Charlatan, Gamine DQ'd; Baffert gets 15 days

Charlatan and Gamine have been disqualified from victories at Oaklawn Park on May 2, and their trainer, Bob Baffert, has been suspended for 15 days, stewards at Oaklawn Park ruled in a notice sent to media on Wednesday.

Charlatan won a division of the Arkansas Derby, and Gamine won an allowance race, on the May 2 card, closing day of the Oaklawn meet. Both tested for excessive amounts of the legal medication lidocaine, which were confirmed via split sample earlier this month. The initial tests became public in late May.

The stewards held a hearing Monday. The rulings are dated July 14, and were distributed to media on Wednesday.

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Both horses are now considered “unplaced,” essentially last place, with all others in their races moved up one spot. For instance, in the Arkansas Derby division in which Charlatan was originally first, the official winner now is Basin. Speech is now considered the winner of the allowance race from which Gamine was DQ’d.

Charlatan subsequently was injured in a workout and will miss the Kentucky Derby. Gamine subsequently won the Acorn Stakes at Belmont Park on June 20 and is among the favorites for the Kentucky Oaks on Sept. 4.

Baffert’s suspension is set to run from Aug. 1 to 15.

W. Craig Robertson III of Lexington, Ky., Baffert’s attorney, said both the Charlatan disqualification and the Baffert suspension would be appealed, and he expected to appeal the Gamine disqualification, too.

“I’m disappointed in the rulings,” Robertson said Wednesday afternoon. “I believe we presented a compelling case that there were mitigating circumstances – first, innocent exposure to lidocaine, and that there was no pharmacological impact, no performance-enhancing effect. It had zero outcome on the race itself.”

Robertson in a statement last week said the cause was “innocent exposure” from cross-contamination owing to an employee using a pain patch.

“It is our belief that both Gamine and Charlatan were unknowingly innocently exposed to lidocaine by one of Bob’s employees,” the statement said. It did not name the employee, but said an employee “previously broke his pelvis and had been suffering from back pain over the two days leading up to May 2.” Baffert’s top assistant, Jim Barnes, fractured his pelvis in September 2017 and was with the horses at Oaklawn, including Nadal, who won the second division of the Arkansas Derby but whose test was clean.

Baffert was not at Oaklawn for those races. The Oaklawn ruling regarding his suspension said, “The trainer shall be responsible for and be the absolute insurer of the condition of an entry the trainer enters regardless of the acts of third parties.”