Sol Kumin's Madaket Stables, along with partners SF Bloodstock and Starlight Racing, remain committed to trainer Bob Baffert despite his recent controversies. The partnership, nicknamed “The Avengers,” continues to send horses to the embattled conditioner even with questions surrounding Baffert's ability to participate in the Triple Crown classics that he has dominated for much of the last quarter-century. In a recent conversation with the Blood-Horse's Bob Ehalt and Byron King, Kumin reiterated the group's continued confidence in the California-based Baffert.
“We bought over 30 2-year-olds that we plan to send to Bob,” Kumin said. “We have sent about 25 already. We plan to continue to support him.”
“The Avengers” hit it big with Baffert in 2020, with Grade 1 winners Authentic, Charlatan, and Eight Rings all part of their initial consignment of horses that the group had sent to California. Kumin and Starlight also partnered with China Horse Club and WinStar Farm in ownership of Justify, the 13th Triple Crown winner, also trained by the Hall of Famer. However, recent issues like Medina Spirit's positive tests for betamethasone and other positive tests for regulated substances in Charlatan and Gamine in 2020 have caused clients like Spendthrift and My Racehorse to move horses out of Baffert's barn for now.
While they await the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission's ultimate decision on Medina Spirit, tracks like Monmouth Park, Del Mar, and Santa Anita Park continue to permit Baffert to enter horses. For now, the New York Racing Association has temporary suspended the Hall of Fame trainer from running horses at their tracks while Churchill Downs, Inc. has taken a more strident position, barring Baffert from entering his horses at any of their properties for two years.
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