Bob Baffert

After having failed back in October to get a federal judge to block the New York Racing Association (NYRA) from moving forward with a Jan. 24 hearing that could once again bar him from NYRA tracks, trainer Bob Baffert asked the hearing officer who will preside over the case to either recuse himself and/or dismiss the proceeding entirely because NYRA "self-created" the hearing process when it didn't have the authority to do so. On Wednesday, hearing officer O. Peter Sherwood said no to both motions. So starting Monday, at what...

Mandaloun (Into Mischief) finished second in the GI Kentucky Derby and will be declared the winner if Medina Spirit (Protonico) is ever disqualified for a betamethasone positive. He didn't cross the wire first in the GI Haskell S. either, but was awarded the win after the stewards disqualified Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow) for interference. It pays to be both lucky and good. But a page has been turned and Mandaloun will kick off his 4-year-old season Saturday at the Fair Grounds in the GIII Louisiana S., the first step in...

Michael Beychok has been one of the most visible horseplayers in the sport for a while. He's a winner of the National Handicapping Championship, a horseplayer advocate and a public handicapper for the New Orleans Times-Picayune who has spent the better part of his life betting on the horses. Just not for much longer. Beychok, who is the leading figure in a class-action lawsuit filed by gamblers who say they would have made money on the 2021 GI Kentucky Derby had it not been won by Medina Spirit (Protonico), says...

Jason Beem was just 23 years old when he had his first panic attack, but remembers it in excruciating detail to this day. "I was in law school at Gonzaga University. I was in constitutional law class and I didn't know what it was and walked out of class and freaked out in the hallway." That episode was the beginning of over a decade-and-a-half struggle with anxiety and depression that caused him to leave racing for a period, and be hospitalized several times. The popular racecaller and podcast host talks...

Trainer Bob Baffert told a federal judge Wednesday that a group of bettors who are suing him in a class-action lawsuit alleging a years-long pattern of racketeering based on his purported "doping" of Thoroughbreds have twisted their case so far from reality that their alleged misstatements amount to libel. In a Jan. 12 filing in United States District Court (District of New Jersey), Baffert stated that the plaintiffs' recent attempt to portray him as the "Lance Armstrong of the horse racing world" is a "desperate conglomeration of highly inflammatory statements...designed...

According to a report in the New York Times, Bob Baffert has threatened to sue Churchill Downs and its CEO Bill Carstanjen if the track does not lift a two-year ban that will keep the trainer from competing in the 2022 and 2023 runnings of the GI Kentucky Derby. The ban was put into place after Medina Spirit (Protonico) tested positive for the substance betamethasone following his win in last year's Derby. In addition, Churchill is not awarding any points to Baffert-trained horses who compete in preps for the Derby...

The favorite to land an Eclipse Award as the country's outstanding jockey of 2021 will begin his 2022 push at Oaklawn. Joel Rosario is named on seven horses Friday, which will mark his first day as a regular in Hot Springs and first action since suffering a hairline fracture of a rib when he was unseated shortly after the finish of a Dec. 2 race at Aqueduct. Rosario ($32,944,478) was eyeing a single-season North American record for purse earnings before the injury. Now healthy, Rosario's return to the saddle will...

Sent off the 9-10 chalk to build on a three-length maiden victory at Los Alamitos when last seen Dec. 11, Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith's Under the Stars (Pioneerof the Nile) was made to work for it, but managed to tough out a narrow victory in Saturday's GIII Santa Ynez S. at Santa Anita. Away alertly enough from the inside stall, the bay--bred on a similar cross to the one that produced Triple Crown winner American Pharoah--held her spot at the fence while being shaded three wide...

Coolmore's royally bred Under the Stars (Pioneerof the Nile) looks to become the third black-type winner for her impressive dam Untouched Talent (Storm Cat) as the morning-line favorite in the GII Santa Ynez S. at Santa Anita Saturday. A half-brother to Classic-winning sire Bodemeister (Empire Maker), the Bob Baffert pupil was third on debut behind the re-opposing Awake At Midnyte (Nyquist) in Arcadia Oct. 31. She filled the same spot behind stablemate and eventual GI Starlet S. winner Eda (Munnings) in Del Mar's Desi Arnaz S. Nov. 13 and broke...

In a press release Monday, the New York Racing Association (NYRA) announced that it had amended its ongoing Statement of Charges issued against trainer Bob Baffert to include a pair of positive tests for phenylbutazone (bute) in 2019 in California and a subsequent inspection of the trainer's barn which allegedly uncovered an unlocked medication cabinet, improperly labeled medications and the presence of unsecured phenylbutazone paste. NYRA has charged Baffert with engaging in conduct detrimental to the best interests of racing and has sought to temporarily ban the trainer from its...

Michael Lund Petersen's champion Gamine (Into Mischief--Peggy Jane, by Kafwain), has been retired from racing and will reside at Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa Farm in Paris, Ky., it was announced Tuesday. Breeding plans for the 5-year-old are still being discussed. Bred by Grace Thoroughbred Holdings, Gamine topped the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale when hammering to Petersen for $1.8 million and was named a 'TDN Rising Star' for her dominant 6 1/4-length debut romp last March at Santa Anita. The bay went on to dominate the GI Acorn S. by...

by Bill Finley and Dan Ross The New York Racing Association (NYRA) has amended its Statement of Charges issued against trainer Bob Baffert to include a pair of positive tests for phenylbutazone that occurred in 2019 in California and a subsequent inspection of the trainer's barn in which it alleges that 25 improperly labeled medications were found. NYRA's Statement of Charges now contains allegations that, over a 16-month period prior to the 2021 GI Kentucky Derby, six horses under Baffert's care violated rules and regulations in six separate races. Having...