March, 2022 | Horse Racing Free Tips

One Step Forward, One Back in Baffert’s Derby-Driven Legal Odyssey

A federal judge on Thursday granted Bob Baffert the expedited preliminary injunction hearing the trainer is seeking in his fight to overturn a private-property ban by Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI). But getting that hearing on the docket is only one step in a complicated, deadline-driven legal process in the Hall-of-Famer's long-shot quest to try to be able to saddle horses in the GI Kentucky Derby.

The just-assigned Apr. 15 date for the hearing in United States District Court (Western District of Kentucky, LouisvilleDivision) will come 22 days before the Derby.

But even if the federal judge ends up issuing an order that lifts CDI's two-year ban of Baffert over his repeated equine medication violations while that case gets heard in full, Baffert still faces a separate–and steep–legal hurdle in the form of an under-appeal 90-day suspension imposed by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) because of a betamethasone positive in Medina Spirit, his now-deceased 2021 Derby winner.

Baffert is separately fighting that commission-level suspension in the Kentucky Court system, and Mar. 31 brought yet another technical twist to an already confusing plot.

The KHRC's Thursday filing in Kentucky's Court of Appeals was a motion to dismiss Baffert's appeal of a Franklin Circuit Court decision not to grant the trainer a stay or temporary injunction that would have kept the suspension and a $7,500 fine from going into effect while the KHRC's own appeals process plays out.

Here's a boiled-down sequence of what's transpired over the past six weeks in the KHRC case:

On Feb. 21, the KHRC issued Medina Spirit's dirty-test rulings against Baffert (the suspension and fine) and owner Amr Zedan (a DQ from the Derby and loss of purse winnings). Baffert and Zedan then appealed at the commission level; the appeal was granted, but on Feb. 25 a request for a stay of the penalties while the appeal played out was denied by the KHRC's executive director, Marc Guilfoil. So Baffert and Zedan took the matter to the Franklin court Feb. 28.

On Mar. 2, the Franklin judge said he would hold off on a full court hearing to decide the stay and/or injunction until after the full KHRC board had a chance to vote on the stay instead of just relying on the executive director's say-so.

On Mar. 4, the KHRC board voted 10-0 Mar. 4 to deny the stays of penalties in accordance with the decision Guilfoil had already made. Franklin Circuit Court then took up the hearing Mar. 17.

Then on Mar. 21, the Franklin judge denied the request to force the KHRC to impose any sort of stay, writing in an order that “A temporary injunction is an extraordinary remedy” that the court would not grant.

Baffert and Zedan then decided to kick the Franklin court's denial up to the higher Court of Appeals on Mar. 24.

Then, one day later, the Court of Appeals judge raised the issue of whether the underlying Franklin Court appeal originated in the correct venue in the first place. The question that judge wants answered drills down to whether or not the initial appeal of the KHRC's denial of a stay should have been heard in Jefferson County (where the Derby itself is run), Fayette County (where the KHRC's offices are headquartered), or Franklin County (where the Kentucky Public Protection Cabinet, the KHRC's parent organization, is housed).

Now, the Mar. 31 KHRC motion to dismiss asks another layer to the case by asserting that Baffert and Zedan's “failure to follow the proper procedures set forth in [state law] divested Franklin Circuit Court of jurisdiction over their appeal.”

In plain language, the “subject-matter jurisdiction” technicalitythat the KHRC raises has to do with the timing of when Baffert and Zedan filed their Franklin County appeal: It was after Guilfoil issued his no-stay determination via letter, but before the full KHRC board had voted to deny the stay. Failing to amend their filing to reflect that distinction makes Baffert and Zedan's complaint “defective,” the KHRC is arguing.

“A defective Complaint can cause a case to be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction,” the KHRC's motion to dismiss states.

“Movants' failure is more than form over substance,” the motion to dismiss states. “Movants have failed to properly place into the record the steps that are required by [state law]. Even their request for injunctive relief fails to mention the Commission's Final Order.”

Baffert's court fights are taking place against the backdrop of contingency plans that have involved transferring his Derby contenders to other trainers. This will allow those horses to try and earn qualifying points and enter the Derby in the event Baffert can't get judges to overturn both the CDI ban and also impose a stay on his KHRC suspension in time for the May 7 first leg of the Triple Crown.

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Robertson Takes Two Emmys From $4,500 Yearling To Grade 1 Winner

Though Arlington Park may have been shuttered, longtime Chicagoland trainer Hugh Robertson has no plans to follow the city's jewel of a racetrack into the sunset. Not when the 71-year-old has Grade 1-winning horse Two Emmys in the barn, and especially not when he knows exactly how lucky he is to be alive after surviving a stroke three years ago.

On Feb. 26, 2019, Robertson went to the Fair Grounds Racecourse in New Orleans, La., well before sunrise. He recalls sitting in his tack room and speaking to a friend when he felt a bit groggy, and so went to the ambulance to be checked out.

When the EMTs released him, stating only that his blood pressure was a bit high, Robertson attempted to walk back to his barn. Instead, he found himself walking directly into a pole.

Friends found Robertson and called his wife, a retired nurse, who immediately transported him to the hospital. Surgery was performed quickly thereafter.

“If they can operate right away they can usually mitigate the results,” Robertson explained. “I was only in the hospital for three or four days.

“I knew I was a lot better off when I'd go into that rehab and see other stroke victims. I could always speak and didn't have any paralysis, and the only thing I couldn't do is stand on one leg with my eyes closed. So basically I made a complete recovery.”

Robertson admits that he has slowed down considerably in the years since his stroke, noting that his wife says he still ambles a bit when he walks. Luckily, his son Mac has been able to take the heaviest workload of the approximately 100 horses the two men oversee.

“My other two kids both work in Omaha, and have done pretty well staying away from racing,” said Robertson. “Mac and I do switch horses back and forth, but we hardly ever go to the same track at the same time because we don't always get along! We're both very opinionated.”

Though the elder Robertson is the co-owner of stable star Two Emmys alongside a couple from his native Nebraska, he has occasionally sent the gelding to race out of his son's stable.

“I don't hesitate sending everything to Mac because he does a good job,” Robertson added. “He's the one that can do more work, after all.”

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The ascension of Two Emmys has helped keep Robertson in the game.

A $4,500 yearling purchase in 2017, Two Emmys developed into a G1 winner in last year's Mr. D Stakes, formerly known as the Arlington Million.

“He was small, and a June foal, and English Channels are late developing, so people at the sales don't really look at those horses,” Robertson said, explaining Two Emmys' bargain purchase price. “He moved good. I watch horses and see how they move when they're yearlings, and I like to buy those kinds of horses because usually they can run a little.”

Though he'd liked the gelding ever since he was a yearling, Robertson didn't go into the Mr. D thinking he had the winner.

“I thought he'd run third,” the trainer said candidly. “I thought there were two better horses than him in there, the Chad Brown horse (Domestic Spending) and the European entry (Armory, for Aidan O'Brien). Still, I didn't think we should be 25-1, and when he got loose on the lead it was incredibly exciting.”

Two Emmys held off the late run of multiple Grade 1 winner Domestic Spending by a neck.

“I never thought I'd have a horse in the Million, and then when I do, it's not a million [dollars],” Robertson told TVG's Scott Hazelton following the first G1 win of his career.

“It's nice,” he continued, “but I wish they'd keep running.”

Two Emmys (red cap) holds off Domestic Spending (red and white cap) to win the Mr. D Stakes at Arlington.

This year, while Two Emmys has added another graded stakes victory to his resume in the G2 Muniz Memorial at the Fair Grounds, that closure of Arlington Park has put a bit of a question mark on the rest of the year.

“It's left us in a bit of a lurch, for sure,” Robertson said. “I'll go back for Hawthorne's three month meet, and then when they shut down I'm hopefully gonna go home to Nebraska and take two months off, spend time with the family, while Mac takes everything to Minnesota.

“I hope to keep training for a couple more years, if my health doesn't go south. I'd like to have 20 horses, which I figure I can handle so long as Mac doesn't need help with too much overflow!”

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Pharmacologist: Even After It Is No Longer Measurable, Betamethasone Has Lingering Effects On Inflammation, Pain

Clinical pharmacologist Joseph S. Bertino, Jr. (PharmD, FCP, FCCP), the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, wrote a letter to the editor of the Thoroughbred Daily News this week which explored the science behind the drug betamethasone.

First, he explained how betamethasone works: “Inflammation occurs due to the animal's immune system working and its reaction to an injury. The drug acts to calm down the immune system to produce its effect.”

Bertino continued by describing why the drug does not work immediately after application, whether by injection or application as an ointment, instead taking at least several hours: “Many drugs do not dissolve well in water, so other molecules are added to them so that they can dissolve in water in order to make useful dosage forms […] The body removes these extra molecules added leaving the main drug to do its work.

“Betamethasone from any of these salts is the same in the animal's body; it's a potent drug used to reduce inflammation and pain and its effect is long lasting in any form.”

The drug has a long-lasting effect, Bertino wrote.

“Even when the drug is completely gone from the body, the effect remains for some time (hours or days) because it takes the immune system time to gear back up (and hopefully the injury is healed). So that means even if small amounts or no drug is found in the blood, the effect on inflammation and pain lingers after a dose.”

He reiterates: “Since the drug effect is long lasting (and lasts even after the drug concentration is low or no longer measurable in the blood), a significant effect on inflammation and pain may still be occurring.”

Read more at the Thoroughbred Daily News.

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Cornett Brothers Back in a Big Way

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL–While C2 Racing Stable is in its infancy, its founders, brothers Clint and Mark Cornett are not new on the racing scene. In fact, Mark Cornett has worked as a racing manager and bloodstock agent for over 25 years and even put together the partnerships that owned champions Blind Luck and Dubai Majesty. He and Clint campaigned horses a decade ago under a different banner.

The Cornett brothers returned to the game just last year under their new moniker with the goal of running in the GI Kentucky Derby. That dream could come true if their colt White Abarrio (Race Day) runs well Saturday in the GI Curlin Florida Derby at Gulfstream.

“We have actually been in racing a while,” said Texas-based Clint Cornett, who was in Hallandale Beach to attend his colt's big race, as well as Wednesday's Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Sale. “We used to run under Turf Express in the early 2000s. In 2021, we decided to get back in the game and started C2 Racing Stable. We had been out of it since 2010.”

He continued, “I called Mark in the middle of 2021 and said let's get back in. I had a personal goal to run on the First Saturday in May and I told Mark to find us a horse. Little did I know, the second one we purchased is potentially going to be the horse.”

The Cornett brothers grew up in Texas and traveled to Louisiana to attend the races in their youth.

“Out of high school in the late eighties, we would head to Louisiana Downs from Dallas to watch the races,” Clint Cornett said. “It peaked our interest in becoming owners and we are pretty passionate about it.”

Their current stable is comprised of about 10 horses, most based at Gulfstream with Saffie Joseph, Jr. However, they do have a few at Oaklawn with Chris Hartman.

“Most of them are private purchases,” Clint Cornett said of their string. “We claim a few here and there and bought a filly [Wednesday] at the Gulfstream auction.”

That filly was Hip 83, a $250,000 daughter of the late Laoban. Consigned by Randy Bradshaw, she breezed in :10 1/5.

“Mark identified her and we were lucky enough to get her,” Clint Cornett said. “She will go to a training facility in Ocala until about August and then come back to the track.”

White Abarrio was one of the Cornett brothers' private purchases after he opened his account with a 6 3/4-length score at Gulfstream in his Sept. 24 debut, earning an 81 Beyer Speed Figure.

“Mark was at the track and saw him break his maiden at Gulfstream,” Clint Cornett said. “He called me and said, 'I just saw this horse run and I think we need to pull the trigger on him.' We talked to the owners and we were able to put together a private purchase. Luckily they were willing to sell.”

Part of the original ownership group, La Milagrosa, stayed in for a small piece and the colt was transferred to Joseph. He wired a one-mile optional claimer at Gulfstream in his first start for C2 Racing Stable Oct. 29 and finished third next out in the GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. at Churchill Downs Nov. 27.

“He won his first start for us at Gulfstream, then we shipped him up to Churchill to run in the Jockey Club because we wanted to get him a run over that track,” Clint Cornett said. “That was his first time going two turns as well. He did not have the cleanest of trips. He got in some trouble, but we were pleased with the effort. It showed us everything we needed to know going forward.”

White Abarrio called it a season after that effort and made his sophomore debut back in Hallandale Beach in the GIII Holy Bull S. Feb. 5. Dispatched at 6-1, the gray pressed the pace early and drew off to win by 4 1/2 lengths over next-out GII Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth S. victor Simplification (Not This Time), who also runs back here (video).

“He ran very well in the Holy Bull,” Clint Cornett said. “You have to have some racing luck and he got a clean trip. Prior to that race, he missed two works because he got ill, so we did not know how he was going to perform. He came out of that race well, but we decided to give him a few weeks off since he had been a little sick prior to the Holy Bull. We wanted to give his body time to recover. That is one reason we skipped the Fountain of Youth, but he has been training well into the Florida Derby.”

The businessman added, “He had a slight fever about a week and a half ago for a day or two, but that broke. He did a quick little blowout on Tuesday [3f in :34 4/5] for the race on Saturday.

Cornett said he is raring to go ahead of Saturday's big race and feels good about White Abarrio's chances.

“We feel pretty confident,” he said. “We feel he is a versatile horse with good tactile speed. We have Tyler [Gaffalione] aboard him and have all the confidence in Tyler that he will put him in a great position to be successful.”

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