2021 Kentucky Derby

A federal judge in Kentucky has dismissed the class-action lawsuit against trainer Bob Baffert and Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), that was initiated by a group of horseplayers who alleged negligence, breach of contract, and unjust enrichment because their losing pari-mutuel bets on the 2021 GI Kentucky Derby weren't honored as winners after Medina Spirit (Protonico) tested positive for and was subsequently disqualified for a betamethasone overage. The July 20 order tossing the case out of United States District Court, Western District of Kentucky (Louisville Division), could have ramifications on a...

Responding to a legal filing in which Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), alleged that a court-mandated lifting of Bob Baffert's ban from competing in the GI Kentucky Derby would harm the connections of other qualifying points earners who would "lose their fairly-earned berths in the Derby to make room for Baffert," the Hall-of-Fame trainer's legal team fired back with a written response on Friday claiming that CDI "appears to misunderstand its own rules," regarding the qualifying system. "CDI argues that an injunction would force it to 'reallocate' points and 'deprive' owners...

The Kentucky Court of Appeals on Friday denied a motion by trainer Bob Baffert and owner Amr Zedan to stay their penalties related to Medina Spirit's betamethasone positive in the 2021 GI Kentucky Derby. This means the most severe of the sanctions, an under-appeal 90-day suspension imposed on Baffert by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC), will now go into effect as ordered on Monday, Apr. 4. In accordance with suspension-related regulations in California where Baffert is stabled at Santa Anita Park, signage was already being removed from his barn...

A Kentucky judge on Monday denied a request for a stay and/or a temporary injunction that would have kept trainer Bob Baffert's and owner Amr Zedan's penalties from being enforced while the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) appeals process plays out for rulings related to Medina Spirit's betamethasone-positive disqualification from the 2021 GI Kentucky Derby. Judge Thomas Wingate of Franklin Circuit Court did, however, keep Baffert's 90-day suspension and $7,500 fine and Zedan's forfeiture of the Derby purse winnings from going into effect for two more weeks so that they...

The connections of recently disqualified GI Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit (Protonico) took to a Kentucky court Monday in an attempt to keep their equine drug positive penalizations from being enforced while their case gets appealed at the commission level. Trainer Bob Baffert is facing a 90-day suspension and $7,500 fine for now-deceased Medina Spirit's betamethasone overage in the 2021 Derby. Owner Amr Zedan has been ordered by the KHRC to forfeit his colt's purse winnings. But the DQ of Medina Spirit from America's most important horse race will affect...

Alleging that trainer Bob Baffert "is the Lance Armstrong of the horse racing world" because of a purported years-long pattern of racketeering activity related to the alleged "doping" of Thoroughbreds, a group of horse bettors who brought a class-action lawsuit seeking compensation for damages over the result of the 2021 GI Kentucky Derby urged a federal judge Wednesday not to grant Baffert's motion to dismiss the case. The original version of the suit, led by Michael Beychok, the winner of the 2012 National Horseplayers Championship, was filed four days after...

A federal judge has ordered that the New York Racing Association (NYRA) must pay trainer Bob Baffert $109,124 in legal expenses. Those fees and costs were incurred in the early stages of the trainer's civil rights lawsuit against NYRA, and the court has determined that legal precedents qualified him as the "prevailing party" five months ago when he obtained a preliminary injunction to overcome NYRA's banishment of him from Saratoga, Belmont and Aqueduct. That figure represents only a partial award. The Hall-of-Fame trainer had been seeking $162,086. NYRA had argued...

BROOKLYN, NY--Judge Carol Bagley Amon dismissed Bob Baffert's charge of contempt against the New York Racing Association Tuesday morning in federal court, saying that her previous injunction of NYRA's attempted suspension of Baffert in May applied only to enforcing that suspension, and not the issue at hand of NYRA scheduling a hearing and issuing official charges against Baffert in a Sept. 10 statement. The ruling clears the way for NYRA to proceed with its proposed hearing process, which is scheduled to begin Oct. 11 and may result in Baffert once...

Trainer Bob Baffert filed a motion Wednesday asking a federal judge to hold the New York Racing Association (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...

With a July 12 federal court date looming to decide whether or not Bob Baffert's history of equine drug positives will keep him from entering horses at the upcoming and financially lucrative Saratoga Race Course meet, the New York Racing Association (NYRA) on June 30 filed a memorandum of law that opposes the Hall of Fame trainer's request for an injunction to lift the association's ban against him that has been in effect for the past six weeks. NYRA told Baffert via letter May 17 that he was temporarily not...

The Jockey Club (TJC) was granted permission to file its proposed amicus brief in trainer Bob Baffert's federal lawsuit against the New York Racing Association (NYRA), but must do so within a week. Judge Carol Bagley Amon issued the order Wednesday in the United States District Court, Eastern District of New York. "The request for permission to file an amicus brief [14] is GRANTED in part," the order reads. "The Jockey Club may file its proposed amicus brief. The brief must be filed no later than June 30, 2021, or...