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The Friday Show: Adding An Asterisk To An Arkansas Derby Winner

It's been almost a year since Bob Baffert-trained Gamine and Charlatan won races at Oaklawn – Gamine in an allowance race and Charlatan in a division of the Grade 1, $1-million Arkansas Derby – and then subsequently were disqualified when post-race drug tests detected the prohibited drug lidocaine.

Those disqualifications were appealed, as was a 15-day suspension given Baffert by the Oaklawn board of stewards. Earlier this week after a two-day hearing, the Arkansas Racing Commission voted unanimously to restore the horses' wins, eliminate Baffert's suspension and instead fine him $5,000 for each positive.

Paulick Report editor-in-chief Natalie Voss, who viewed the 15-hour proceedings online and reported on the commissioners' vote, joins Ray Paulick in this week's Friday Show to discuss the case and the challenges made by the Hall of Fame trainer and his attorneys to the drug testing process and stewards' rulings.

Bloodstock editor Joe Nevills then joins Ray to highlight our Star of the Week as well as make his Toast to Vino Rosso and one of the first-crop foals sired by the Breeders' Cup Classic-winning son of Curlin.

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Arkansas Commission Upholds Stewards’ Rulings But Rescinds DQs, Suspension For Baffert

Following two days of testimony and legal arguments, the Arkansas Racing Commission voted unanimously to uphold three stewards' rulings from the 2020 Arkansas Derby race card, but also to modify the penalties in those rulings. Two rulings dealt with lidocaine positives from Bob Baffert trainees Charlatan, who won one division of the Arkansas Derby, and Gamine, who won an allowance race on the Arkansas Derby undercard. Originally, stewards disqualified both horses and ordered the purses from those races be redistributed. The commission's decision Tuesday will rescind those disqualifications and purse redistributions without actually voiding the drug positives.

The third ruling had been a 15-day suspension for Baffert as a result of the two positives. That suspension was also rescinded and replaced with one $5,000 fine per positive.

“We're not here to question anyone's integrity,” said commission chair Alex Lieblong. “We get rules thrown at us and those are the rules.

“We're all under the microscope because whatever we come up with, it will be controversial. That's the state of the game right now. I know it's not healthy, but like I say the federal government sounds like they're riding to the rescue to straighten it all out.”

Tuesday's decision by the commission is appealable.

Although Baffert's legal team had said Monday he likely would not take the witness stand, he did so on Tuesday. Baffert recounted his distress over the unexpected positives.

“I feel like we run a pretty tight ship and I'm very proud of my operation,” he said. “We all know we can't keep anything like [lidocaine in the barn.] California is pretty strict. Everything is labeled. There is no lidocaine in the barn … my vets don't even carry lidocaine.”

Initially, Baffert had attributed the horses' positives to an over-the-counter pain patch being used by his longtime assistant, Jimmy Barnes. Later though, he said he heard one of Charlatan's competitors also had levels of lidocaine in a post-race test, although those levels were within legal limits.

“It's one of those things where I don't know if we'll ever know what happened but those horses I feel were contaminated that day,” he said. “Jimmy didn't wear the patches the day of the race. He had no reason to lie to me; he actually didn't have to say anything. It's been very emotional. Those horses ran so hard and for something like this to happen, it's tough.”

Baffert was also asked about the post-race positive Gamine picked up in Kentucky for betamethasone after the Kentucky Oaks later in the year. He said in that case, he was advised to give the drug no more than 14 days prior to racing and actually gave it as part of a hock injection 18 days out even though he said the filly wasn't lame. He didn't appeal a stewards' ruling on that positive.

“I don't think they have the science right,” he said. “I think the trainers are lab rats. With the atmosphere that's going on in racing, they test us harder than Olympians.”

Monday's testimony had focused primarily on errors by Truesdail Laboratories, which was contracted to perform post-race drug testing for Arkansas in 2020. Truesdail lost two accreditations in the spring, making it ineligible to continue testing for Arkansas, so it began sending samples on to Industrial Laboratories. Baffert's attorneys raised questions about the chain of custody of the post-race samples from the two horses, which were shipped from the track to Truesdail, logged into the computer system, and sent on to Industrial for testing. The samples from Charlatan were also marked by the track as coming from a colt, but marked by Truesdail as coming from a gelding. On Tuesday, Baffert's lawyers pointed out that it was curious then that Industrial didn't find anything strange about the sample besides lidocaine, since it certainly would have contained more testosterone from an intact colt than the lab should have expected to find in a gelding.

One expert witness testifying on Baffert's behalf also raised questions about the relative amounts of lidocaine and lidocaine metabolites in Gamine's sample, which could have indicated Gamine had an exposure to lidocaine within minutes of the sample being taken. This was not true of Charlatan's sample, however. Nadal, another Baffert trainee who won the other division of the Arkansas Derby that day, did not have any lidocaine in his system.

Most witnesses agreed that lidocaine probably isn't something trainers turn to in order to get an edge because of how easily it's detected.

Byron Freeland, counsel for the commission, argued that regardless of how or why the lidocaine got into the horses' systems, it was found in levels elevated above the regulatory threshold and due to the absolute insurer rule, Baffert was responsible for those findings. He also stressed that the sample cups and vials of urine and blood were still sealed when they arrived at Industrial for testing and at the University of California-Davis for split sample testing. That split sample testing also revealed elevated levels of lidocaine.

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Charlatan, Gamine DQs Overturned

The disqualifications of Charlatan (Speightstown) and Gamine (Into Mischief) from May 2, 2020 wins at Oaklawn Park have been overturned, and Bob Baffert's 15-day suspension has been waived after a two-day hearing in front of the Arkansas Racing Commission.

Charlatan was the winner of the GI Arkansas Derby, while Gamine won an allowance race the same day. Oaklawn announced lidocaine positives for the pair, disqualified them from the victories, and redistributed purse money last year.

Tuesday, at the conclusion of the hearing, Baffert's attorney, W. Craig Robertson, said, “The ruling is that Charlatan and Gamine's wins are reinstated. There will be no suspension for Bob. There will be a $5,000 fine for Bob for each horse, for a total of a $10,000 fine.”

Robertson had argued that the positives were a result of Baffert's assistant, Jimmy Barnes, inadvertently contaminating the horses because he was wearing a Salonpas patch, and that the lidocaine was transferred from his hands to the horses. Moreover, he argued that the trace amounts of the drug were so low that they couldn't have been performance-enhancing.

Of the hearing, Robertson said, “There wasn't a whole lot of discussion. But basically, as I understood what they were saying, they felt like there were problems with the testing, and that it was clear that at these levels, there would have been no pharmacology in the horse, so no performance-enhancing effect on the outcome of the race.

“I told them that there were seven reasons why they needed to dismiss the matter,” Robertson continued. “In broad strokes: there were a lot of admitted errors in the testing and with the testing laboratory, and broadly, my argument was that you could not rely upon the test results given all the admitted errors and mistakes. An additional argument was that there was no pharmacology and so they needed to consider all the factors.”

Robertson said that he was relieved for Baffert, who lived with something of a cloud over his head in 2020 due to the disqualifications and to the revelation that Justify had incurred a scopolamine positive in the 2018 Santa Anita Derby. A complaint by trainer Mick Ruis in that case was dismissed by the CHRB.

“I'm elated,” said Robertson. “I'm mostly happy for Bob, because this has been hanging over his head, and I feel it's been hanging over his head unfairly. We felt all along if we could get in front of the commission and present all of the facts and all of the evidence, that we had a compelling case. Now that doesn't mean you're always going to get the result you want, but this time we did and I'm thrilled.”

Reached as he was boarding a plane to return to California, Baffert said, “I'm happy with the result and it has really been wearing on us–on Jimmy and us–and us and it's nice to see that the horses were rewarded for their performances. They need to have this conversation about the testing. They need to be more precise about it. I feel like trainers are sitting ducks. These contamination levels, they're testing at these levels, and it's tough. It's been a very demanding year.”

Baffert said that because the public only gets part of the story, there's often an immediate presumption of guilt when the initial story is published.

“We weren't at fault, but public perception doesn't know that because they don't know what's going on,” he said. “I don't want to be painted with that brush. You just have to be careful it doesn't happen again, but racing regulators need to figure out the science.”

He referenced Gamine's disqualification from the GI Kentucky Oaks after she tested positive for betamethasone, a permitted medication in Kentucky, but with a mandated two-week withdrawal time. Craig Robertson said she was given the drug 18 days before the race.

“With Gamine and the betamethasone, we did everything by the rules and we still got in trouble,” said Baffert.

Robertson said that he was relieved to put this behind them and move on.

“The two big issues that were hanging over him were Justify and Charlatan and he has been exonerated in both cases,” said Robertson. “It's the just result and I'm really just thrilled for him. I'm grateful that the Arkansas Racing Commission stewards took the time and carefully considered the evidence and rendered a fair decision.”

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Day 1 Of Baffert Appeals Hearing Casts Doubt On Laboratory Procedures

The Arkansas Racing Commission has heard its first in two days of evidence related to an appeal from trainer Bob Baffert from his high profile 2020 cases in the state. Baffert is appealing two post-race positive drug tests — one from 2020 Arkansas Derby winner Charlatan and one from stablemate Gamine, who ran at Oaklawn on the same day — as well as a subsequent 15-day suspension issued by stewards for those positives.

The stewards issued their ruling in July 2020 following the races in May. Baffert has said publicly the two positive tests, both for lidocaine, were due to the use of an over-the-counter pain patch by top assistant Jimmy Barnes.

A split sample test performed by the University of Calfornia-Davis lab also revealed the presence of lidocaine metabolites.

At Monday's hearing, attorneys for Baffert outlined seven reasons why they believe the three rulings (the two disqualifications and trainer suspension) should be dropped, primarily focusing on the actions of the drug testing lab.

At the start of 2020, Truesdail Laboratories in Irvine, Calif., was the facility contracted to perform drug testing for Arkansas racing. In March, Truesdail lost its accreditation for horse racing testing from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and as a result, it also lost its accreditation from the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium (RMTC). Some jurisdictions, including Arkansas, could no longer legally send their samples to Truesdail without those accreditations.

Truesdail decided to subcontract out some of its work from affected jurisdictions to Industrial Laboratories, which had maintained all the required accreditations. Baffert's attorneys maintain that the terms of the commission's contract with Truesdail doesn't permit subcontracting for drug testing, although the commission disputes this. Dr. Anthony Fontana, technical services manager at Truesdail, said it's actually quite common for one lab to subcontract out to another under various circumstances, such as equipment failure or other logistical issues.

Because of the lab shuffle, post-race samples from Arkansas Derby weekend were sent to Truesdail, which checked them, logged them into the lab's computer system. From there, it seems a number of mistakes were made. Testimony from Truesdail project manager Julie Hagihara revealed that the blood and urine samples from Charlatan, though correctly identified as coming from a colt at the time of collection, were logged by Truesdail as coming from a gelding. Hagihara pointed out that a horse's gender is not considered to be relevant for the purposes of testing for lidocaine.

The samples from Charlatan and Gamine were taken out of the cooler that transported them from the track to Truesdail and put in different coolers for the trip to Industrial – which Baffert's attorneys said was done without the proper paperwork validating the chain of custody.

Representatives of both Industrial and UC-Davis indicated the samples they received were still in the original containers with the red tape seals intact. Baffert attorney Craig Robertson drew several witnesses' attention to a case involving a betamethasone overage by Steve Hobby at the same meet which he says was dismissed in part because the stewards had chain of custody concerns when Truesdail repackaged samples before sending on them to Industrial for testing.

But Dr. Joseph Lokanc, commission veterinarian for the commission, remembered that there was more to the chain of custody question in that case.

“I thought the defect was, when they checked it in, the samples were not cool, there were things missing and as a result they didn't have the chain of custody on that,” Lokanc recalled.

About two weeks after the race, Truesdail officials erroneously told the racing commission that all samples from the Arkansas Derby card were clear. Several days later, Truesdail contacted the commission to notify them of the mistake.

Hagihara signed the original paperwork certifying the positive test, even though she was employed by a different laboratory than the one that conducted the testing – which Baffert's legal team believes invalidates the certification.

Truesdail's accreditation woes in 2020 were not its first; in 2015, the lab was the subject of a quality check by the RMTC after the Indiana Horse Racing Commission voiced concerns over seven missed drug overages revealed during an audit. It has now regained ISO accreditation but not its RMTC accreditation. RMTC lifted its accreditation suspension of the lab in August 2020, but suspended it again in February of this year. Industrial now has a direct contract to do drug testing for the Arkansas commission.

“This current RMTC suspension had nothing to do with our technical ability or faulty systems,” said Fontana. “RMTC itself is not an internationally-recognized accreditation body. They are an advisory board for the industry that offers a form of accreditation but it's not internationally-recognized.”

Fontana currently serves on the RMTC's Scientific Advisory Committee, according to Truesdail's website.

Split samples that were taken on race day were tested by the University of California-Davis, which actually detected a higher concentration of lidocaine metabolites than Industrial had. Testimony revealed that other horses during the Oaklawn meet also had levels of lidocaine in their post-race samples, although the others did not exceed the regulatory threshold to qualify as violations.

Baffert is not scheduled to formally testify at the appeals hearing, which will continue Tuesday, but was present at the proceedings in case he needed to field questions from commissioners.

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