Bob Baffert Denied Injunction in Kentucky Derby Federal Lawsuit

A federal judge in Louisville on Fri denied Bob Baffert’s quest for an enjoinment that would have got granted the Granville Stanley Hall of Fame purebred trainer a chance to get in horses inwards this year’s Bluegrass State Derby.

US District Judge Rebekah Grady Jennings’ decisions in her 36-page ruling take a leak this year’s Derby a longshot for Baffert. The trainer has won the prestigious run hexad times, but Churchill Downs barred him from its tracks for II years after his Equus caballus Medina Spirit, who ruined firstly inward the 2021 Derby, failed a post-race drug test. Stewards eventually disqualified Al Madinah Spirit as the race’s winner.

That two-year hiatus is place to final stage inwards June.

Baffert filed the federal cause against the Louisville-based troupe nearly a yr ago. He was unsuccessful in getting an cease and desist order to go into horses in lastly year’s Derby. Rules for this year’s run require owners to transpose their nominative horses to eligible trainers past the terminal of this month inwards parliamentary procedure to garner qualification points inward upcoming prep races. That’s why his squad made another petition for an injunction.

A content to Baffert attorney Kenneth Bancroft Clark Brewster was not returned on Friday. However, Brewster told Horse Racing Nation the sound team up would register Jennings’ ruling carefully before making their next relocation inwards the courtroom system.

Judge Also Agrees to Dismiss Five Counts

Baffert’s squad tried to indicate the dangling from racing at Duke of Marlborough Downs and other tracks the accompany owns harmed him, but Jennings noted inwards her ruling that the trainer is relieve able to get into horses inward races at other tracks. In addition, she added that he would erstwhile over again follow eligible to enter horses inward the Derby starting next year.

In gain to denying Baffert an injunction, Jennings also granted, in part, a movement past Duke of Marlborough Downs to throw out the case. She in agreement(p) to disregard cinque of the Captain Hicks counts Baffert filed inwards the suit. The only when single left wing standing is ane where the trainer claimed Sir Winston Leonard Spenser Churchill Downs’ activeness violated his due process, but Jennings said Baffert’s team up “cannot demonstrate a likelihood of success” their display case would follow successful on that count.

The judge also said that granting Baffert an enjoinment could strike Winston Churchill Downs and the Derby. The yr before Medina Spirit well-tried prescribed for an excessive amount of betamethasone inward his system, another Baffert horse, Gamine, was disqualified from her third-place finish inwards the Kentucky Oaks for weakness a post-race do drugs test.

As explained, Baffert is the only when trainer whose horses have got tried and true prescribed inwards consecutive marquise races on CDI tracks,” Jennings wrote. “Failing to penalise trainers whose horses try out confirming inward marquise races could harm CDI’s report and the unity of their races.”

Regardless of what happens inwards the Churchill case, Baffert remains eligible to come in horses inward the Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes, the other II legs of Equus caballus racing’s Triple Crown.

What’s Next for Baffert’s Horses?

Despite the ban inward localize against him, Baffert has continued to participate horses in Kentucky Derby prep races. However, as long as he’s the listed trainer, those horses cannot receive any points for their public presentation inwards those races.

The lean of nominated horses for this year’s Derby, scheduled to bleed on May 6, shows 29 with the trainer’s identify listed as “TBD.” Those horses are all currently trained past Baffert. Among those horses is Arab Knight. On January 28, that colt won the southwestern United States Stakes, a KY Derby prep race, past five-and-a-half lengths. Zedan Racing Stables, which owned Al Madinah Spirit, owns Arabian Knight.

In ordering for those horses to flow in the Derby, their owners would need to relocation them come out of Baffert’s b past February 28. They would then follow eligible to garner points inward Bluegrass State Derby prep races held inwards March and April.

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