Churchill responds to Baffert's lawsuit on ban

Churchill Downs Inc. on Tuesday filed a response to a federal lawsuit from Bob Baffert that defends the company’s decision to ban the trainer and urges the court to deny a motion by Baffert to suspend the ban on an emergency basis.

The response was filed five weeks before the scheduled running of this year’s Kentucky Derby, a race won by Baffert six times. A seventh win, last year, is under dispute after Baffert’s Medina Spirit tested positive for betamethasone, a regulated corticosteroid, following the race. Medina Spirit was disqualified from the Derby by Kentucky stewards in February, but Baffert’s attorneys have appealed that decision.

The argument to sustain the ban – which runs through the 2023 Derby – leans heavily on Churchill’s exclusion rights as a private company and cites multiple cases in which courts have protected those rights. Private companies have broad rights to ban individuals from their businesses provided that the ban is not based on protected traits or classes, such as skin color or sexual orientation.

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In the response, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, Churchill says that the positive tests in Baffert-trained horses who competed in the 2020 Kentucky Oaks and last year’s Derby “cast a pall over [Churchill’s] two marquee events and triggered a national debate over the integrity of the sport.” The response says that CDI’s ban was intended “to protect the safety of its human and equine athletes, and to preserve public confidence in the integrity of horse racing and the Derby.”

In the 2020 Oaks, Gamine, who finished third, also tested positive for betamethasone. She was disqualified from third place. Baffert, who was not suspended for the positive, did not appeal the decision. Gamine was later named the 2021 champion filly sprinter.

In the Gamine case, Baffert acknowledged that Gamine received a legal injection of betamethasone 17 days prior to the Oaks. In Kentucky, the racing commission recommends that the corticosteroid be administered outside of 14 days of a race to avoid a positive, but the state’s racing rules also prohibit any finding of the drug in a horse on race day.

In the case of Medina Spirit, Baffert initially denied that the horse had ever been given betamethasone, but days later, after issuing those denials in multiple interviews on mainstream media channels, he acknowledged that the horse had been prescribed an ointment to treat a skin condition that contained the drug.

Churchill contends in its response that Baffert’s initial denials still hang heavily over the reputation of the Derby, and that a decision to enjoin the company from enforcing the ban would tarnish the running of the race this year.

“An injunction would cause substantial harm to CDI, including to its business interests, brand, and customer goodwill, and would injure the owners and trainers who would lose their fairly earned berths in the Derby to make room for Baffert,” the response states. “An injunction would also undermine the strong public interest in ensuring that all who attend, watch, or bet on horse races have confidence in the safety and integrity of the sport.”

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Baffert’s attorneys have asked the court to grant a hearing on the motion for emergency injunction during the second week of April. Separately, an appeal of a 90-day suspension issued to Baffert because of the Medina Spirit positive is scheduled to start in front of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission on April 18.

Baffert has also asked the Kentucky Court of Appeals to issue an emergency stay of the 90-day suspension this week. The suspension is scheduled to begin on April 4, after a judge in the Kentucky Franklin County Circuit Court denied Baffert’s motion for a stay last week. If Baffert is denied the stay, he would be required to disperse the horses under his care to unaffiliated trainers to make those horses eligible to run.

Last year, Baffert was also banned by the New York Racing Association, which operates Aqueduct, Belmont, and Saratoga under a franchise granted by the state. Baffert immediately challenged that ban in federal court in New York, and the judge ruled that NYRA had violated his due-process rights when it failed to provide him with a hearing. In that case, the judge noted that NYRA had a higher legal bar to clear when issuing a ban than a private company, considering the association’s ties to state regulatory agencies.

In its response filed Tuesday, Churchill delineated its independence from state regulatory agencies and its standing as a private company in a clear signal to the court that its rights are broader than NYRA’s.

Churchill also noted that Baffert did not challenge its ban until March, nearly a year after the ban was put in place.

“Baffert could have filed this lawsuit 10 months ago,” the response says. “Instead, his lawyers spent the time working the press and trying without success to persuade other courts and tribunals of Baffert’s innocence. They only came to this court after all their gambits and legal maneuvers failed.”