The gaming corporation that controls the GI Kentucky Derby fired the latest legal salvo in trainer Bob Baffert's ongoing attempt to reverse the second year of a two-year ban the company imposed in 2021 because of a spate of drug positives in Grade I races, urging a federal judge not to grant an injunction that would lift the ban in time for the May 6 Derby.
“Baffert refuses to accept responsibility for his wrongful actions…” Churchill Downs Inc. (CDI) wrote in a brief opposing Baffert's motion for a preliminary injunction that they filed late Tuesday in United States District Court (Western District of Kentucky). “Now, as the two-year anniversary of his CDI suspension approaches, Baffert has renewed his motion in a brazen attempt to litigate his way into the 2023 Kentucky Derby.
“This belated, tactical, and meritless motion should meet the same fate as his prior unsuccessful efforts to challenge his suspension,” the CDI filing continued.
CDI also argued that an injunction would injure the connections of other Derby qualifying points earners who would “lose their fairly-earned berths in the Derby to make room for Baffert,” the filing stated.
“An injunction would force CDI to reallocate [Derby qualifying] points, retroactively depriving those owners and trainers of Derby and [GI Kentucky] Oaks berths their horses have earned under CDI's existing rules,” the filing continued. “The harm to these innocent third parties, who have played by the rules, is exacerbated by Baffert's long delay in filing his motion.”
The Hall-of-Fame conditioner's trainees have crossed the finish wire first a record seven times in the Derby.
But it was that seventh Derby winner-Medina Spirit in 2021-who triggered Baffert's banishment when the colt tested positive for betamethasone, a Class C drug, in a post-Derby test.
Citing that positive finding and other drug overages in Grade I races around the same time, CDI told Baffert in June 2021 that he would be ineligible to race at its six U.S. tracks until after the 2023 Derby, and that any horse that raced under his training license would not be eligible to accrue qualifying points to get into the 2022 or 2023 Derbies.
Baffert had initially sued CDI on Feb. 28, 2022, in an attempt to get an injunction enjoining CDI from suspending him from its tracks and races. His complaint alleged civil rights violations related to what Baffert said was a deprivation of his right to due process of law guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment.
Separately, Baffert fought unsuccessfully in the courts to try and stave off a 90-day suspension for Medina Spirit's drug overage that had been imposed upon him in February 2022 by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC).
Those legal efforts failed, and Baffert eventually had to start serving that KHRC suspension about a month before the 2022 Derby. He transferred his entire California-based stable to the care of other trainers, and his legal team at that time withdrew the motion for an injunction. (Even though his KHRC suspension has already been served, Baffert is appealing that ruling in an effort to expunge it from his record.)
Two horses Baffert trained through March 2022-the $1.7-million FTFMAR buy Taiba (Gun Runner) and 'TDN Rising Star' Messier (Empire Maker)-ran in the 2022 Derby under trainer Tim Yakteen's license, finishing 12th and 15th, respectively.
Baffert renewed his court quest to run in the 2023 Derby on Dec. 15, 2022.
In that filing, his legal team wrote that “Granting an injunction would work no hardship on [CDI]. Numerous rules and regulations already safeguard CDI's interests in health, integrity, safety, and fairness. Baffert has already served his time for the mere allegation of a violation which has yet to be fully adjudicated, and there is no doubt among industry observers and even casual spectators that Baffert suffered consequences for the mere perception of wrongdoing.”
CDI's Jan. 17 response took umbrage with that position.
“The drugging of Medina Spirit happened just months after the Baffert-trained Gamine was disqualified for testing positive for the same drug after finishing third in the 2020 Kentucky Oaks, also held at Churchill Downs Racetrack,” CDI's filing stated. “Baffert's unprecedented back-to-back drug violations cast a pall over CDI's two marquee horse racing events and triggered a national debate over the integrity of the sport.”
By banning Baffert, CDI claimed that it “acted well within its rights to protect the health and safety of its human and equine athletes and to protect its own brand and public confidence in the sport of horse racing… While Baffert has had no shortage of public relations gambits, he has failed to, and cannot, demonstrate his entitlement to a preliminary injunction.”
CDI's filing continued: “Baffert has not shown he will suffer irreparable harm absent an injunction. His 19-month delay in seeking injunctive relief negates any claim of irreparable harm. His primary alleged harm-the loss of purse money-is speculative and would be fully compensable by money damages.
“Nor will he lose his client base or suffer a loss of goodwill absent relief. Since his CDI suspension began, Baffert has run horses in hundreds of races around the world and earned millions of dollars in purse money. And none of his client-affiants say they will transfer horses from his care absent an injunction.”
CDI also alleged that Baffert's due process claim “fails as a matter of law because CDI is a private corporation, the individual defendants are not government officials, and no one violated Baffert's rights.”
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