Baffert, a seven-time Kentucky Derby winner and
one of the sport's best-known figures, said the New York Racing
Association (NYRA) unconstitutionally usurped the authority of
the state's gaming commission by taking away his trainer's
license indefinitely.
He said a prolonged suspension from racing horses in New York or
stabling them at Belmont Park, Aqueduct Racetrack and Saratoga
Race Course could cause him to lose horses worth tens of
millions of dollars to other trainers.
"This will effectively put me out of business in the State of
New York," Baffert said in a filing in the federal court in
Brooklyn.
NYRA spokesman Patrick McKenna said the organization will
"vigorously defend" the May 17 suspension.
Baffert wants an injunction to lift the suspension, which kept
Medina Spirit out of the June 5 Belmont Stakes, plus damages.
His lawyer, Craig Robertson, declined to comment.
Medina Spirit faces possible disqualification as the Derby
winner on May 1 after two tests showed the presence of the
anti-inflammatory drug betamethasone at a prohibited level.
Baffert has said he treated the horse with the anti-fungal
ointment Otomax and had not known it contained betamethasone, a
corticosteroid. He chose the lab to perform the second test.
Following that test, Churchill Downs suspended Baffert for two
years, including the Derby in 2022 and 2023.
Though five of Baffert's horses recently failed drug tests in a
little over one year, Baffert said he has had no rules
violations in more than 30 years of racing in New York.
Baffert, 68, has trained horses for 46 years, winning the Triple
Crown - the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes
- with American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify in 2018.
Only one horse - Dancer's Image in 1968 - has been disqualified
as Kentucky Derby winner in the race's 147-year history because
of a failed drug test.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Bill
Berkrot and Jonathan Oatis)
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