Embattled horse trainer Bob Baffert not backing down from multiple legal battles

Lawyered up and lathered up, Bob Baffert continues to respond combatively to his multiple and mounting legal issues.

Tuesday’s news of the Hall of Fame trainer’s threatened lawsuit against Churchill Downs was followed Wednesday by a pugnacious court filing seeking dismissal of a bettors’ suit based on a “tinfoil conspiratorial premise” alleging racketeering.

Both actions stem from Medina Spirit’s betamethasone positive from last May’s Kentucky Derby, a drug test that led to a Baffert lawsuit against the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC), another to overturn a suspension by the New York Racing Association (NYRA) and will likely result in the disqualification of the now-deceased 2021 Derby winner.

Bob Baffert lawsuit: Baffert threatens suit in effort to overturn Churchill Downs ban

And judging by Baffert’s litigious bent and the prolonged precedent of the 1968 Derby (which was not settled until 1973), closure could still be several years away.

Baffert’s attorneys claim the class action bettors suit filed in New Jersey federal court lacks appropriate jurisdiction, that its plaintiffs lack legal standing and that no court has accepted claimed gambling losses in the context of the Civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). Plaintiff Justin Wunderler has acknowledged the bettors’ case is a “longshot.”

Yet Baffert still faces a Jan. 24 hearing in which NYRA will seek to suspend him a second time, this time without violating due process. He could face a countersuit from Churchill Downs, which has shown no interest in rescinding its two-year suspension following receipt of a draft complaint from the trainer’s attorneys. And there’s also a dormant Kentucky-based bettors’ case that could be revived should Medina Spirit be disqualified.

“We made a strategic decision to voluntarily dismiss the case due to the lack of action by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission stewards,” attorney Will Nefzger said Wednesday. “It was just a procedural dismissal in nature and not a decision by the judge. It has nothing to do so with the underlying merits of the case, or our belief in the merits of the case. My clients and I both continue to strongly believe in the merits of the case and intend to refile it once the stewards rule.”

Baffert’s barn has earned more than $329 million during his career – only Todd Pletcher and Steve Asmussen have earned more – and his willingness to contest penalties resulted last year in two drug-tainted victories being reinstated in Arkansas and NYRA’s suspension being overturned.

The memorandum filed Wednesday on his behalf, in support of an earlier motion to dismiss the bettors’ case, consists largely of technical legal arguments, but it carries the same testy tone that has characterized much of Baffert’s attorneys’ recent rhetoric.

“Plaintiffs response is a desperate conglomeration of highly inflammatory statements designed to create a smokescreen in an effort to get the court to take its eye off the ball,” Baffert’s memorandum says. “. . .(Defendants) want to make sure that the Court understands they completely reject Plaintiffs’ abusive and highly inflammatory response. Plaintiffs purposefully misrepresent Baffert’s Hall of Fame record and make numerous libelous statements.”

The bettors referred to Baffert in a court filing last month as “the Lance Armstrong of the horse racing world.” Led by 2012 National Horseplayers champion Michael Beychok, they are seeking not only compensation and damages but a court order requiring Baffert to divest himself from thoroughbred racing.

“The Plaintiffs here are not asking this Court to determine the outcome of the Kentucky Derby,” they argued. “The stewards of the subject race will be the ones to determine the outcome of the Kentucky Derby. (But) Regardless of the stewards’ determination, Defendants have still harmed the plaintiffs and will continue to harm individuals through Baffert’s racketeering scheme. The Court is being asked to hold the Defendants accountable for the racketeering enterprise.”

Medina Spirit: In death as in life, Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit still matters

Though Medina Spirit’s positive test was the fifth by a Baffert horse in a span of 365 days, equating a positive drug test with racketeering could be a reach. Trying to do so in New Jersey with a California-based trainer and a race run in Kentucky may also prove problematic.

“Plaintiffs would still have to establish that at least some of the alleged illicit conduct actually occurred in New Jersey,” Baffert’s filing says. “They have utterly failed to do so. This matter has zero connection to New Jersey and it must be dismissed.”

The Baffert camp also argues the case is entirely speculative because it presumes Medina Spirit’s disqualification. More than eight months since the 2021 Derby was run, Kentucky’s racing stewards have yet to hold a hearing on the matter, much less render a decision.

“These represent purely legal and technical arguments,” Nefzger said of Baffert’s memorandum. “So the decision the judge makes in ruling on Baffert’s motion to dismiss will not be a decision at all about the merit of facts asserted by the horseplayers – that Baffert cheated in Kentucky Derby 147.”

Tim Sullivan: 502-582-4650, tsullivan@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @TimSullivan714

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Sullivan: Horse trainer Bob Baffert faces suits lawyered, lathered up