Bob Baffert can run in the 2024 Kentucky Derby. What did his suspension accomplish?

Effective Sunday, Bob Baffert is back.

His two-year suspension from Churchill Downs is over. He’s allowed on the grounds, horses he trains can run in races and, most important, he’s eligible for Kentucky Derby 150 on May 4, 2024.

The nation’s most famous trainer has already been back everywhere else. His 90-day suspension by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission ended July 3, 2022. Reciprocating tracks allowed Baffert to return to training. His one-year New York Racing Association suspension ended Jan. 25, 2023.

Truth be told, Baffert never left. Not really. Suspended following Medina Spirit’s positive test for betamethasone after winning the 2021 Kentucky Derby, Baffert’s string of suits, appeals and countersuits have kept the trainer — for better or worse — in the headlines.

Now that Baffert is officially back, let’s take a look back, however. Was Churchill Downs’ suspension good for the Kentucky Derby, or bad for the Kentucky Derby? Was it good for the sport, or bad for it? Did it accomplish what it was supposed to accomplish?

“My question back to you would be what was it supposed to accomplish?” said Jay Privman, who retired last September after 24 years as the national correspondent for the Daily Racing Form. “Was it supposed to send a message to Baffert and other trainers? I don’t know if it was just that. Or was it we’re putting everybody on notice this is our biggest moneymaker in terms of racing and we don’t want anybody soiling it? I don’t know.”

Privman believes Baffert’s punishment was excessive. In the 2020 Kentucky Oaks, Baffert’s Gamine tested positive for betamethasone, earning the trainer a fine and the horse a disqualification from this third-place finish. Privman finds it hard to believe that the trainer would purposely do the same thing again in the Derby a year later.

Instead, Privman believes it is logical the drug did in fact come from an ointment applied to Medina Spirit to treat a skin rash. Privman said he is not absolving Baffert of blame. The trainer and his team should have been more thorough in checking the ingredients of the ointment. The horse tested positive for a substance banned on race day. Period.

Baffert’s ban didn’t hurt interest in the Derby. Last year’s race drew 16 million viewers to NBC, the most since 2019 and an 8% increase from the year before.

Nor did it drive Baffert out of racing. Clients have not abandoned him. Medina Spirit’s owner, Amr Zedan, has trusted Hejazi, a $3.5 million purchase, and Arabian Knight, a $2.3 million purchase, with Baffert. Mike Pegram, who won the 1998 Kentucky Derby with the Baffert-trained Real Quiet, has Baffert training Defunded, winner of the Grade 2 Californian Stakes on April 22.

WinStar, part owner of Baffert-trained 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify, has 2021 Dubai World Cup winner Country Grammer in Baffert’s care. Michael Lund Petersen has the undefeated filly Faiza with Baffert. Petersen owned Gamine.

It’s likely this year’s Preakness on May 20 will include Baffert horses, possibly Cave Rock, who finished second in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Keeneland and is co-owned by Pegram, and National Treasure, who finished fourth in the Santa Anita Derby.

There’s little doubt that the severity of the Churchill suspension was meant to send a message to the public at large. Never mind that Baffert is the sport’s most visible trainer. Never mind his 16 classic race (Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont) and 18 Breeders’ Cup wins, or his two Triple Crown winners (American Pharoah and Justify). Baffert had incurred nine positive tests from 2016 to 2020. Enough is enough.

“My retort to that is that it seems to me that has been applied in an inconsistent manner across the board,” Privman said. “There have been other trainers with arguably worse records overall, not specific to the Derby, who are still running at Churchill Downs on a regular basis. If you excise that and say this is specific to the Derby, it becomes a little more narrow.”

After all, the Kentucky Derby is not just CDI’s biggest revenue stream but it’s crown jewel. Just last week, Churchill Downs suspended trainer Saffie Joseph indefinitely after two of his horses died suddenly after races at the track. The suspension scratched Wood Memorial winner Lord Miles from the Kentucky Derby.

Still, while Baffert had every right to challenge Churchill’s Kentucky Derby ruling and the ensuing suspension, prolonging the fight did nothing to help the sport. Instead, it kept the appearance that the sport has a drug problem, in public view. “It picked at the scab,” Privman said.

Looking forward, however, Privman points out that Baffert’s record with regards to medications has been “pristine” at tracks since the KHRC suspension. And, through Thursday, his horses have won 28 of 103 races this year. His $4,254,330 in earnings ranks seventh on the national trainer’s list. His average of $41,304 per start ranks first among trainers with over 100 starters.

Large paydays in stakes races and Breeders’ Cup races (at Santa Anita) await down the road. Chances are, Bob Baffert is not just back, he’ll be back in a big way.

Bob Baffert’s 90-day suspension is ending. Can racing’s star trainer change his ways?

Back from suspension, Bob Baffert will have an impact on this weekend’s Breeders’ Cup

On the 50th anniversary of his Triple Crown, why Secretariat still resonates today

‘People are coming.’ Secretariat’s Paris home honoring him with park, mural and sculpture.

Did Secretariat change the sport of horse racing? See how much is different since 1973.