Do we think that the punishments of Bob Baffert are instilling fear in other cheating and doping racehorse trainers? Not a bit.
It would not surprise us if U.S. trainers are so addicted to drugging their horses that they no longer know how to condition them for a race without it. In the meantime, Baffert has become a sort of poster boy for the whole sick industry and its rampant and deadly doping.
Here is what he has been up to lately. Perhaps you have already seen it.
The Washington Post writes:
Bob Baffert, the horse trainer who has been under fire since [the] 2021 Kentucky Derby champion Medina Spirit was disqualified, will not be allowed to compete in the Preakness Stakes next month, the executive director of the Maryland Racing Commission said in a letter to an animal rights organization Monday.
The move follows a decision by Kentucky Horse Racing Commission stewards in February to suspend Baffert for 90 days, fine him $7,500 and disqualify Medina Spirit for having the corticosteroid betamethasone in his system when he won the Kentucky Derby last year. Baffert’s appeal of the decision was denied April 1, and he began serving the suspension.
In CNN’s report they inform us, “The rule states that ‘an individual whose license is suspended or revoked in another state or country is suspended or revoked in this State’ and ‘denial of a license by the racing commission of another state may be considered as grounds for the denial of a license by the Commission.'”
See also As his doping case goes to trial, a veterinarian says it’s horse racing that’s corrupt, Washington Post, 19 January 2022.
Tuesday’s Horse
Official Blog of The Fund for Horses
Tuesday's Horse 
So the elephant in the room question has never been addressed or answered in any article that I’ve read.
Was there an equine insurance policy in place for MEDINA SPIRIT and was it paid out?
A group of us contacted a myriad of people to get that response and was immediately shut down.
The CHRB refused to respond, but they never answer their phone anyways despite the fact it’s entire staff is paid for by California taxpayers meaning it’s a public domain where FOIA requests need to be honored.
Indeed corruption runs deep and indeed many racehorses have died under suspicious circumstances in Baffert’s barn, but others too including Todd Pletcher, D. Wayne Lukas, Mike Maker, Linda Rice, Patricia Farro.
On that note, Linda Rice was found guilty of serious criminal activity, was suspended, and subsequently appealed.
The old appeal, appeal, appeal blueprint while she claims and possibly cheats never serving ONE DAY of her suspension, never missing one beat, as this parasite continues to claim and kill racehorses.
What type of integrity are they talking about when this is permitted to continue despite the Baffert suspension?
Corruption has always existed at the highest levels mainly the racing commissioners who own racehorses, who apply the rules and regulations and the doping process.
So although Baffert is surely part of the corruption scheme he’s enabled by the commissioners who should be entirely neutral, who should have to sign a disclosure consent form that they can never own racehorses while actively on the board.
They also double dip, getting taxpayers salaries while they sit on the board on some of the most powerful farms in the country – the ones that usually win all the big races giving them the insider information (what drugs will be tested for in which race) that wipes out any type of neutral playing field.
This is precisely why they win all the races, monopolize the stall allocations and purse money.
The corruption” clean-out” needs a top down approach for anything to ever resemble a neutral business with even one iota of integrity and to expect people to pay $200+ per day per racehorse while watching this goes on is wishful thinking.
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Excellent piece by Gus Garcia-Roberts of the Washington Post.
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