Thursday hearing could decide if Bob Baffert can race horses in 2023 Kentucky Derby

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the wrong day for the hearing. It is set for Thursday, Feb. 2.

Two years after Churchill Downs suspended Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert following the disqualification of 2021 Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirits for a drug violation, Baffert is asking a federal judge to lift his banishment so he can run horses in the 2023 Derby and Kentucky Oaks.

In a motion set for argument Thursday in U.S. District Court, Baffert’s lawyers say he has disproved Churchill Down’s assertion that he is a “dangerous cheater who dopes horses to gain a competitive edge.”

Baffert claims that unless Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings issues a preliminary injunction lifting his suspension, he will suffer irreparable harm in the loss of potential purses and goodwill.

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But attorneys for the defendants — the racetrack company, CEO Bill Carstanjen and board chair R. Alex Rankin, call Baffert’s bid a “brazen attempt to litigate his way into the 2023 Kentucky Derby.”

The company suspended Baffert for two years in June 2021, citing its duties to ensure horseraces are conducted fairly and safely and protect the reputation of the sport and Churchill Downs Inc.

Baffert withdrew his motion for an injunction after the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission refused to stay the 90-day suspension it imposed on him.

Responding to Baffert’s renewed motion for an injunction filed in December, lawyers for Churchill Downs say Baffert has been cited for drug violations at least 30 times and that an unusually high number of horses — 74 since 2000 — have died in his care.

After initially denying responsibility for the betamethasone, a drug considered a possible performance enhancer that is illegal on race day, found in Medina Spirits — “It didn't come from us,” he said — Baffert eventually admitted the steroid was an ingredient in an antifungal topical ointment used to treat the horse. Another horse he trained, Gamine, also was disqualified from the 2021 Oaks after she testified positive for the same substance.

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But in his renewed request for an injunction, Baffert says Churchill Downs and the other defendant have done “nothing except rely on sensationalist media hit pieces” to substantiate their claims.

Baffert also disputes that he has been associated with an unusually large number of horse fatalities.

He said five of his horses died between 2018 and 2021 and that 27 trainers had the same number of death while 45 had more.

Baffert claims Churchill Downs has violated his rights to due process, a claim that usually can be made only against governments. But Baffert says that by virtue of its near monopoly of racing in Kentucky — and its ties to the horse racing commission — Churchill essentially functions as a government regulator. Churchill Downs notes the state Supreme Court has rejected the claim it is a “state actor.”

The company also claims Baffert has not suffered “irreparable harm” — a requirement to get a preliminary injunction. It says since his Churchill suspension began, he has run horses in hundreds of races around the world and earned millions of dollars in purse money, including $9.7 million last year.

With his shock of white hair and dark sunglasses he wears on even the cloudiest days, Baffert has been the most recognizable figure in horse racing. Many call him the greatest trainer ever. He has won six Kentucky Derbies, seven Preaknesses and three Belmont Stakes.

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But he has been denounced as a serial rule violator and ridiculed, including on Saturday Night Live, for his excuses. He claimed two of his horses, for example, tested positive for lidocaine because an assistant wearing a pain patch for a bad back had inadvertently contaminated him and that another tested positive for dextrorphan, in the morphine family, because a sick groom had urinated on hay in the horse’s stall.

In a profile last year in The Courier Journal, Marty Irby, director of Animal Wellness Action, an anti-animal cruelty group based in Washington, D.C., called Baffert "the Lance Armstrong of horse racing."

Carstanjen said Baffert’s record of testing failures — and his "extraordinary" excuses for them — threatened “public confidence in thoroughbred racing and the reputation of the Kentucky Derby."

And Ray Paulick, editor and publisher of the industry’s leading independent newsletter, the Paulick Report, said Baffert had come to symbolize what's wrong with the sport. 

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: 2023 Kentucky Derby on the line for Bob Baffert in Tuesday hearing