Hall of Fame racing trainer Bob Baffert has had a difficult week, as his Kentucky Derby title and his honor alike have both come under attack following a failed drug test for his horse Medina Spirit. And to form matters worse, a gaggle of bettors who lost money gambling on the Kentucky Derby has placed litigation to Baffert's ever-expanding palette of grievances.
According to a report by Tim Sullivan of the Louisville Courier-Journal, a gaggle of bettors has filed separate class-action lawsuits in California and Kentucky courts against Bob Baffert, accusing him of a spread of offenses starting from fraud & racketeering to negligence. The bettors are seeking compensation for money lost on the Kentucky Derby following Medina Spirit's victory, and also seek that Baffert and horse owner Amr Zedan divest themselves "of any interest (direct or indirect) in any enterprise," which "reasonable restrictions" be imposed on their future activities in racing.
The plaintiffs within the California suit claim that they were bereft of payoffs worth a minimum of $54,000 by Medina Spirit's victory, while the Jefferson County, Kentucky plaintiffs claim that they were in line to gather $1 million in winnings before Medina Spirit's win was declared official. Medina Spirit's Kentucky Derby victory was jeopardized after it had been revealed that the horse failed a post-race drug test thanks to an excessive amount of the steroid betamethasone.
While Baffert's attorney Craig Robertson called the California lawsuit "completely frivolous with zero legal merits", the plaintiff within the Jefferson County case also alleges negligence on the part of Churchill Downs, claiming that the racetrack is culpable for failing to detect and scratch ineligible horses before the competition. Among other things, the plaintiff seeks to make a fund to settle wagers involving horses that find themselves being disqualified from races.
"At the very minimum, Bob Baffert was extremely careless with administering betamethasone to Medina Spirit, and Churchill Downs has absolutely no system in situ to stop ineligible horses from competing in its races," said Will Nefzger, the attorney for plaintiff Anthony Mattera. "They have it completely backward and allowed this to happen. This lawsuit strikes at the guts of a few huge problems in racing - continued and repeated medication violations by trainers and continually forcing horseplayers in touch the brunt of careless and reckless behavior."
After initially happening the defensive following Medina Spirit's failed drug test, claiming that his suspension from Churchill Downs was the results of "cancel culture" during an appearance on Fox News, Baffert released a Tuesday statement explaining that he believed Medina Spirit's failed drug test stemmed from the utilization of the anti-fungal ointment Otomax to treat dermatitis.
"Yesterday, I used to be informed that one among the substances in Otomax is betamethasone," read Baffert's statement. "While we don't know definitively that this was the source of the alleged 21 picograms found in Medina Spirit's post-race blood sample, and our investigation is constant, I even have been told by equine pharmacology experts that this might explain the test results. As such, I wanted to be forthright about this fact as soon as I learned of this information.
Both Medina Spirit and another horse trained by Baffert, Concert Tour, are set to compete this weekend at the Preakness Stakes. Baffert stated that he wouldn't visit the race to stay from being a distraction.
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