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Baffert Takes Stand In NYRA Hearing; KY Hearing Next

Bob Baffert testified for about 3 1/2 hours in Thursday's hearing to determine whether the New York Racing Association (NYRA) can exclude the trainer over alleged “detrimental conduct.” Much of the testimony consisted of exchanges between the Hall of Fame trainer and NYRA attorney Hank Greenberg, whose attempts to rattle Baffert were largely unsuccessful. The Hall of Famer stuck to what has been the narrative from his team since the issues of his repeated medication violations first arose–that each offense involved mitigating circumstances that explain why he wasn't deserving of serious sanctions.

During a marathon day of testimony, it was revealed by Baffert that the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission has finally set a date, Feb. 7, to begin to delve into the matter of Medina Spirit (Protonico) testing positive for betamethasone in the 2021 GI Kentucky Derby. Baffert said he was told of the hearing by attorney Clark Brewster. The Kentucky commission has yet to make any announcements regarding the date of a hearing over the Medina Spirit matter.

Typical during the NYRA hearing was the back-and-forth between Baffert and Greenberg on the subject of Gamine (Into Mischief) testing positive for betamethasone following her third-place finish in the 2020 GI Kentucky Oaks. Baffert has maintained that he gave Gamine the medication 18 days prior to the race when the rules only prohibit its use within14 days of a start.

“You ran a horse that was disqualified from the most important race for 3-year-old fillies in America, isn't that right? That is a very significant outcome, isn't it?” Greenberg asked

“That was an unjustified outcome,” Baffert replied.

Greenberg also brought up Baffert's announcement in November 2020 that he was hiring Dr. Michael Hore of Hagyard Equine Medical Institute “to add an additional layer of protection to ensure the well-being of horses in my care and rule compliance.” Hore later revealed that he never went to work for Baffert. Baffert said that the only thing that kept Hore from fulfilling those duties was the pandemic.

“You didn't do it Mr. Baffert,” Greenberg said of his promise to bring Hore on aboard. “True or not?”

“It couldn't be done because of COVID,” Baffert replied. “He was going to come in January but he couldn't make it.”

“Is that your way of saying, no, I didn't hire Dr. Hore?” Greenberg said in response. “You did not hire him.”

“He couldn't make it because of COVID,” Baffert said. “He couldn't get there until late spring.”

The hearing soon turned to Baffert's series of press conferences and interviews after it was revealed that Medina Spirit had tested positive. Greenberg alleged that Baffert's media tour hurt the sport because he brought up such things as conspiracy theories. For Baffert, his response marked a rare time where he did admit to some guilt. At the end of the hearing he said if he had to do it over again he would not have granted those interviews.

“I used the word 'cancel culture' and what I meant to say was 'knee jerk,'” Baffert said. “To say 'cancel culture' was a bad move on my part.”

But Baffert said he made such statements because he was under duress.

“I was pretty upset,” Baffert said. “That was just raw emotion, knowing that I did not inject that horse with betamethasone. I knew something was not right.”

When asked if he understood that what he said was harmful to the reputation of the sport, Baffert replied: “This was something that really hit me hard. This is the Kentucky Derby, the greatest race. This is a trainer's nightmare.”

Before Greenberg had his turn, Baffert attorney Craig Robertson led the trainer through a series of questions that included his take on what happened with Medina Spirit. Baffert reiterated his contention that the drug got into the horse's system not through an injection but through the use of a topical ointment, Otomax, to deal with a skin condition. Baffert, who, at first, said that it was impossible that betamethasone was in Medina Spirit's system, said he did so because it never crossed his mind that the drug could be present in a skin ointment. It's notable, however, that it clearly says on Otomax boxes that the ointment contains betamethasone.

Baffert acknowledges that the controversy has affected both him and his family and added that the horses taken away from him include Life Is Good (Into Mischief), who he called the “best horse training in America.”

“It's been rough and tough,” he said. “But it's one of those things where we know we have the facts and the truth. It's probably tougher on my children.”

The hearing started with testimony from Dr. Clara Fenger, a former state vet for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. Robertson went through the various drug positives Baffert has been hit with and asked with each one if the drugs involved were performance-enhancing, able to mask any injuries and had any pharmacological effect. Fenger answered no on each occasion.

Next up was Dr. Steven Barker, the long-time director of the Equine Medication Surveillance Laboratory and state chemist to the Louisiana Racing Commission. Like Fenger, Barker said that none of Baffert's violations were particularly serious.

“There's nothing here that matches the rhetoric that has surrounded this case and the actions of NYRA,” he said. “None of this can be considered doping. None of this can be considered an attempt to affect performance. These are common therapeutics at extremely low levels.”

The hearing will resume Friday, with closing statements expected.

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Credibility Challenged, Former NY Steward Erupts at Baffert Hearing

Under pressure of cross-examination that questioned his credibility, a retired New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC) steward launched into a nearly five-minute tirade just before the close of Wednesday's hearing to determine whether the New York Racing Association (NYRA) can exclude trainer Bob Baffert over alleged “detrimental conduct.”

Voice cracking with emotion and punctuating points by banging his fist on the witness table, Stephen Lewandowski, who served as the state steward at NYRA tracks between 2014 and 2019, lost his cool after testifying in support of Baffert and then facing terse questioning from a NYRA lawyer who wanted to establish that Lewandowski was being selectively forgetful about his previous dealings with a Baffert controversy.

NYRA's lead attorney also wanted to get it on the record that the former steward had once been put on notice by a state ethics board for allegedly improper post-retirement advocacy on behalf of the controversial banned trainer Richard “Rick” E. Dutrow, Jr., back in 2019.

Lewandowski's outburst, after some 7 1/2 hours of lower-key testimony from seven witnesses, overshadowed remote video appearances by Hall-of-Fame jockeys Mike Smith and John Velazquez, both of whom expressed unwavering support of Baffert.

The eruption also trumped an attempt by Baffert's defense team to get the hearing called off over procedural provisions related to whether NYRA was exceeding its authority as an administrative agency (the hearing proceeded; Baffert's lawyers were bluntly told by hearing officer O. Peter Sherwood to file a post-case brief that he would take under consideration).

For the third straight day, Baffert did not take the witness stand during the Jan. 26 hearing, which despite being conducted in a conference room within the Manhattan offices of NYRA's attorneys, had all the elements of a court trial.

In the morning, Baffert could be seen via the Zoom feed wearing a blue sport coat, blue dress shirt and jeans, tapping his feet in a fidgety way while sipping from a white coffee mug. But by the end of the day any signs of nervous energy had dissipated when Baffert was shown at the respondent's table alongside his attorneys right before adjournment of another long day of testimony.

NYRA is charging that Baffert's alleged conduct is or has been “detrimental” to three entities: 1) The best interests of racing; 2) The health and safety of horses and jockeys; 3) NYRA's business operations.

NYRA had tried to rule off Baffert back on May 17, 2021, without any sort of due process. But he filed a federal lawsuit that got that ban overturned, and now must go through a newly invented NYRA exclusionary hearing process, at which Medina Spirit's still-not-adjudicated GI Kentucky Derby drug positive and four other recent equine drug infractions are the focal points.

Lewandowski, called as a witness by Clark Brewster, one of Baffert's attorneys, testified that he had never met the Hall of Fame trainer in person until Tuesday. The former steward said he had reached out to Baffert by phone “when this whole [NYRA banishment] process started up, and I offered my support… because I feel he's being unfairly taken advantage of.”

During his time as a steward at NYRA tracks (which included fill-in stints as far back as 2000), Lewandowski said that Baffert “never, never, never, never had any problems in New York. Never. The only thing I could ever possibly remember is that maybe his owners needed a license,” which he described as a minor difficulty he helped to correct.

But when NYRA attorney Hank Greenberg took over for cross-examination, he tried to jog Lewandowski's memory by asking him no fewer than five different ways if he was sure that Baffert had never been involved with a controversial issue that the stewards had to deal with.

“Not in connection with Bob Baffert, no,” Lewandowski affirmed.

Greenberg then asked him to specifically recall the 2018 GI Belmont S. That race, of course, was memorable for the Baffert-trained Justify winning the Triple Crown.

But it was also notable for assertions that Restoring Hope, an uncoupled stablemate of Justify, was sent for speed while taken very wide into the first turn before abruptly cutting down to secure a position to the outside of Justify's flank. It appeared to some observers that Restoring Hope was acting as a “wing man” or “blocker” to escort the on-the-lead Justify to victory.

In addition, rival owner Mike Repole subsequently implored the stewards to investigate possible jockeys' collusion based on the rider of his own horse, Noble Indy, not following instructions to vie for the lead. Repole had also said at the time that Restoring Hope was ridden more like “an offensive lineman than a racehorse trying to win the Belmont.”

Brewster could see where this was going, and protested “This is nonsense!” several times before the hearing officer allowed the race replay to be shown.

Yet Lewandowski continued to maintain that he didn't recall any controversy, couldn't remember any owners complaining, couldn't recollect discussing the situation with the two other stewards, didn't remember later interviewing an involved jockey, and drew a blank about ever speaking to the press about the controversy involving Baffert's horse.

Greenberg then presented him with news clippings about the non-investigation, and asked the now-flustered Lewandowski to read his own quotes about it to refresh his memory.

Yet Greenberg did not dwell on that one point. He quickly pivoted to bring up Lewandowski's support of Dutrow, who in 2011 was suspended 10 years and fined $50,000 by the NYSGC's predecessor agency after one of his Aqueduct winners tested positive for an opioid analgesic and syringes containing a painkiller and a sedative were found in Dutrow's stable office.

Lewandowski had retired in June 2019. Five months later, he wrote a letter to the NYSGC and the Queens District Attorney stating that Dutrow's penalties were too tough and alleging that, “Mr. Braulio Baeza Jr., the NYRA Steward at the time… told me on numerous occasions that evidence against Mr. Dutrow was planted…”

That letter found its way into published news reports. Baeza denied he ever said such a thing. The NYSGC issued a press release to denounce Lewandowski's assertions.

And, according Greenberg, the New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) sent Lewandowski a letter putting him on notice that former state employees were not supposed to appear before their former agencies to advocate on behalf of anyone or anything for a two-year period after they left their jobs.

Lewandowski replied to Greenberg by stating that he had “no knowledge” of any JCOPE investigation into that. “No one informed me–sort of what NYRA did with Bob [Baffert]–that this was going on,” he said. “So I got a letter saying…they chose not to punish me or pursue this any further. They found no reason to do it.”

Greenberg had that letter too. He brought it out and began quoting form it to ask Lewandowski if he recalled that it stated his advocating for clemency on behalf of Dutrow “implicates post-employment restrictions that apply to former state employees, specifically the two-year ban.”

And that's when the former state steward let loose with a rambling, under-oath diatribe reminiscent of Humphrey Bogart's courtroom portrayal of the under-duress Captain Queeg in the 1954 film “The Caine Mutiny.”

“I got no punishment. I didn't even know it was going on. How about that? How could they run [an investigation] without even speaking to me? How can they do that? Well, I know. NYRA does the same thing. They just decide to suspend Bob Baffert and not even speak to him. You think that's right? You're an attorney. Do you?” Lewandowski challenged Greenberg.

“Do you think if I conduct an investigation about you and not [ask you] what the circumstances are that that's right? That's what you're doing with Bob Baffert. You're suspending him without even speaking to him…. How about asking him about charges in Kentucky that haven't even been filed yet? If I was him, I wouldn't answer the question!” Lewandowski snarled.

The outburst continued (repetitive parts have been omitted here):

“[Baffert is] testifying in two hearings now. How could you do that to somebody? A person that was so kind to show his [Triple Crown] horses to everybody. Everybody! Including all of NYRA's executives. All of them went down there. Bob pulled [American Pharoah and Justify] out and took pictures with them and did all that. And I never went down there. Why? Because I felt it was improper for me to do that. It wasn't right…

“And another thing with Rick Dutrow. I never spoke to him until I retired. I called up [a NYSGC executive] and I said, 'How does Rick Dutrow go about reapplying? How does he do it?'…. And so it took six months to get an answer from the gaming commission. Who's responsible? Their job is to protect and to help people like [Dutrow], not hurt him. It's their job, that's what they're supposed to do, make it for the people!”

The conference room remained silent while Lewandowski kept going on about the NYSGC's alleged wrongdoing of Dutrow.

“Nowhere and no-how has [there] ever been [such strict penalization]–10 years and $50,000! And you know another thing? They took his $50,000…. They took his $50,000 and then told him–the was a man who was totally destroyed, had no money, nothing, completely broke–and they made him pay $50,000 and then told him forget about [being reinstated]. You know what that's like? I had the opportunity to do that, but I would never do that to a licensee. I would never take your money when I know you can't work…”

This portion of Lewandowski's venting eventually took up three full minutes.

At which point, Greenberg calmly asked, “Are you done?”

NYRA's lawyer certainly wasn't finished. Greenberg couldn't resist getting Lewandowski going again with another simple question: “Braulio Baeza–is he a good man?”

Lewandowski roared back to life: “Braulio Baeza–one of us is lying! Either Braulio Baeza or me. Are you accusing me of lying?…If you think I'm lying, then just accuse me of lying. Are you calling me a liar? Are you calling me a liar sir? Are you calling me a liar? I am not a liar!…

“One of us had information to help a former [trainer] who was wiped out, sir. Wiped out! They wiped him out! They took 200 horses away from him and he was out of business the next day. They didn't even give him the right to come on the track and pay his help! He was out of business. Done. Finished…. Wiped a person out! That's what you're about? That's what you're representing?…Are you accusing me of lying? I'm asking you a question!”

The hearing officer informed Lewandowski that's “the way it works around here…The lawyer gets to ask the questions.”

After Greenberg yielded his cross-examination, Brewster came back up to address a final point related to Baffert being allegedly unfairly targeted by NYRA. It was a quietly emphatic one that might have been worth having his witness's credibility picked apart.

“All these things [Greenberg] said that were so bad about this trainer, Rick Dutrow. Did NYRA seek to suspend Rick Dutrow?” Brewster asked.

“No,” Lewandowski replied.

“In your career, did you ever see NYRA take after a trainer such as [with Baffert], that never had a violation in New York?” Brewster asked.

“No,” Lewandowski replied, having regained his composure.

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‘Are You Calling Me A Liar, Sir?’ Fireworks On Day 3 of NYRA/Baffert Hearing As Dutrow Case Recalled

Wednesday's session of the ongoing hearing between the New York Racing Association and embattled trainer Bob Baffert finished with fireworks during the testimony of retired New York state steward Stephen Lewandowski.

NYRA concluded the presentation of its case just before lunch, and Baffert's attorneys called their first few witnesses in the afternoon.

Lewandowski was called on behalf of Baffert and, under questioning from Baffert's attorneys, said he had no dealings with Baffert on any integrity or rule violation issues in his time serving as a steward in the state. Lewandowski said he called Baffert sometime after he was suspended by NYRA to offer his support.

“I feel like he's been unfairly taken advantage of,” Lewandowski said. “He's never had any problems in New York.”

On cross examination, NYRA attorney Henry Greenberg questioned that point by Lewandowski, bringing up the controversy about Baffert's non-coupled entry in the 2018 Belmont Stakes. Baffert saddled both Triple Crown winner Justify in that race as well as Restoring Hope, who was piloted by Florent Geroux. Mike Repole, co-owner of Vino Rosso and Noble Indy, would later complain to New York Post writer Tom Pedulla that Geroux put in a “reckless” ride aboard Restoring Hope, possibly in an attempt to block some of Justify's competitors.

Headlines in the Post questioned officials' decision not to launch an investigation into the race. Lewandowski said that he eventually spoke to Repole but also that he did not recall Repole's complaint. He said he did not speak to Baffert about the incident, and said he did not recall subsequent media coverage questioning the stewards' lack of investigation. He also said he did not recall eventually reversing course and speaking to Geroux, nor did he recall a meeting with the other stewards, who Greenberg suggested disagreed with each other on the best way to handle the situation.

Then, Greenberg asked Lewandowski about his support of Rick Dutrow, who was suspended 10 years and fined $50,000 after one of his horses tested positive for butorphanol and three hypodermic needles were discovered in a desk drawer in Dutrow's office. Following his retirement in 2019, Lewandowski wrote a letter to the Gaming Commission and to the Queens County District Attorney saying that Braulio Baeza Jr., then a NYRA steward, told him the syringes were planted.

Baeza later denied he told Lewandowski this.

Baffert attorney Clark Brewster objected to the scope of Greenberg's questions but was overruled by Justice O. Peter Sherwood, the presiding hearing officer. As Greenberg asked about the fallout from Lewandowski's letter, Lewandowski became agitated and began shouting. The New York commission released a statement following publication of Lewandowksi's letter in the media. Lewandowski also said he heard from New York's Joint Commission on Public Ethics, though it's not clear in what capacity.

“How can they run something without even speaking to me?!” Lewandowski cried. “I know, NYRA does the same thing. They just decide to suspend Bob Baffert without even telling him. How is that right? You're an attorney, you tell me. … That's what you're doing to Bob Baffert. How about talking to him about charges in Kentucky that haven't even been filed yet. … If I were him I wouldn't answer any questions. … He's a person who has been so kind as to show his horses to everybody who asked. All of NYRA's executives went down there, and Bob pulled him out and they took pictures with him and did all that.

“I never went down there, and why? I thought it was improper to do that.

“And another thing about Rick Dutrow, I never spoke to him, before, until I retired.”

Lewandowski said he asked about how Dutrow could go about reapplying for a license, and passed that information along.

“It took six months to even get an answer from the Gaming Commission, whose job is to protect people like him, not hurt them,” Lewandowski yelled to Greenberg, who by then had stopped questioning him. “It's their job, that's what they're supposed to do. They're here for the people, not for purses. And nowhere and no how has these charges ever been … 10 years and $50,000 … and you know another thing? They took his $50,000. There was an ongoing push to get Rick Dutrow reinstated. They made him pay $50,000 and then here's a man who's totally destroyed. Has no money. Nothing. He's completely broke. They made him pay $50,000 and then told him he can't be licensed. … I would never do that to a licensee. I would never take your money when I know you can't work.”

As to the dispute in stories between himself and Baeza, Lewandowski let loose.

“Braulio Baeza, one of us is lying. It's either Braulio Baeza or me. Are you accusing me of lying?” yelled Lewandowski. “One of us is lying. Why would Braulio Baeza speak to me about Rick Dutrow, who he had nothing to do with. One of us is lying. And I'm not accusing anybody. But it's either him or me. And believe me, he said it to more than one person.

“…Are you calling me a liar, sir? Are you calling me a liar? I am not a liar … I thought Braulio Baeza was a good man. One of us had the information to help a man who was wiped out.

“…Braulio Baeza is not a nice person, no.”

Wednesday's session also included testimony from NYRA lead equine safety investigator Tony Patricola, NYRA veterinary services director Dr. Anthony Verderosa, general manager of NYRA Bets Matthew Feig, and vice president of marketing for NYRA and NYRA Bets Donald Scott. At the start of Baffert's case, testimony came from Hall of Fame jockeys Mike Smith and John Velazquez.

[Story Continues Below]

Wednesday's session opened with Sherwood chastising Baffert attorney Brewster for providing a statement to media about Tuesday's proceedings. Greenberg entered the Paulick Report's recap of the Jan. 25 hearing into the record because it contained the statement, distributed on behalf of Brewster by public relations and crisis communications firm Trident DMG. Greenberg called the statement “highly unprofessional at best.”You can find the Jan. 25 recap here.
Baffert attorney W. Craig Robertson said he had nothing to do with the statement.

Brewster tried to say Greenberg posted similar content on his firm's website. This publication has not received statements from the firm.

“Fortunately this proceeding is not going forward before a jury,” said Sherwood. “I'd be much more sharp-tongued if we had a jury here, sir. I do think these kinds of comments by a lawyer during a proceeding are inappropriate. I would ask you to restrain yourself.”
NYRA's attorneys had two primary focuses from witnesses on Wednesday: the potential for therapeutic drugs to impact pre-race veterinary examinations and injury, and the public reaction to Baffert's recent high-profile drug positive in the Kentucky Derby. Verderosa and Patricola both testified that therapeutic, permitted medications given outside time regulations could make their jobs more difficult in terms of identifying sore horses. They also testified to the danger posed to jockeys, grooms, and veterinary personnel by catastrophic injuries suffered on track.Baffert's counsel clarified that neither official had fielded complaints or themselves flagged horses for further examination from Baffert's barn on the basis they were unsound. (Baffert is primarily based in California and does not, according to Patricola, maintain a barn in New York year-round.) Robertson also pointed out that this summer, when protestors demonstrated their upset over the equine fatality rate in New York, Baffert did not have any trainees in the list of dead horses.
Both Feig and Scott agreed they received feedback from NYRA Bets customers following Baffert's announcement that Medina Spirit had a positive post-race drug test. Feig in particular cited a 20 percent increase in customer service queries on the day Baffert held his press conference, and continued with an elevated number of requests from players the next day.“We had a lot of questions regarding, 'Are you going to refund my wager because I bet on the second-place horse, Mandaloun?' or 'Are you going to give me the money I'm owed?'” recalled Feig.
Feig said there is no mechanism for NYRA Bets or any of its competitors to refund parimutuel wagers based on a change in race results after the race goes official. To date, Medina Spirit has not been disqualified from the Kentucky Derby.

Feig said he also heard from customers with queries or complaints about other trainers, any time there are headlines about an integrity issue. That includes Linda Rice, who had her license suspended by the New York Gaming Commission but who is still permitted to race at NYRA while she is appealing that case.
Feig also said that in the course of applying for the required licenses for NYRA Bets to take wagers from customers outside New York, the organization gets a fair number of questions from regulators about various aspects of its business, including finances, policy, and integrity proceedings. The organization also deals with banks and credit card companies to enable it to do business. Feig said that he did get questions “in passing” about the Baffert situation after the announcement of Medina Spirit's positive from regulators, financial entities, underwriters, and banking institutions. Regulators did not ask him questions about Rice or Wayne Potts, who is currently being investigated by NYRA.
Robertson was interested in the fact NYRA Bets saw a wagering record during the time Baffert was permitted to run horses at Saratoga. He and Feig examined handle figures for a couple of races in which Baffert trained entrants. Feig pointed out that one was a stakes race, which usually gets higher handle than non-stakes races, and the other was the start of the Pick 5 and Pick 6. Typically, Feig said he projects and analyzes handle based upon the number of entries and the wagering menu for that race; trainer of entrants don't normally factor into his forecasts.
Jockeys Mike Smith and John Velazquez testified on Baffert's behalf, saying they have always felt safe riding his horses and agreeing they would like to ride more for him. Both said they did not believe Baffert is a threat to the integrity of racing, nor have they ever witnessed Baffert do anything against the rules of racing during their time spent in his barn.

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Baffert/NYRA Hearing, Day 2: Social License To Operate, Ethics Of Therapeutic Drugs Debated

The hearing to determine whether the New York Racing Association will be permitted to exclude Hall of Famer trainer Bob Baffert continued through its second day of testimony Jan. 25 with testimony from witnesses on behalf of the racing association.

Tuesday's proceedings were taken up with the remainder of cross-examination of Rick Goodell, an attorney who has represented the New York State Gaming Commission, as well as testimony from Dr. Pierre-Louis Toutain, veterinary pharmacologist, Dr. Camie Heleski, senior lecturer for the University of Kentucky, and Jeffrey Cannizzo, senior director of government affairs for NYRA.

Here are a few of the highlights:

Justice O. Peter Sherwood, who is serving as hearing officer for the proceedings, grew testy at times Tuesday with Baffert's legal team. Cross examination of Goodell resulted in Baffert attorney Clark Brewster asking repeatedly about New York's threshold levels and whether a test under those levels would result in a positive (in New York it might, if the commission has other evidence a medication was given outside of the permitted timeframe). Sherwood also shut down one of Brewster's lines of questioning of Cannizzo, which was focused on the lack of conflict of interest rules for NYRA board members. Brewster seemed focused on the fact that the New York State Gaming Commission does not permit board members or employees to have active ownership interests in racing, while many NYRA board members do. Sherwood reminded Brewster that in his view, previous rulings from U.S. District Judge Carol Bagley Amon have established that NYRA has the legal authority, based on precedence from a 1982 case before the New York State Supreme Court, to rule a trainer off, and that this point is not considered up for debate.

“What I'm saying now, I've told you before,” Sherwood said to Brewster. “I've cited the case Judge Amon cited. I've cited it in written opinions. I've told you that at this hearing but for some reason or another, you're ignoring it.”

Brewster repeatedly thanked Sherwood for putting his feelings about that legal authority into the record.

Toutain was asked to testify to the potential welfare and performance implications of the drugs for which Baffert horses have tested positive since 2019. Toutain resides in France, and is a distance professor for the University of London's Royal Veterinary College.Toutain was asked about phenylbutazone, and whether it's appropriate to use in the course of training horses.

“No,” said Toutain. “The appropriate use is to suppress the pain for horses and not get the horse to compete with an underlying condition. When you treat horses with phenylbutazone, normally you have to stop on the horse.”

Toutain also asserted that the use of bute could increase the risk of injury “because you are masking underlying conditions that can be severe. The purpose of phenylbutazone is to help the horse, not to mask any injuries.”

Toutain agreed that bute, lidocaine, and betamethasone would not enhance a healthy horse's maximum athletic effort, but were instead potentially problematic because of what they could be hiding.

As to corticosteroids like betamethasone, Toutain cited research stating that horses who were treated with corticosteroids had four times greater risk of catastrophic injury, although it was not clear when those administrations occurred in relationship to the injuries or what doses were used. Toutain also pointed out that a finding in blood of a corticosteroid at a low level does not presuppose the origin of the corticosteroid. A low systemic level of the drug could mean it was given intravenously some time before, or it could have emerged as a result of an intra-articular administration. In cases when a corticosteroid is injected into a joint, low levels of the drug will eventually be found circulating in the body but the concentration will always be much higher in the joint that took the injection.

“Just because you detect nothing in the blood does not mean there is nothing in the joint,” he said.

Toutain admitted his field of expertise was pharmacology and not regulation. Although he has been consulted in the construction of regulation for international racing, that is not his primary occupation.
As to lidocaine, Toutain said there is a relatively low threshold for its use because the drug spikes in the blood quickly and dissipates quickly. It likely has maximum effect somewhere in the first hour of an administration, but Toutain said it's often regulated in such a way to prevent administration within 24 hours of a race.
Heleski testified primarily about the social license to operate, a concept that applies to many industries beyond animal sports. Heleski explained that the phrase refers to social or public acceptance which grants permission for an organization to conduct a given activity. This concept has been used in the past to apply to the mining and forestry industries, and has been applied in recent years to equine activities, including horse racing.

Heleski said that in order to tolerate a given equine sport, the public needs to feel the animals are treated appropriately, and that there is accountability and transparency present in the sport. Attorneys for NYRA asked Heleski about the many headlines in mainstream news media which have dogged Baffert in recent years, as well as the Saturday Night Live skit which poked fun at his interview tour after he announced the betamethasone overage for Medina Spirit. These things, she said, could impact the sport's social license to operate.

“Many people will talk about the issue of drugs and medications and they have a big concern,” she said. “They don't necessarily go into the nuance of levels. Most of the time, they feel like if there was a drug or medication noted, it's bad. They put it all under the umbrella of doping.

“If someone is so well known in a certain sport or industry that even the casual racing fan can identify them, they're more likely to make an impact when some news takes place.”

Baffert's attorneys asked Heleski whether it was Baffert's fault that the general public does not grasp the difference between various therapeutic medications. Attorney W. Craig Robertson also questioned the validity of the concept of the social license to operate, since he said it is not an actual, physical license given out by a central authority and seems an amorphous concept.

Heleski pointed to several key problematic areas in racing which she believes detract from the sport's social license to operate — equine deaths, whip use, medication problems, and aftercare. On cross examination, NYRA attorneys pointed out to Heleski that Baffert has had more than 70 horses die in his care since launching his training career.

Following the day's proceedings, a representative of Trident DMG distributed the following statement to media on behalf of Baffert's legal team. According to its website, Trident is a strategic communications, public relations, and crisis management firm. The statement is attributed to Brewster.

“By jumping to false conclusions and ignoring the facts, NYRA is fueling a bandwagon smear campaign against Mr. Baffert for its own private, competitive purposes – an effort that threatens the integrity of the entire industry. Here are five undisputed facts that support why Mr. Baffert's suspension by NYRA should be overturned immediately:

The New York Gaming Commission is the exclusive and only regulatory agency for horse racing oversight in the State of New York. NYRA has no seat at the table for regulating racing.

NYRA's Board is conflicted, comprised of horse owners that directly compete with Mr. Baffert. No wonder they want him banned from New York racing – his horses beat theirs.

The basis for NYRA's attack is to import rulings from other racing venues about the permissible use of medications that are for therapeutic purposes. Not one racing regulatory agency found grounds to suspend or take action against Mr. Baffert for any of the therapeutic medication threshold overages.

Of the top 14 thoroughbred horse trainers in New York State, nearly all have had more medical violations than Mr. Baffert has been accused of and not one has been suspended by NYRA, nor has NYRA even attempted to suspend them. In fact, not one of the allegations against Mr. Baffert relates to a single New York racetrack rule violation, and Mr. Baffert has never had a reported medication positive in the state in his 25-plus years of racing.”

The hearing continues at 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 26. Read our reporting from Day 1 here.

The post Baffert/NYRA Hearing, Day 2: Social License To Operate, Ethics Of Therapeutic Drugs Debated appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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