According to data from the California Horse Racing Committee and Daily Race Form, Bob Baffert has had at least 75 racehorses dead under his care since 2000, but the new book claims that the legendary 72-year-old trainer is unfairly upset.
“[The] Public Pillow Ring [of him] Over the past three years it has felt like the scapegoat of the biggest problem in the race,” Katy Vollilith wrote in “The Death of a Racehorse: An American Story” (Tuesday Simon & Schuster, Tuesday).
This Saturday, after a three-year suspension of Churchill Downs Inc. for using banned substances on his winning horses, all eyes will be Baffert when he returns to the Kentucky Derby and Churchill Downs.
He has two horses – Citizen Bull and Rodriquez – compete in the Derby, the latter chosen by the Washington Post as “a clear choice to win.”
Based in Arcadia, California, Baffert trained Medina Spirit, the 2021 winner of the famous race. But later, Colt tested positive for betamethasone, an anti-inflammatory drug commonly used in the equestrian world but cannot fall into the bloodstream of horses on race day.
On December 6th, 2021, Medina Spirit collapsed in a training run at Santa Anita, California, and died of a heart attack. Two months after his death, Baffert was officially stripped of his Derby victory.
Churchill Downs also stopped Baffert for two years, and he responded in the lawsuit, claiming that he did nothing wrong. A federal court in Kentucky dismissed the case in 2023, with the suspension of Bufferate “extended for a third year due to his claims against PEDDL.[ing] According to Churchill Downs, it finally ended last summer, and Baffert took full responsibility for the positive testing of Medina Spirit.
Rumors have been circulating for decades that “the most dominant trainer in the country was giving his horse a bit of chemical help,” Lilith writes, but that was a major consideration in the sport.
Baffert was justified in 2015 with the American Pharaoh in 2018, winning two Kentucky Derby wins (without counting Medina) and two Triple Crowns.
“Before Baffert, no one had won a triple crown since 1978,” writes Lilith.
She argues that focusing solely on the tragic death of the Medina Spirit is shortsighted. “[It] It was not the first time one of Bob Baffert's horses has died from a heart attack,” Lilith wrote. Ten years ago, seven horses in Baffert's stable suddenly died within two years of suspected heart-related causes.
He is also not the only suspicious trainer in the industry. In recent years, more than 20 trainers and veterinarians have been charged with “juicing” horses with performance-enhancing drugs, such as “blood building drugs can lead to heart problems and death.” A veteran in the industry told the Post that 60% of thoroughbreds are being taken medication by trainers.
In 2020, just a year before the scandal that temporarily baffled his career, “The sport of thoroughbred horse racing was a moment of deep danger,” writes Lilith. Drug use is widely available, with horses receiving everything “from sedatives to joint injections to deep controversial drugs designed to prevent spontaneous bleeding of the lungs during intense exercise, sometimes in combination with unknown results.”
In 2024 alone, there were 161 race-related horse deaths, of which 15 occurred in trucks in Kentucky and six in Churchill Downs.
When he was eventually exposed to Medina Spirit, Buffalote was pushed back. He held media interviews and press conferences, claiming that despite his reporting on horses, particularly toxicology, the spirit of Medina, in particular, had never received betamethasone. “He was widely laughed out loud for his rambling, speculative explanations that sometimes dealt with absurdity,” writes Lilith.
He made a short comeback in 2023, winning his eighth record Preakness Stakes for a horse named National Treasure. However, victory was overshadowed by the death of another horse of his horse, which was injected with Betamethasone.
“It was a disturbing reminder that, like many trainers who previously violated the trivial regulations of racing, Buffate was just returning to business as usual,” writes Lilith.
According to her, in The Preakness, Baffert met Shaun Richards, the new director of the Horse Racing integrity and Welfare Unit.
Baffert told the author that Richards warned him. (According to Richards, the Buffert event version was “apart from saying “hello,” it was “manufactured.”)
Lilith expects a drug scandal of horse racing personified by Buffalt might lie behind them.
“Some jockeys quietly said they've seen their attitudes towards animals begin to change,” she wrote. “We have not yet seen whether that change will occur quickly enough to keep up with the expectations of the outside world.”
