they are either starstruck or hope Baffert will preveil after all.
Or they don’t give a damn.
Do they think points will be retroactively added back after the suspension? Short as a racers career is, cant see running up bills and pounding for no points or year end consideration for a few months.
What about Breeders Cup eligibility, will races during the suspension count to earn their way in?
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Baffert’s horses can still compete like any other racehorses (for the time being, anyway). The only thing they cannot do at the moment is accrue KY Derby points because BB himself is ineligible to enter a horse in the Derby. Had Newgrange won the Rebel Stakes instead of finishing 6th, he would have become a G2 winner and gotten the winner’s share of the purse. (around 600k). None of that goes away just because CD is sanctioning BB.
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Assuming Baffert serves the 90 day suspension issued by the KHRC the points will be moot when it’s over because the Derby will have already run.
Breeders Cup eligibility is a whole different thing. Baffert’s horses cannot race during his suspension unless they are transferred to another trainer. But if, under that circumstance, they race and win then those races will count toward getting into the BC–unless that body decides to also sanction BB in the meantime.
This an old post , but might be educational for those who think Medina Spirit was “unsound in his forelimbs”.
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Thanks guys, got it. I keep forgetting theres no National control covering everywhere. Good for Ky.
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Bloodhorse’s version of this…
play by the rules and you don’t have to sit out.
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You can’t measure heart, and clearly that little horse had plenty of it.
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Here we go.
https://www.thoroughbreddailynews.com/baffert-sues-cdi-carstanjen-rankin-over-suspension/
Doesn’t Churchill Downs have some kind of agreement everyone has to sign in order to enter a race there? Something that says the person agrees to abide by the decisions of the management?
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Yes they do. How well it hold up in court we’ll see. I don’t think he’ll win, but I’ve been wrong before.
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They are also a private corporation and there is precedent that corporations can prevent people from entering their property for any reason, as long as the reason isn’t that they are from a protected class IE; race, sex, religion etc.
As someone here said, white haired racehorse trainers with many drug positives aren’t a protected class.
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I notice that Churchill doesn’t seem too worried about it. They have big time attorneys, more big time than Baffert’s, and they’ve had plenty of time to prepare.
Wouldn’t it be nice if Baffert just accepted that he made a big mistake, apologized and sat out his punishment like most people’s parents taught them to do? I was taught that when you break the rules you take your lumps and don’t whine about it.
He doesn’t seem to care about the effect of what he has done to the reputation of Churchill’s premiere race, or to the reputation of horse racing which (in the public eye) was far from stellar to begin with.
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Exactly! He’s like a spoiled toddler that has gotten away with so much and finally a parent has put their foot down and he’s throwing a tantrum. If he’d been held accountable in earlier instances, maybe he would have learned his lesson and this never would have happened. Then again, with his ego, maybe he would have continued to push the envelope.
I still firmly believe somewhere down the road it will come out that this was a situation just like Servis.
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You don’t sign something that’s specific to CD. But in order to get a Kentucky racing license, you do sign an application saying that you agree to abide by KY’s racing rules.
But as @skydy pointed out, Churchill Downs is private property and I believe that gives them the right to exclude BB if they want to.
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I completely understand CD being able to do as they wish on their own property.
I do wonder how this will play out with a private corporation’s ban being used to affect him elsewhere.
The Churchill Downs ban has no effect anywhere else (unless they extend it to their other properties.) The other thing Baffert is fighting in Kentucky is the 90 day suspension that the KHRC gave him which–if it goes into effect–should be upheld by numerous other racing jurisdictions.
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