Owners standing by trainer Bob Baffert despite Churchill Downs ban
With Kentucky Derby qualifying point values on the rise, Bob Baffert’s barn ineligible to accumulate them and the Hall of Fame trainer now subject to a 90-day suspension, some difficult decisions are at hand.
Unless Baffert can overturn the suspension Kentucky stewards handed down Monday and the 2-year ban Churchill Downs imposed on him and his horses, Baffert’s clients could be forced to choose between filing suit, switching trainers or missing America’s most prestigious race.
The road to the Derby has rarely been paved with so many potential detours.
“My guess is that they will wait till entry time, try to enter and as soon as they’re denied entry will seek judicial intervention on an emergency basis,” equine attorney William Gotimer said. “And when they do so the time will be too short for a determination of whether or not they’ve acted fairly. They’ll ask a judge for a temporary order to allow them to do something that’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing …
“I think that’s the way it will go down, and I think they’ll probably be successful.”
Though the gap between "probably" and "definitely" rivals the gap between Secretariat and the field in the Belmont Stakes, late-breaking litigation may represent the best chance for Baffert's clients to run for the roses in 2022.
Churchill Downs has not budged on its ban, and the investors who have entrusted Baffert with their most promising Derby prospects have overwhelmingly stuck by him more than eight months since the ban was imposed.
When early nominations for the Triple Crown races closed Jan. 29, owners had paid $600 apiece for 18 Baffert horses to be eligible for the Derby, the Preakness and/or the Belmont Stakes.
Though one of those horses, Barossa, has been transferred to another trainer (Rodolphe Brisset), the bay colt is one of seven Derby prospects that have already forfeited qualifying points by being in Baffert’s care.
The price of loyalty to racing’s white-haired wizard grows steeper as the Derby draws nearer. Since Baffert's ban extends to all racetrack properties owned by Churchill Downs Inc., the trainer was unable to compete in last Saturday's Risen Star Stakes at New Orleans’ Fair Grounds, the first of this year's Derby prep race to award 50 points to the winner.
His unbeaten Newgrange is entered in Saturday's Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn — another 50-point race — but ineligible to pick up any of its points.
“If you had asked me what would happen, I would have said most of the owners would have taken horses away,” thoroughbred consultant Ric Waldman said. “The thing that surprises me is not enough people jumped off the wagon. Maybe they didn’t want to get in (Baffert’s) bad graces and the bad graces of those that support him.”
Or maybe they are that confident Baffert will find a way to overcome odds that seem stacked against him.
In a July court filing, attorney Craig Robertson claimed five Baffert clients — George Bolton, Peter Fluor, Sol Kumin, Gavin Murphy and Jack Wolf — were considering switching trainers in the event he remained suspended by the New York Racing Association.
Seven months later, Baffert has succeeded in overturning one NYRA suspension only to be confronted by a second attempt (still pending), but his owners have remained steadfast in their support.
George Soros, whose net worth was pegged at $8.6 billion by Forbes magazine, owns a piece of 12 of Baffert’s Triple Crown nominees through his interest in SF Racing, and he counts Kumin, Murphy and Wolf as partners.
Fluor owns the unbeaten Corniche, winner of last week’s Eclipse Award as 2021’s top 2-year-old.
Twice in the space of two days last week, SF Racing's bloodstock agent Tom Ryan retweeted a story outlining Baffert's case against the Kentucky Derby disqualification that came down Monday, referring to the piece as “A worthwhile, informative, and genuine account of the Medina Spirit controversy.”
Ryan also posted pictures of numerous 2-year-olds bound for Baffert's barn, underscoring the partnership's unswerving loyalty to the trainer.
The 18 horses Baffert nominated to the Triple Crown last sold at auction for $12.935 million and were sent to Baffert by some of the sport’s wealthiest players, including Soros, Saudi Arabia’s Sultan Bin Mishal Al Saud and Pandora jewelry co-founder Michael Lund Petersen.
And as he has done throughout his career, Baffert has repaid rich men with results, winning six of the 21 Derby prep races run to date.
More than 10 weeks from Derby 148, projecting any 3-year-old’s place in the starting gate is educated guesswork.
Yet if Baffert’s barn were eligible for qualifying points, three of his trainees would rank among the top 10: Corniche, Newgrange and Messier. Another, Blackadder, won the El Camino Real.
But if Baffert’s backers are banking on a change of heart from Churchill Downs, or that his lawyers' drafted lawsuit will lead to a settlement, track management has thus far demonstrated no desire for compromise.
“I’m unaware of anything in the works,” Churchill vice president Tonya Abeln said. “At this point, it is what it is.”
In imposing its two-year suspension of Baffert last June, Churchill Downs asserted private property rights more sweeping than those of state regulators such as the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.
According to the track’s condition book, Churchill “reserves the right, in its sole and absolute discretion, to refuse, cancel or revoke any nomination, entry or stall application or the transfer thereof and reserves the right to deny the right to start in a race without notice to the applicant and for any reason …”
Whether that claim will stand up in court is to be determined. What moves Baffert’s owners make over the next three months will be worth watching.
“I think it’s likely that they’ll stick with Baffert,” Gotimer said. “They’ll claim that they’re being harmed between Churchill Downs and their licensed trainer, and they will suffer irreparable harm if not permitted to run. For a lot of the owners, the purse money is less important than the prestige of running in the race.
“They’ll ask the judge to allow them to run and sort out later whether or not they’re permitted.”
Tim Sullivan: 502-582-4650, tsullivan@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @TimSullivan714