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Baffert Attorneys: ‘It Does Not Serve The Integrity Of Horse Racing To Suspend First And Ask Questions Later’

Just five days before a scheduled hearing, attorneys for embattled trainer Bob Baffert filed a 434-page memorandum supporting their attempt to convince the court to overturn the New York Racing Association's ban on Baffert. According to the Thoroughbred Daily News, Baffert's attorneys allege that NYRA has “vindictively” targeted the trainer utilizing “hypocrisy” and “backdoor” tactics. The filing also zeroes in on two legal arguments: that the ban violates the trainer's right to due process, and that NYRA has no authority to issue a ban.

“Nowhere in NYRA's Response is there any contention that Baffert has violated any New York statute or racing rule,” the memo states. “In fact, the opposite is true. Over the course of his 46-year training career, including more than 30 years of racing in New York, Baffert has never even been accused of violating a New York rule and he has never faced discipline from either NYRA or the New York State Gaming Commission [NYSGC].

“Despite his distinguished New York racing career, without even a hint of wrongdoing, NYRA believes it has free rein to unilaterally void his constitutionally protected property rights and ban him from all activity in New York without notice and for an indefinite period of time based solely on unproven allegations of a minor infraction (an overage of an allowable medication) in another jurisdiction.”

Baffert filed suit against NYRA on June 14, nearly a month after the racing association notified the Hall of Fame trainer that he was temporarily banned from racing or stabling at NYRA tracks while the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission conducts its investigation into the post-race drug positive for Baffert-trained Medina Spirit, who crossed the finish line first in the May 1 Kentucky Derby. Baffert is seeking a temporary and permanent injunction against the ban.

As defendant in the case, NYRA filed a memorandum of law on June 30 in opposition to Baffert's motion for preliminary injunction. The Jockey Club filed a brief on that same date as amicus curiae, or friend of the court, claiming that its role as keeper of the Stud Book gives it a “unique interest in ensuring that when Thoroughbreds enter the breeding shed (where they determine the future of the breed through progeny), they do so with records uninfluenced by the effects of medication.”

Both those court filings struck the same note, countering Baffert's argument that he will suffer irreparable harm as a result of his ban from Belmont Park and the upcoming high-profile meeting at Saratoga.

In response, the July 7 memo from Baffert's attorneys argues: “There is no compensating for the missed opportunity to participate in prestigious races that define the success of a trainer's career and garner goodwill with clients. NYRA's argument that Baffert cannot prove irreparable harm because he can still race in other states is missing the mark. First, there is no meet more prestigious than Saratoga and the gravitas and economic benefit that come from New York racing cannot be overstated. (…) Baffert's runners in New York win almost three times the amount that they do outside New York. This demonstrates the importance of NYRA racing to Baffert despite the fact that he races in other jurisdictions.”

NYRA's June 30 memo contends that the decision to ban Baffert “was based on probable cause that plaintiff's actions warranted suspension and was necessary to protect the safety of the racehorses and their riders, and required to ensure the integrity of the sport.”

Baffert's attorneys insist that NYRA acting on behalf of the sport's integrity is a “false narrative.”

“The fact NYRA routinely allows onto its tracks trainers who have actually been found to have broken New York's rules of racing completely shatters that false narrative,” their July 7 memo states. “NYRA smears Baffert with allegations about other positive tests, without providing the critical context of those, including that they involved minor overages of permitted substances, none of which merited a suspension and some of which, Baffert was, for all practical purposes, vindicated. … It does not serve the 'integrity' of horse racing to suspend first and ask questions later.”

A hearing on the motion for injunctive relief is scheduled for July 12.

Read more at the Thoroughbred Daily News.

Additional stories about Baffert's Kentucky Derby positive and ensuing legal battles, listed in order from most recent to the original story:

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New York Commission: ‘Magnitude Of Impropriety’ Stands Against Preliminary Injunction For Rice

The New York State Gaming Commission, represented by the office of New York State Attorney General Letitia James, has filed a memorandum of law with the Schenectady County Supreme Court regarding trainer Linda Rice's legal appeal of her three-year suspension.

According to the Thoroughbred Daily News, the July 2 filing argues that “Ms. Rice is not entitled to a preliminary injunction staying enforcement of the commission's determination. Ms. Rice is not likely to succeed on the merits of any of her claims, and the equities weigh in favor of the commission. Accordingly, the motion for a preliminary injunction should be denied.”

Rice had seen her license revoked officially on June 7, two weeks after the NYSGC voted to uphold a hearing officer's recommendation that Rice's license be revoked with the condition she could not reapply for licensure for at least three years. She had also been ordered to pay a fine of $50,000 and was to be denied all access to New York gaming commission-sanctioned properties.

The County of Schenectady Supreme Court granted a temporary restraining order two days after the New York State Gaming Commission issued the order to revoke her training license, allowing Rice to resume training in New York until her legal appeal is played out in the court system.

Rice is accused of receiving information from the racing office about which horses were entered in which races prior to the official close of entries. The alleged information exchange took place over a period of 2011 and 2014, and the commission first brought a complaint against Rice in 2019. A series of hearing dates took place in late 2020, during which the commission and Rice's attorney presented information to a hearing officer along with numerous volumes of data and interview transcripts.

The July 2 filing states:

“Ms. Rice moves for a preliminary injunction staying enforcement of the commission's penalty for her misconduct. The motion for a preliminary injunction must be denied because Ms. Rice has not shown a likelihood of success on the merits or that the equities weigh in favor of preliminary injunctive relief…

“Because Ms. Rice failed to show a likelihood of success on the merits, the Court need not address the remaining elements. Nevertheless, Ms. Rice also failed to demonstrate that the equities weigh in her favor. Rather, the equities weigh against the granting of a preliminary injunction because of the magnitude of impropriety at issue.”

Read more at the Thoroughbred Daily News.

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NY Commission Hits Back at Rice in Legal Filing

The New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC) has fired back in court at Linda Rice's legal appeal of her three-year license revocation and $50,000 fine for “improper and corrupt conduct” that the trainer had deemed “unduly harsh.”

In a July 2 memorandum of law opposing Rice's request to have her penalties vacated, the NYSGC's legal team argued that “Ms. Rice is not entitled to a preliminary injunction staying enforcement of the commission's determination. Ms. Rice is not likely to succeed on the merits of any of her claims, and the equities weigh in favor of the commission. Accordingly, the motion for a preliminary injunction should be denied.”

The filing was made in Schenectady County Supreme Court by lawyers from the office of New York State Attorney General Letitia James, which is representing the NYSGC in the matter.

On May 17, culminating an investigation that had stretched over five years, NYSGC members voted 5-0 to agree with a hearing officer that Rice's years-long pattern of seeking and obtaining pre-entry information from New York Racing Association (NYRA) racing office workers was “intentional, serious and extensive [and] inconsistent with and detrimental to the best interests of horse racing.”

The ban went into effect June 7. Two days later, Rice's legal team secured a temporary injunction from the court that allows her to resume training while the legal process played out.

Rice's trainees have won at a 17% clip overall in 2021, but are just 2-for-26 since that June 9 injunction got her back on track.

The state is arguing in favor of letting the suspension and fine stand.

“From winter 2012 to June 2014, horse trainer plaintiff-petitioner Linda Rice regularly and routinely received information not available to any other trainer–the names and past performance of horses entered in races before that information became public–from an employee of the NYRA,” the opposing memo stated.

“Ms. Rice used this confidential information to determine whether she would enter or withdraw her horses in specific races, thereby choosing the races where her horses would have the best chance of winning and avoiding those races where her horses might have been less competitive.

“In so doing, Ms. Rice improperly obtained a competitive advantage to the detriment of other trainers, the owners of horses not trained by Ms. Rice, and the public.”

Over the course of an eight-day NYSGC hearing late in 2020, Rice contended she did nothing wrong by using her inside sources to gain a competitive advantage over other trainers.

“Ms. Rice moves for a preliminary injunction staying enforcement of the commission's penalty for her misconduct,” the July 2 filing stated. “The motion for a preliminary injunction must be denied because Ms. Rice has not shown a likelihood of success on the merits or that the equities weigh in favor of preliminary injunctive relief.

“With respect to Ms. Rice's CPLR Article 78 claims, substantial evidence supports the agency's determination. Ms. Rice admitted to obtaining the non-public race entry sheets and multiple witnesses deemed credible by the hearing officer testified that the names and past-performances of horses in overnight races are universally understood in horse racing to be confidential….

“Ms. Rice contends that the commission's determination was arbitrary and capricious because it departed from precedent. Yet Ms. Rice makes no showing that the commission treated her case differently than others, despite having the burden to demonstrate the conflict with past precedent she alleges. According to Ms. Rice, because no one had been caught and disciplined for behavior such as hers, the commission failed to follow its past practice.

“Ms. Rice's argument that the commission failed to properly weigh her disciplinary history or significance to the sport is baseless. The hearing officer explicitly acknowledged Ms. Rice's accomplishments and positive contributions to the sport…

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New York Advances Rule To Prevent Jockey Appeals That ‘Game The System’ At Big Race Meets

The New York State Gaming Commission advanced a new rule proposal this Tuesday which would allow it discretion in requiring jockeys to serve riding violation suspensions at the track at which the violation occurred, reports the Thoroughbred Daily News. The rule is a result of jockeys filing appeals during big race meets, most often at Saratoga, then withdrawing the appeal at the end of that meet, so that they serve suspensions outside the dates of meets with the biggest purses.

The proposed rule, approved unanimously, will now be published in the state lawmaking register before going to a public comment period, and will not be approved in time for this year's Saratoga meet.

NYSGC executive director Robert Williams explained to commissioners prior to the June 29 vote: “The jockey can seek to game the system by requesting a hearing and then withdrawing the request at the conclusion of the meet, serving the suspension during a [different] meet [that] the jockey prefers.

“This tactic has real impact on commission operations, as staffing spends resources in arranging and preparing for a hearing that fails to be conducted.”

Read more at the Thoroughbred Daily News.

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