More Baffert

[Strike]

I cannot comment on the legal issues like Rezlegal but I can say I am looking forward to the day both Baffert and Covid go away. Forever.

[P-Dub]

BitPlayer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> I had some legal training long ago and wonder if
> laches wouldn\'t stand in the way of getting a
> TRO.

Was it at a Holiday Inn Express??

[johnnym]

Then this

https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2022-01-04/license-temporarily-suspended-of-chrb-equine-medical-director-jeff-blea

I understand many on this board want a central governing agency.
But what faith would you have in it when they cannot even get this crap figured out.

[BitPlayer]

Thanks.

[Strike]

Well, just another example of horse racing as a sport looking more and more like professional Roller Derby than the Sport of Kings.

So, Dr Blea (one of Baffert\'s vets) gets accused of 15 cases of violations that lead to the temporary suspension of his Vet license and yet he is allowed to continue in the role of Equine Medical Director while getting the complete endorsement of Scott Chaney who is Executive Director of the CHRB.

I don\'t know Chaney\'s relationship with Baffert but he has been very kind in his decisions regarding Bayern and Game On Dude and others including some comments after Medina Spirit\'s sudden death (under Baffert\'s care).

Probably time to end my 30+ years owning thoroughbreds. There are plusses and minuses in having a central authority running the sport (I am not for bigger government) but the current system is not working at all. Professional Roller Derby died in the \'70\'s. Unfortunately, we are on a fast track to extinction too.

[johnnym]

I'm sure we all new this was coming

https://www.horseracingnation.com/news/Report_Baffert_might_sue_Churchill_Downs_Inc_over_Derby_ban_123

[Fairmount1]

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/10/sports/horse-racing/churchill-downs-bob-baffert.html


My take is this.  

Churchill thinks (knows?) he has an unfair advantage over almost all the other trainers and it isn\'t \"good horses\" and CDI is trying to protect the marquee American race that they own.  

True, they can\'t catch him red handed apparently if that\'s what they believe.  And true he only has Mickey Mouse positives showing up.  But they know he made a mockery out of their day in May.  And then the horse falls over dead to boot. There are many things I dislike CDI for especially closing Arlington.  But I applaud them for standing up to him.  Any decent business mind would think he needs to go and it would improve the game/sport/industry/business of horse racing.

[jbelfior]

So the guy whose horse ran second. He\'s good to go?

Good Luck,
Joe B

[wrongly1]

That\'s a bad take, the industry has to start somewhere.  Anywhere!  No, it won\'t be a fair and even playing field on day one.  It will take ages; if ever to clean it up, but why not start with Baffert.  CDI is say, they don\'t need him.  It\'s time the rest of the racing world says the same.  The game went on without Richard Dutrow.  It will go on without Navarro, Servis, and Baffert.

[TGJB]

And if someone finds the kind of evidence of the kind of performance enhancers they found with Navarro etc. they should not only toss Baffert but indict him. But that is NOT the case. We are talking about positives for drugs that have a negligible effect on outcomes. Ones where the risk/reward for abusing intentionally would be nuts.

Remember a few years ago when Joe Drape set out to make Assmussen look like a criminal? Remember how that turned out?

AGAIN— I've been fighting against PEDs longer and harder than anyone else in the industry. And I'm not tight with Baffert, we text a few times a year. But this stuff is BS. And I told NYRA that last summer. They got way ahead of their skis.

Meanwhile, the guys who got the Clenbuterol positives in Fla are still sending out starters at GP. We're talking about a broncho-dilator with steroidal effects. Not to worry.

[Strike]

According to news reports including the Washington Post, Baffert has had at least 74 thoroughbreds die while under his care. The highest death rate in the United States out of hundreds of trainers. It is hard for me to understand how young and healthy equine athletes just drop dead at that rate.

[TGJB]

And if true (or even not) that should absolutely be investigated. An autopsy should be done on every single one.

[confused]

They didn\'t \'catch\' Navarro and Servis through testing for SGF 1000, because it couldn\'t be detected.  They \'caught\' them because they were stupid enough to brag about it or talk about it in the open.

So maybe Baffert is smart enough NOT to talk about it?  

I have no idea and no knowledge, but it was clear that the first two were cheating to everyone who gave it serious thought.  And there are other cheaters operating at the same level of the business.  Maybe Baffert.  Maybe other \'champions\' of the turf.

Like Lance Armstrong, the day will come when they piss off one of their enablers....a vet, an illicit drug manufacturer or distributor, an employee in their barn.  That\'ll be the day...not before.

[TGJB]

They didn't talk about it in the open. They talked about it on wiretaps, that were put in place because the Jockey Club hired detectives to come up with enough probable cause for the Feds to convince a judge.

I'm agnostic re Baffert and PEDs. Maybe he and his vet(s?) are really clever. But do you seriously think they're not crawling up his butt?

Short story— literally the last meeting I had before lockdown was with McKinsie and Jim Gagliano in the JC offices here in Manhattan, about the tool we ended up creating for racing offices to decide whom to watch. Towards the end of the meeting Jim and I got into one of many discussions we've had about who is moving horses up (which discussions continue to this day). I said "what you guys need to do is get some wiretaps".

He didn't say a word. And about a week later it was all over the news about Navarro etc., they had already been working on it- and spending money on it— for a long time.


Actually, let me amend this, lest I come across as a naive idiot. Baffert got some extraordinary jumps with horses shipping to NY. I am beyond suspicious of those.

[statuette]

I think the lance Armstrong analogy is perfect