Baffert's attorneys seek to withdraw request for injunction to stop Churchill Downs ban

Attorneys for suspended Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert have asked a federal court in Kentucky to allow them to withdraw a request for a preliminary injunction that would have stopped Churchill Downs from enforcing a two-year ban of the trainer, according to court filings.

The motion was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky on Monday, the same day that a 90-day suspension of Baffert went into effect. In asking for the preliminary injunction to be withdrawn, the motion cites a pending appeal of the 90-day suspension in front of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission that is scheduled to start April 18.

“Final relief through the KHRC’s administrative review process will likewise take months,” the motion states, in arguing that the preliminary injunction is no longer relevant.

Churchill Downs Inc. banned Baffert from all its tracks through the 2023 Kentucky Derby shortly after Baffert acknowledged that his horse Medina Spirit tested positive for the regulated corticosteroid betamethasone after winning last year’s Derby. In February, stewards in Kentucky suspended Baffert for 90 days because of the positive, and efforts by Baffert to have the suspension stayed while he appeals the penalty have been unsuccessful.

Baffert filed a lawsuit seeking a preliminary injunction against the Churchill ban last month, 10 months after Churchill put the ban in place. Courts have consistently upheld the rights of private companies to ban individuals, provided the ban is not based on protected traits or classes.

The motion to withdraw the request for a preliminary injunction acknowledges that the 90-day suspension has made moot a central part of the request, that the harm posed to Baffert by the two-year ban be “both certain and immediate.” Baffert’s 90-day suspension removes any possibility that the trainer could enter horses in the 2022 Kentucky Derby, and his horses have already been transferred to other trainers.

“The nature of the harm alleged in the complaint is wide-ranging, but the harm asserted in the motion for a preliminary injunction focused almost entirely on the injuries to the plaintiffs’ business operations related” to the running of this year’s Derby, the motion states.

The motion reiterates that Baffert has “a strong likelihood of success” in ultimately winning a case seeking the lifting of the ban.

A judge in the case had set a hearing date of April 15 to consider oral arguments for the motion for preliminary injunction. The Monday filing asks the court to “strike the hearing date” and approve the motion to withdraw “without prejudice.”