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Controversial horse trainer Bob Baffert: The wild tales of the horse pharmacist

2021-06-04T15:05:41.419Z


Horse trainer Bob Baffert is a colorful figure in the industry. His horses win again and again. They often turn out to be doped later - including the winning horse of the Kentucky Derby. That now has consequences.


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Racehorse trainer Bob Baffert

Photo: BRYAN WOOLSTON / REUTERS

When Bob Baffert wasn’t America’s most famous racehorse coach but a nameless newcomer to the industry, he couldn’t resist the temptation.

Baffert knew that morphine was on the list of prohibited substances.

But still he gave it to one of his horses in 1976.

The swindle was exposed, the then 23-year-old had to answer to the California supervisory authority.

"They told me what I had done was pretty serious," Baffert wrote in his 1999 autobiography.

It goes on to say: “But they also said that I seem to be a fine boy.

I was banned for one year retrospectively.

But six months of that were over and I didn't care anyway. "

Perhaps Robert A. Baffert's career would have been different if he had received a tougher sentence at the time - or if he had learned the right lessons from the matter.

Perhaps then he would not have become a multimillionaire and, according to the New York Times, would not have become the “face of American horse racing”.

Baffert is now 68 years old.

To say that his successes were all cheated is certainly an exaggeration.

But Baffert's reputation has been badly damaged.

He's currently - once again - in trouble because of a prohibited substance.

Four weeks ago, "Medina Spirit" won America's most important race, the Kentucky Derby.

For Baffert it was the seventh triumph - and thus the record winner at the event that has been held since 1875.

But then the pain reliever betamethasone was found in four-legged friends.

A violation of the doping guidelines, the drug may be administered up to a maximum of 14 days before a race.

This week the result of the B-sample came: also positive.

Exclusion from the Kentucky Derby

And for the first time there are hard consequences for Baffert.

Churchill Downs racetrack banned him for two years.

So Baffert will be absent from the Kentucky Derby in 2022 and 2023.

"Inconsiderate methods and substance abuse that jeopardize the safety of our horses and athletes or endanger the integrity of our sport are unacceptable," said CEO Bill Carstanjen.

Baffert has not yet commented.

It could be an indication of how serious it is for him this time.

After the A-sample opened, he had been to a number of radio and television shows.

In “Fox and Friends” Baffert portrayed himself as a victim of the “cancel culture” and continued to play this role on the “Dan Patrick Show” when he was as surprised as he was innocent and clueless.

"Maybe the wrong horse was checked," was one guess. He did not even want to rule out "indirect sabotage". "It's awful," Baffert pointed out. “I would never risk my reputation. I train great horses for great customers. None of this makes sense. ”In short: Baffert had plenty of contingencies for the result. Only one thing was impossible for him: that Medina Spirit was actually doped and that he is therefore a fraud.

It was already the fifth doping case of one of his horses within a year. According to the New York Times, there are 30 violations with the current offense in his 45-year coaching career. Baffert is "no stranger" when it comes to failed doping tests of his horses, wrote the "Associated Press". "Bob Baffert looks EXACTLY like an actor who plays a guy in a movie who dopes horses to win races," tweeted former NFL pro and current sports journalist Ross Tucker.

Baffert knows how to sell well.

The man with the slightly longer, gray hair, who is always neatly dressed and with tinted glasses, could also be the chairman of a bank, club owner or boss of an investment company.

He has good contacts with important offices and - perhaps because of this - has always got off lightly despite his offenses.

In 2018 »Justify« was convicted of doping in Santa Anita / California.

According to the rules, a start at the Kentucky Derby a month later would have been impossible.

But the chairman of the California Race Horse Association, Chuck Winner, had signed Baffert to coach his horses.

The examinations dragged on for four months.

Until the result was final, »Justify« was able to win the three most prestigious US races (Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes) and win the »Triple Crown« as the 13th horse.

In August of that year, the stallion's breeding rights were sold for $ 60 million, and shortly thereafter, Santa Anita's failed doping test was put to the file during talks behind closed doors.

To hear nothing of repentance and insight

Bafferts always tried to make it clear that he had not done anything wrong, but that the violations were due to human error or environmental pollution. When in the previous year an excessive value of the cough suppressant dextrorphan was detected in a horse, he justified this with the fact that a stable boy urinated in the box of the four-legged friend. That stable boy was sick with Covid-19 and therefore took a cough syrup that contained just that dextrorphan.

It is statements like this that Churchill Downs boss Carstanjen means when he speaks of "increasingly unusual statements". The number of failed tests by Baffert's animals threatens “public trust in horse racing and the reputation of the Kentucky Derby,” Carstanjen continued. So far, only one winner has been subsequently disqualified for doping in the history of the Derby: 1968 champion »Dancer's Image«. He was found to have a banned anti-inflammatory agent.

Source: spiegel

All sports articles on 2021-06-04

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