Hearing officer recommends upholding Baffert's suspension for Medina Spirit positive
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The hearing officer who considered an appeal by Bob Baffert of a 90-day suspension levied by the Kentucky stewards last year for the horse Medina Spirit testing positive after winning the 2021 Kentucky Derby has recommended that the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission affirm the suspension and the disqualification of the horse.
Eden Davis Stephens, the hearing officer, affirmed the penalties based on a nearly week-long hearing conducted last year before a different hearing officer and a one-day hearing she conducted earlier this year. In her 42-page ruling, she said that stewards had applied the proper penalties under Kentucky’s existing regulations, and, contrary to arguments from Baffert’s attorneys, she said that a finding of betamethasone, a regulated corticosteroid, is a positive under Kentucky regulations regardless of the route of administration.
Baffert and his attorneys had argued that he should not be held liable for the positive because the betamethasone was an ingredient in an ointment applied to the horse twice a day in the month leading up to the Derby to treat a skin condition. Baffert had a previous positive for betamethasone in the state in the previous nine months, when his horse Gamine tested positive for the medication after finishing third in the Kentucky Oaks.
The report by Stephens will be presented to the full racing commission, which can choose to accept, modify, or reject her recommendations.
Prior to the vote, the attorneys for the racing commission and Baffert “can file exceptions to the recommended order should either party believe the hearing officer made an incorrect finding of fact or conclusion of law,” the racing commission said.
If Baffert were to appeal any decision by the commission, the appeal would be filed in Kentucky Circuit Court. Baffert will have 30 days to file the appeal.
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