NYRA: Baffert and Vitali are detrimental to the sport of T-Bred Racing
 

Love this. Good on NYRA for stepping up while the rest of the Industry seems to want to rehabilitate Baffert.

Churchill just announced no points would be awarded to a potential Kentucky Derby candidate if trained by a trainer suspended from the Kentucky Derby. Sounds like they're trying to avoid a situation where a horse gets transferred to a new trainer a month before the KD.

Art Wilson
@Sham73
·
Sep 10
Replying to
@Sham73
Also, any trainer who is "directly or indirectly employed, supervised, or advised by a suspended trainer."

Wow, they are not fooling around.

This past weekend it seemed like a coordinated effort to rehab Baffert and he was loving it. Not so fast Bob.

Be interesting to see what the Breeders' Cup does

They answered my question from the other thread.

Baffert is a cornered animal now.

CD wisely put the rule in now as opposed to making a retroactive change sometime next spring.

Legally it doesn't matter. CD could just refuse the entries at the entry box. But I suppose it denies the owners a PR campaign. They were warned.

Imagine being lumped in with a guy like Vitali. That is a about as low as it gets.

It was intentional IMO and I'm good with that.

In a sense, this is Baffert's legal strategy backfiring. He had one correct argument, but it was entirely procedural- NYRA, which for some reason has constantly denied it is part of the government for decades and repeatedly had its butt beaten in court on that issue, is in fact part of the government and has to obey due process.

So NYRA has now called Baffert's bluff and said "OK, you want us to lay out formal charges, here you go". And the result of this is not just a suspension proceeding, but basically a press release trashing Baffert. Here's your due process, big boy!

Now they have to prove it. Let's see where that goes. Good luck with that.

They have the goods. On that, there has never been any doubt. Sports with better drug testing systems would have imposed harsh suspensions on Baffert decades ago.

Let's talk real world. Does CD want to spend substantial money trying to show that "legally it doesn't matter"? There would be a 100% chance that a lawsuit would have resulted if CD had waited until next spring to make retroactive rules. Actions taken next spring would be seen as punishment of the owners as well as the intended target. Now there is a very clear path for the owners to take.