I don’t know if he deserves the ban or not. CDI obviously thinks so. I can see why they are offended by some of his rants, and his statements in court.
Baffert and Zedan worked around the ban and got Taiba into the 2022 Derby by switching the horse to Yakteen. This year Baffert did the same with Reincarnate. The horse ran with Yakteen as trainer, so there is a work around, it’s just hard on the ego and requires some inconvenient paperwork and moving of horses to different stalls.
I agree, the public perception isn’t good. In court however, he has to prove a tangible loss, and I think that will be difficult. He argued that in the NYRA case and it didn’t fly.
Baffert trainees have run in (and won) a lot of races this year so it will be tough for him to argue that people aren’t bringing him horses because of CDI.
I hope he doesn’t complain in public and lets his attorney speak for him.