeks.Credit...Charlie Riedel/Associated Press

18. Tawny Port
Trainer: Brad Cox Jockey: Ricardo Santana Jr. Odds: 30-1

Drape: He has the look of a good one, but this is too much too soon.

Hoppert: Named after a style of Portuguese wine, he has won on dirt and synthetics, and the Derby will be his third race in five weeks. Does he have anything left in the bottle?

19. Zozos
Trainer: Brad Cox Jockey: Manny Franco Odds: 20-1

Drape: He will be running early, but so will a lot of others. Not this time.

Hoppert: The talented but lightly raced Louisiana Derby runner-up is named for the owner’s favorite restaurant in the Virgin Islands.

20. Rich Strike (replaces Ethereal Road)
Trainer: Eric Reed Jockey: Sonny Leon Odds: 30-1

Drape: His only victory in seven tries came in a claiming race at Churchill Downs. He is out of his league here.

Hoppert: He has run on a synthetic track in his last three races, including when he finished third in the Jeff Ruby. Besides that lone win, he didn’t fare much better on dirt.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/05/sports/horse-racing/kentucky-derby-picks.html

[blackcat]

6th race at Santa Anita today. Actually made the news!

Good Bye Putin Ricardo RamirezGenaro Vallejo
$32.40
$9.80
$5.00

[BullNBear52]

Should have happened long ago.

[blackcat]

Baffert needs to be chucked out of racing altogether.

[BullNBear52]

Medina Spirit Stripped of 2021 Kentucky Derby Win
The horse’s trainer, Bob Baffert, was suspended and fined after his horse failed a post-race drug test last year.



By Joe Drape
Feb. 21, 2022
Medina Spirit is no longer the winner of the 2021 Kentucky Derby. The colt, who died unexpectedly in December, was officially disqualified by Kentucky racing officials on Monday for failing a drug test after winning the race.

Medina Spirit is only the third horse in the race’s 147-year history to receive such a penalty after finishing first. The decision means the colt’s owner, Amr Zedan, will not collect the $1.8 million first-place check, which was never paid out and will now go to Mandaloun’s owner, Juddmonte, the racing and breeding enterprise founded by Prince Khalid bin Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who died last year.

Churchill Downs, the track in Louisville, Ky., that hosts the Derby, said in a statement that it now recognizes Mandaloun as the winner of the 2021 race, adding, “We look forward to celebrating Mandaloun on a future date in a way that is fitting of this rare distinction.”

The ruling also erased the Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert’s seventh Kentucky Derby victory, which had been a record.

In addition, Baffert was suspended for 90 days beginning March 8 and fined $7,500. The ruling followed a hearing via videoconference on Feb. 14 before a three-member panel of stewards for the Kentucky Horse Racing Association.

The drug found in Medina Spirit’s system was betamethasone, a corticosteroid injected into joints to reduce pain and swelling. Baffert and his lawyers denied injecting the colt and said the drug was applied topically to treat a skin rash on Medina Spirit’s hind end.

Did you know you can share 10 gift articles a month, even with nonsubscribers?
Share this article.
Clark Brewster, a lawyer for Baffert, said that he was disappointed but not surprised by the panel’s decision and that the trainer would appeal it immediately before the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. He also said they would pursue all remedies in the court system.

“We will appeal, and we will prevail when the facts and rules are presented to detached, neutral decision makers,” Brewster said in a statement.

The disqualification puts a new stain on a sport that has been troubled by doping problems and places Baffert’s reputation and future in the sport in jeopardy. Baffert, whose horses won the Triple Crown in 2015 and 2018, is thoroughbred horse racing’s most recognizable personality.

Editors’ Picks

How Much Help Do I Owe My Debt-Ridden Dad?

The Diet Worked For Them. Now Their Pets Are on It.

In Margaret Atwood’s Essays and Speeches, Some Hazards of the Trade
The decision by Kentucky racing officials comes at a time when the Triple Crown season is heating up and the quest for qualifying points to earn a spot in the Derby’s starting gate is getting urgent. Churchill Downs had already suspended Baffert from the race for two years and refused to award qualifying points to horses he would train for the 2022 Derby.

Baffert has three accomplished 3-year-old colts in his barn — two of them, Corniche and Newgrange, are undefeated. If their owners want to participate in the Derby, they must transfer their horses to another trainer and hope to earn qualifying points in future prep races.

Last month, Baffert threatened to sue Churchill Downs if the track did not lift the two-year ban, saying that his right to due process was violated and that he had been unlawfully excluded from Churchill Downs and the Derby, according to a wide-ranging draft legal complaint obtained by The New York Times. The complaint has not been filed.


Image
The trainer Bob Baffert celebrated Medina Spirit's apparent Kentucky Derby victory last May with Leona O'Brien, the wife of the jockey John Velazquez.
The trainer Bob Baffert celebrated Medina Spirit's apparent Kentucky Derby victory last May with Leona O'Brien, the wife of the jockey John Velazquez.Credit...Jeff Roberson/Associated Press
Bill Carstanjen, the chief executive of Churchill Downs, said the complaint was “meritless.” He threatened to countersue if it was filed and emphasized that Baffert was a repeat offender. In 2020, in the Kentucky Oaks, the nation’s premier race for 3-year-old fillies, Gamine, whom Baffert had trained, tested positive for the same substance as Medina Spirit after finishing third. In all, Baffert’s horses have failed 30 drug tests over four decades, including five in a recent 13-month period.

Sign up for the Sports Newsletter Get our most ambitious projects, stories and analysis delivered to your inbox every week. Get it sent to your inbox.
“This threatened lawsuit is yet another tactic from Mr. Baffert’s well-worn playbook of obfuscating the facts, inventing excuses to explain positive drug tests and attempting to blame others to avoid responsibility for his own actions,” Carstanjen told The Times.

New York racing officials have sought to bar Baffert from Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga, alleging in a recent hearing that the trainer had committed conduct detrimental to the best interests of racing, to the health and safety of horses and jockeys, and to its business operations.

The necropsy results for Medina Spirit, who died in December after a timed workout at Santa Anita Park, were inconclusive, but they indicated that the colt most likely died of a heart attack. Hair, blood and urine samples showed no evidence of doping, California racing officials said on Friday.

The disqualification, along with recent guilty pleas and convictions of prominent trainers and veterinarians for doping horses, lends urgency to the implementation of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act.

Set to take effect July 1, 2022, it calls for a board overseen by the Federal Trade Commission to write rules and penalties to be enforced by the United States Anti-Doping Agency, which regulates Olympic and other elite athletes in the United States. The agency revealed the cyclist Lance Armstrong’s cheating and issued him a lifetime suspension in 2012.

USADA’s role is uncertain, however, because the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, which is charged with creating a framework and budget for enforcement, could not reach an agreement with the agency. The authority is exploring other options for an enforcement entity, but it has indicated that it may try to reopen negotiations with USADA.

With Medina Spirit’s apparent victory at Churchill Downs last year, Baffert won his seventh Kentucky Derby, surpassing a record set by Ben Jones, who last won in 1952.

Instead, however, Baffert and Medina Spirit join Maximum Security and Dancer’s Image as the only horses to have their Derby victories overturned.

In 2019, Maximum Security was first across the finish line, only to be disqualified for almost knocking over a rival horse in the far turn and slowing the momentum of others. The next year, Maximum Security’s trainer, Jason Servis, was among 27 people charged by federal prosecutors in a wide-ranging scheme to secretly dope horses and cheat the betting public. He is awaiting trial.

In 1968, Dancer’s Image’s victory was taken away after a drug test showed the presence of a banned anti-inflammatory drug. That case lingered in the courts for four years before the disqualification was finally upheld.

Bettors were not made whole by the Kentucky decision. While those who backed Medina Spirit kept their winnings, those who supported Mandaloun are still left with losing tickets, a situation that prompted a class-action lawsuit on their behalf.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/21/sports/horse-racing/medina-spirit-kentucky-derby.html?referringSource=articleShare

[blackcat]

Good race! I had the exacta on Life is Good and Knicks Go and also Colonel Liam in the Turf race.

[BullNBear52]

Life is Good, didn't even break a sweat.
https://www.upi.com/Sports_News/2022/01/28/horse-racing-Pegasus-Stakes-Knicks-Go-Life-Is-Good/7701643337765/

[blackcat]

Going back to September-I thought a t the time- this is the first I've seen a good horse scratched for a post position. You have to wonder.

Medina Spirit has been withdrawn from Saturday's Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Racing, owing to his outside post position, trainer Bob Baffert told the Albany Times Union's Tim Wilkin on Tuesday.

The son of Protonico drew the ninth post in a 10-horse field.

Baffert will also scratch Grade 3 winner Private Mission from the G1 Cotillion Stakes on the same card, and point her toward the G2 Zenyatta Stakes at Santa Anita Park on Oct. 3.

“I don't like to put them on a plane unless I feel real good about it,” Baffert told Wilkin. “Medina looks good, I just don't like the way the race was setting up. I feel part of my success is knowing when to run and doing what's right for the horse.”

[BullNBear52]

We both know if the horse had heart issues a good vet would have figured that out and the horse would have been retired.

[blackcat]

Ban Baffert!

eric sondheimer


Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit died this morning at Santa Anita on the track. Could be sudden death. Siren went off as horses were working out. Horse emergency van went out right past the finish line. Very sad.


Statement from Santa Anita: "Following the completion of a routine morning workout, Medina Spirit collapsed on the track at Santa Anita Park and died suddenly of a probable cardiac event according to the on site veterinary team who attended to him.

"Santa Anita Park veterinary team, led by Senior Veterinarian Dr. Laurie Bohannon, immediately took blood, hair and urine samples from Medina Spirit. Those samples were sent to the California Horse Racing Board. A full necropsy, as per protocol in California,"run by the University of California – Davis’ School of Veterinary Medicine will be performed to try and ascertain the exact cause of this sudden death. The results of the necropsy and toxicology studies will be released by the California Horse Racing Board "as part of their inquiry into the cause of this unfortunate event.
Medina Spirit will be missed by all those who worked with and cared for him. He was owned by Zedan Racing Stables and trained by Bob Baffert."

[blackcat]

Good. I hope they find a way to keep him banned.

[BullNBear52]

I don't think the NYRA is done with him.

[blackcat]

Not happy about that. He should have his license revoked, period.

[BullNBear52]

Bob Baffert’s Suspension in New York Is Overturned in Federal Court
The New York Racing Association had sanctioned Baffert, the Hall of Fame trainer, after his Kentucky Derby-winning horse failed a post-race drug test.



By Joe Drape
July 14, 2021
A federal judge on Wednesday said the horse trainer Bob Baffert could race in New York State, nullifying a suspension by the New York Racing Association.

In her written ruling, Judge Carol Bagley Amon of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York said Baffert had not been offered the opportunity to respond to claims made against him after Medina Spirit, the winner of the Kentucky Derby, failed a post-race drug test at the track, Churchill Downs.

Amon said that a prompt post-suspension hearing, where Baffert could have rebutted any claims against him, was needed to adhere to the Constitution. But she said the racing association “had held no hearing — let alone a prompt one.”

The racing association barred Baffert from its tracks — Belmont Park, Aqueduct and Saratoga — on May 17, a little more than two weeks after the Derby. After Medina Spirit’s second drug test from the Derby came back positive on June 2, Churchill Downs suspended Baffert for two years, including for the Derby in 2022 and 2023.

David O’Rourke, the president and chief executive of the New York association, said Judge Amon did uphold its authority to “exclude individuals from its racetracks whose conduct is contrary to the best interests of thoroughbred racing” and said that this was not the end of its efforts to hold Baffert accountable.

“NYRA is reviewing the court’s decision today to determine our legal options and next steps,” O’Rourke said in a statement. “What is clear, however, is that Mr. Baffert’s actions and behavior can either elevate or damage the sport. We expect Mr. Baffert to exert appropriate controls over his operation.”

At least five of Baffert’s horses have failed drug tests in a little over a year, and he has had 30 failed tests in his career.

Still, a possible disqualification is months away and destined to be tied up in the courts for years. First, Kentucky racing officials will conduct a hearing and issue a ruling. If they disqualify Medina Spirit and either suspend or fine Baffert, he could appeal to the full state commission. If the unfavorable ruling is still not overturned, he could pursue a remedy in civil court.

In 1968, the Derby victory by Dancer’s Image was rescinded after a drug test showed the presence of a banned anti-inflammatory. It took four years before the horse was irrevocably disqualified.

The fallout from Medina Spirit’s failed test and from the legal squabbling appears to be hindering Baffert’s business. One of his more loyal stables, Spendthrift Farm, moved six of its horses from Baffert’s barn. Last year, he trained the farm’s colt Authentic to a Derby victory.

In written arguments, Baffert said five other owners were considering leaving him if he was banned from entering horses in New York races.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/14/sports/horse-racing/bob-baffert-suspension-overturned.html

[blackcat]

In response to an order from a federal judge for trainer Bob Baffert to reveal specifically which of his existing clients have told him they may pull horses from his care if his banishment by the New York Racing Association (NYRA) is allowed to continue, Baffert's legal team on Friday provided the court with a list of five Thoroughbred owners who are allegedly considering splitting with the Hall of Fame conditioner.

According to a one-page letter filed electronically by attorney W. Craig Robertson just minutes before the judge's mandated noon (Eastern) deadline July 9, those on-the-verge owners are “Gavin Murphy of SF Bloodstock; Jack Wolf of Starlight Racing; Peter Fluor of Speedway Stable; Sol Kumin of Madaket Stables; and George Bolton.”

That disclosure comes on the heels of Baffert's publicly documented breakup with WinStar Farm, which has already pulled such elite-level Thoroughbreds as 'TDN Rising Star' Life Is Good (Into Mischief) and Country Grammer (Tonalist) from his California-based stable.

In a July 7 affidavit, Baffert stated that WinStar's reassigning of those horses was a “harm” that has “already occurred as a result of NYRA's ban,” and that “WinStar's move has and will continue to have the added effect of possibly encouraging other notable owners to do the same.”

Baffert's inability to pursue his chosen livelihood at New York's major Thoroughbred tracks is likely to be a key deciding factor in his lawsuit against NYRA in United States District Court (Eastern District of New York).

In a civil complaint filed by Baffert June 14, the seven-time

GI Kentucky Derby-winning trainer is alleging that NYRA's banishment of him since May 17 violates his Fourteenth Amendment constitutional right to due process, and Baffert wants the court to overturn that ban.

NYRA's exclusion of Baffert from Saratoga Race Course, Belmont Park and Aqueduct Racetrack was mandated the association in the wake of five positive drug tests in horses Baffert has trained over the last 12 months.

Three of those violations occurred in Grade I stakes. The most recent drug positive, for betamethasone in Medina Spirit (Protonico) after that Baffert trainee won the May 1 Kentucky Derby, has yet to be adjudicated by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. Churchill Downs Inc., however, has already barred Baffert from participating at any of the gaming corporation's five Thoroughbred tracks for a period of two years.

Judge Carol Bagley Amon's mandate for Baffert to assign specific names to his written claim that “I have recently had conversations with other owners who have stated that they may move their horses to other trainers if the New York suspension continues,” arose out of a back-and-forth verbal dispute between parties in a July 8 court conference call.

On Thursday, counsel for NYRA had argued that the plaintiff's 434-page “memorandum in further support of a preliminary injunction,” which was filed with the court only five days prior to a July 12 hearing for the case, violated established legal procedure because it included new information that the NYRA did not have time to investigate.

NYRA had already filed its own memo in opposition to overturning its ban on June 30, and on Thursday wanted the plaintiff's entire July 7 reply filing (or at least Baffert's affidavit included within) to be stricken or disregarded.

The judge denied NYRA's oral motion to strike Baffert's reply affidavit, but Amon did order Baffert to divulge the identities of the clients who were allegedly ready to break with him because their horses were being denied access to New York's premier tracks.

Amon had also recommended on Thursday that Baffert be in her New York courtroom for Monday's 11 a.m. hearing in case he is needed to testify under oath.

https://www.thoroughbreddailynews.com/baffert-reveals-names-of-owners-allegedly-on-verge-of-leaving-him/#.YOjm9WpgBSK.twitter

[blackcat]

Good one.

[BullNBear52]

Today's comic.

[BullNBear52]

It is an important consideration if you never had a central HVAC system because the higher the SEER value changes the duct work you need.

I ended up having to replace the duct work at the same time.

[blackcat]

Oh- I forgot to put that in. The unit that was recommended for us has a 16 SEER.

[BullNBear52]

My point was looking into different SEER values.

You pay more for a higher SEER value but over the long run it can be a cost savings on energy use.

The markup was an FYI.

I got my system from Trane at cost since I have known him for years.