Arguments on the motion by Bob Baffert's attorneys to hold the New York Racing Association in contempt of court for organizing hearings to suspend him will be heard in the United States District Court Oct. 5, according to a document filed by Judge Carol Bagley Amon.
On July 14, Bagley Amon granted Baffert a preliminary injunction against NYRA that will allow him to race at New York's three major tracks, after they suspended him in May, pending the resolution of the case.
“Defendant NYRA is directed to respond by 9/29/21,” Bagley Amon wrote in a hand-written note on top of attorney Craig Robertson's letter advising his intent to file a motion to hold NYRA in contempt, filed Sept. 21, 2021. Bagley Amon ordered Robertson to file his motion by Sept. 22, and that motion was filed yesterday.
“Agreement on the motion will be held on 10/5/21 at 11:00 a.m.,” she wrote.
Wednesday, Baffert and Robertson filed a motion asking Bagley Amon to hold NYRA in civil contempt for trying to schedule a hearing under its newly created exclusionary procedures that could once again bar him from participating at NYRA's tracks.
The basis for the contempt allegation is NYRA's “failure to comply with the terms of the Court's July 14, 2021, Memorandum & Order enjoining it from enforcing its unlawful suspension of Baffert from New York racetracks.”
According to a Sept. 22 filing by Baffert's legal team, “NYRA seems to believe now that it can simply offer a sham hearing and get around the Court's ruling by creating rules after the fact.”
Baffert is seeking the court to issue an order “staying NYRA's renewed attempt to suspend him.”
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