Churchill Downs Incorporated wanted to really teach Bob Baffert a lesson by extending his two-year suspension an additional year. Clearly not much thought was given to the collateral damage from beefing with the Hall of Fame trainer.
A Jefferson County Circuit Court judge denied owner Amr Zedan’s 11th-hour request for an injunction and his appeal was denied, meaning Kentucky Derby 150 will go off without Baffert’s presence for a third year.
There will be a trainer whose horse wins the Run for the Roses, but that trainer can’t say they beat the best. Put in a different context, the winner on the first Saturday in May will look somewhat like the Houston Rockets winning NBA championships in the two seasons Michael Jordan took off to play baseball.
It’s corporal punishment for horse racing fans, who also will suffer now that Baffert isn’t allowed to resume competing at Churchill Downs.
We have a fixation with watching the best. Baffert’s six Kentucky Derby victories places him tied with Hall of Famer Ben Jones for the most by any trainer. Short of not allowing him to play, there’s no reason to believe the 71-year-old won’t break that tie and have the record to himself. As long as Baffert doesn’t have any entries at Churchill Downs, the public is being shortchanged.
Maybe CDI miscalculated when it initially suspended Baffert. The serious length of the sentence sent a message that appeared to be an accumulation of past violations Baffert had. And perhaps CDI thought Baffert would feel the pinch from owners backing off sending him their best horses.
Baffert didn’t suffer in the ways that they thought, but that’s no reason to be unfair.
Since CDI deemed Baffert’s suspension wasn’t enough, why not simply put some probationary-type punishments in place? Allow Baffert to compete but add some stipulations that he has to conform to in order to stay eligible.
I still think that would be petty of CDI, but so be it. It would allow the fans to see Baffert-trained horses compete. And it would allow Churchill Downs to make Baffert bend the knee, since that’s really what extending his suspension another year feels like it’s about.
Baffert transferred some of his horses to other trainers last year to run on the first Saturday in May but announced in January he wasn’t going to do that this year.
That means Muth, who is owned by Zedan and could arguably be the best 3-year-old out there now, will not be in the Kentucky Derby. The Baffert-trained Muth captured the Arkansas Derby, and Baffert has indicated that he will run in the Preakness Stakes.
That even eliminates another horse Baffert trains, Imagination, who was second in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby and won the Grade 2 San Felipe.
So let’s get this straight.
A horse racing industry, fighting to keep its sport from eroding in the American sporting landscape, is willingly trying to keep one of its best trainers out of its marquee event after he already served a suspension?
How is that helping to grow the sport?
How is that even helping to keep people interested in Churchill Downs?
Die-hard racing fans want to see the best thoroughbreds. Bettors want to at least feel like they’re watching the best field compete, not a group littered with horses that backed their way in with points because Muth and Imagination could not claim theirs.
All of this drama stems from the 2021 Kentucky Derby. Medina Spirit finished first but failed a post-race drug test for a substance not allowed on race day and was disqualified.
Perhaps, CDI was infuriated by the 2 ½ years of litigation Baffert kept them entangled in, before dropping it in January, while trying to appeal Medina Spirit’s disqualification.
Zedan, who also owned Medina Spirit, claimed in his lawsuit that of the 669 horses Baffert has raced since then, including 55 of Zedan’s own, none have registered a violation since June 2021.
Baffert completed a one-year ban by the New York Racing Association for those violations, even though they did not occur in New York, and has been reinstated.
Churchill Downs won its case, but we’re all still on punishment.
Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com, follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Churchill Downs hurting more than Bob Baffert with extended suspension
