Bob Baffert
Just like riding a bicycle. Starting his first horses since serving a 90-day suspension issued by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, trainer Bob Baffert won the two races in which he had entered horses on the Saturday card at Los Alamitos. Baffert's victories included a win by High Connection (Connect) in the Los Alamitos Derby. It was Baffert's sixth straight win in the race that used to be known as the Swaps S. and his 12th overall in the mile-and-an-eighth contest. Baffert had last started horses on Apr. 2. Afterward,...
A three-member panel assigned with the task of deciding whether or not the New York Racing Association was justified in punishing Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert announced its decision late Thursday afternoon, issuing a one-year suspension from the NYRA tracks, effective immediately. In April, a hearing officer recommended that Baffert be suspended for two years, so Thursday's decision was not a complete loss for the embattled trainer. After a federal judge ordered that NYRA could not impose a ban on Baffert without affording the trainer due process, a hearing...
OCALA, FL - After a slow and steady opening session, the action picked up throughout the day at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's June 2-Year-Old Sale Wednesday, with the auction's second session concluding with a continuing strong median and an average just off last year's record-setting pace. Wednesday's session produced the sale's top three prices so far, with a filly by Uncle Mo leading the way when selling for $725,000. In all, 216 horses sold Wednesday for a total of $9,314,000. The session average was $43,120 and the median was...
Just days after the one-year anniversary of Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI)'s, ruling-off of trainer Bob Baffert over his repeated equine medication violations, the gaming corporation that controls the GI Kentucky Derby swatted back at the Hall of Fame trainer in federal court in an attempt to get a judge to dismiss a lawsuit initiated by Baffert that aims to reverse the two-year ban. "For the past eleven months, Bob Baffert has tried to dodge accountability for drugging Medina Spirit," CDI wrote in a reply brief filed June 6 in United...
A colt by Bernardini (hip 385), who advertised himself with a :9 4/5 work last week, ignited a bidding duel between West Point Thoroughbreds and bloodstock agent Gary Young in the Midlantic sale ring Tuesday. Young, doing his bidding out back while standing alongside advisor Charlie Boden and trainer Bob Baffert and on the phone with Saudi businessman Amr Zedan, answered every bid from the West Point team doing its bidding at the back of the pavilion to ultimately secure the colt for a sales-record $3.55 million. "Obviously we thought...
It was back in 1984 when a 19-year-old kid named Mike Smith rode in his first GI Kentucky Derby aboard sixth-place finisher Pine Circle. He was the youngest jockey in the race. The oldest was a legend, the then 52-year-old Bill Shoemaker. Aboard Silent King, Shoemaker was riding in the Derby for the 23rd time. As for Smith, he was just happy to be there, not knowing when he would get another chance. He never thought that one day he would become the Shoemaker of his generation. That's what Smith...
On the same afternoon that Churchill Downs took entries for the GI Kentucky Derby that included two horses formerly trained by barred trainer Bob Baffert, the gaming corporation that controls the Derby asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit Baffert had filed Feb. 28 attempt to get his private-property banishment by Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), overturned. Back on Apr. 11, the same federal judge in United States District Court (Western District of Kentucky) had permitted Baffert to withdraw his motion for a preliminary injunction to allow him to enter...
Last year's champion 2-year-old colt Corniche (Quality Road) has been moved to trainer Todd Pletcher's barn from suspended conditioner Bob Baffert's outfit, his owners Peter Fluor and K.C. Weiner of Speedway Stable said in a joint statement Monday. Baffert is currently serving a 90-day suspension handed down by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission that began Apr. 4 and runs through July 2. "Since Corniche's previous trainer, Bob Baffert, cannot begin training until the first week in July and, after a discussion with Bob, we felt that for Corniche to be...
Life Is Good (Into Mischief) and Country Grammer (Tonalist), both multiple Grade I winners co-owned by WinStar Farm, are enjoying a freshening at WinStar's training and rehabilitation facility in Versailles, Ky. before they return to the racetrack for their summer campaigns. Rivals in their last start in the G1 Dubai World Cup, the duo now shares the same daily routine on the farm. After training at 6:30 every morning, they keep company together as they enjoy the grass and sunshine in side-by-side round pens. "Life Is Good and Country Grammer...
MGISW Dortmund (Big Brown--Our Josephina, by Tale of the Cat) passed away at Korea's Great Hill Farm Apr. 18 due to a small bowel torsion, the farm reported on Instagram Thursday. Dortmund won his first six starts for Kaleem Shah and trainer Bob Baffert, including the 2015 GI Santa Anita Derby and 2014 GI Los Alamitos Futurity. The hulking chestnut was the bettors' second choice in the 2015 GI Kentucky Derby behind his stablemate American Pharoah. The 'TDN Rising Star' finished third to eventual Triple Crown winner that day and...
He has yet to run this year, which has turned GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Corniche (Quality Road) into the forgotten horse in the 3-year-old male division. That, however, may be about to change. Corniche has had two recent works at WinStar Farm and, according to Marette Farrell, an advisor to owners K.C. Weiner and Peter Fluor, the colt will return to the racetrack within a couple of weeks. "His last work at WinStar [four furlongs in :48.94 last Saturday], they said that it was an 'A' work," Farrell said....
Judge O. Peter Sherwood, the retired New York Supreme Court justice who served as the hearing officer in NYRA's dispute with Bob Baffert, has issued his report, recommending that Baffert receive a two-year suspension. "NYRA has reasonably concluded that it will not condone Baffert's reckless practices, outrageous behavior and substance violations, each of which compromises the integrity of the sport," Sherwood wrote. "I conclude that NYRA has reasonably determined that he should be excluded from the Racetracks for a lengthy period." The report has been sent to a three-person panel...