Judge to consider Baffert's request for temporary injunction Wednesday

A Kentucky district court will hear arguments on Wednesday morning on a motion filed by attorneys for the trainer Bob Baffert seeking an injunction that would prevent a 90-day suspension from going into effect next week.

Franklin Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wingate, who had earlier presided over hearings involving the case, will hear the arguments on 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday in Frankfort. Baffert’s attorneys filed a request for a temporary injunction on Monday, three days after the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission denied a stay of the suspension while Baffert appeals the ruling.

Baffert’s attorneys have called the KHRC decision to deny the stay “unprecedented.” In court filings for the request for temporary injunction, his attorneys said that allowing the suspension to begin would force Baffert to “suffer the consequences of a ruling that is subject to being reversed later.”

Baffert was issued the 90-day suspension on Feb. 21. The suspension was based on the finding of betamethasone in the post-race sample of Medina Spirit after the horse won last year’s Kentucky Derby. In a separate ruling by the stewards on the same day, Medina Spirit was disqualified from the race.

Because his jurisdiction includes Frankfort, the state capital, Wingate commonly hears cases involving the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. Last year, he ruled that the KHRC was required to provide a split sample of Medina Spirit’s blood and urine to Baffert’s attorneys so that they could have the sample tested at a different lab than the one used by the commission.

Baffert’s attorneys have said that those tests revealed the presence of betamethasone valerate and several other compounds contained in a skin ointment called Otomax. Baffert and the attorneys have said that Medina Spirit received treatments of the ointment in the month leading up to the race. The attorneys have also argued that Kentucky’s regulations do not apply to betamethasone valerate, but rather betamethasone acetate, the injectable form of the drug.

If the 90-day suspension were to go into effect, Baffert would be prohibited from training at any licensed racetrack in the U.S. through June 5. Separately, Churchill Downs last year banned the trainer from participating at its tracks through the 2023 Derby, and it has modified a points system determining eligibility for this year’s Derby that makes any horse trained by Baffert ineligible to receive points.

As with any case seeking a temporary injunction, the factors weighed by Wingate will include whether Baffert will suffer “irreparable harm” from the suspension and whether Baffert has a “substantial likelihood” of prevailing on the merits of the appeal.

Baffert’s appeal of the suspension will be heard by a hearing officer appointed by the KHRC, but hearings in appeals typically are not scheduled until months after the ruling is first issued. Baffert’s attorneys have indicated that they plan to appeal any penalty handed down by the commission in civil court.