LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The day Bob Baffert arrived at Churchill Downs last week, he was greeted by two large floral arrangements that flanked his wall of winning plaques at Barn 33. Baffert asked his assistant trainer, Jimmy Barnes, where they came from, then went over to inspect. He reached out and touched a pink rose, as if to confirm that the flowers were real and not plastic.
More wary and a little less gregarious now, the 72-year-old did not stop to smell the roses.
That tan cinder block wall behind the flowers had been starkly bare for the previous three years. The plaques, which commemorate Baffert’s record-tying six Kentucky Derby wins, two Triple Crowns, and assorted other big races won at Churchill, were noticeably absent, as was the white-haired trainer himself. Churchill Downs exiled the dominant figure of the last 30 years in American thoroughbred racing from its most famous racetrack and biggest race, enforcing a three-year ban after his 2021 Derby winner, Medina Spirit, tested positive for a prohibited race-day medication.
That capped a string of positive tests for Baffert horses, prompting the track to drop the hammer on its biggest star. Churchill handed Baffert a two-year suspension, then tacked on another year out of something resembling spite, when Baffert remained unapologetic for the DQ and pursued legal action against the track.
The most bitter feud in horse racing finally ran out of bile last year, when Baffert dropped an appeal to his lawsuit against Churchill Downs and took public responsibility for Medina Spirit’s positive drug test for the corticosteroid betamethasone. The track then lifted its ban, and Baffert’s Louisville return was soft-launched last November when he brought a 2-year-old colt named Barnes to town for a race. The horse won, and Churchill CEO Bill Carstanjen went so far as to hug his former nemesis in the winner’s circle.
Detente was in the air.
That set the stage for the true return of the prodigal son for this year’s 151st Kentucky Derby. Baffert’s first morning training appearance was last Friday, when he watched his two Derby runners, Rodriguez and Citizen Bull, breeze over the dirt surface. Later in the day, Rodriquez was scratched from the race. Several Churchill Downs Incorporated execs were on hand to welcome him, as were the plaques that were pulled out of storage and the potted plants that were delivered from Hess’ Landscaping and Nursery.
The roses are Double Knock Outs, according to a card stuck in the back of one of the pots. After being KO’d from the Derby and becoming a lightning rod in a sport eternally beset by controversy, the man who looks at life through tinted glasses was given his flowers.
Shady’s back
Bob Baffert watched the 2022 and ’23 Derbies with friends in his old stomping grounds of Tucson, Arizona. Last year, he had a Derby party of his own at home in Southern California. He says he wasn’t stewing in anger or regret while watching.
“I still enjoy watching all the races and seeing certain horses, how they run,” Baffert said. “I'm still a fan of the sport—the new paddock (which debuted at Churchill last year) and all that stuff is crazy what they've done here. It’s still exciting to watch. And actually when I was watching, I was nervous for the other trainers. [The horses] get behind the gate and I feel the butterflies.”
This year Baffert will get the butterflies in person, even though he is not holding one of his flushest hands. Citizen Bull is a 20–1 long shot while Rodriguez, winner of the Wood Memorial, seemingly would have been his better entrant at 12–1. Baffert acknowledged that Citizen Bull’s chances are compromised by drawing the No. 1 post on the far inside, which means jockey Martin Garcia will have to send the colt flying from the start in an attempt to outrun traffic and avoid being buried along the rail. That could lead to suicidally fast early fractions. If the first half-mile is run in 45 seconds, the leaders are almost assuredly cooked.
“I'll be watching the clock more closely than I'll be watching the race,” Baffert said. “I watch the race from the paddock, and if things don't look good, you just shoot out to that car, right out that parking lot. I'm out of here.”
That’s an old Baffert joke from Derbies past, when he rarely had to slink out after a bad showing. Often as not, he was either winning the race or finishing in contention (three seconds and three thirds in addition to the six wins and the DQ’d winner). In the week leading up to the big race, Barn 33 annually was the place for fans and media members to congregate, and Baffert would oblige the crowds with flip one-liners and photo ops.
It’s a little different this year. The crowds are still there, but the center of attention has been more reclusive. Interview sessions have been shorter and more sporadic than the daily gabfests of previous springs. Baffert cronies, including his gregarious brother Bill, have kept to themselves more. Baffert has taken plenty of hits in the last few years, and they’ve bruised a guy who very much enjoyed his popularity in Louisville.
"Ya know he had a three-year suspension,” a man told two friends outside Barn 33 on Thursday. “A lot of people think he cuts it a little close. He had a two–year suspension, but Churchill added another one. That's a pretty big deal. He's the big kahuna."
The big kahuna has become a big piñata for some. Baffert was the target of boos Saturday night at the post-position draw, and he was angered by an online hatchet piece earlier this week. Baffert has tried hard to spin everything forward, saying the suspension is in the past and not worth rehashing, but forgiveness and acceptance are far from universal.
However, an important voice in thoroughbred racing has some laudatory words for Baffert. Lisa Lazarus is the CEO of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA), an industry-funded organization that tracks thoroughbred deaths and injuries and drug overages, among other things. HISA’s anti-doping program came into existence two years after Baffert’s Medina Spirit DQ, and Lazarus says Baffert’s record has been clean on her watch.
“Bob Baffert is one of the few high-profile trainers to not even have a blip on his record,” Lazarus says. “A lot of trainers make mistakes, and he’s had none.”
Lazarus points out a key distinction that has been lost amid the uproar that accompanied Baffert’s suspension: Medina Spirit’s positive test was for a controlled medication that is legal to use on race horses—betamethasone simply has to be out of a horse’s system by race day. Under current rules, Baffert would only be facing a fine, not a suspension.
“It is not doping,” Lazarus says. “It is a medication overage.”
But it also was a violation of the rules, and at the time, that violation was punishable by suspension. And it came on the heels of positive tests for lidocaine by a pair of high-profile Baffert horses in 2020 in Arkansas, Charlatan and Gamine. Those tests earned Baffert a suspension that was later overturned and reduced to a fine for each overage. But Gamine also tested positive for betamethasone after the 2020 Kentucky Oaks, resulting in a disqualification from third place and a small fine for Baffert.
That accumulation of positive tests in a short period broke the trust of many fans and fellow horse riders.
In a sport that has long struggled to rid itself of dopers and been besieged by criticism of horse deaths, Baffert came to be seen as the most recognizable face of what ailed thoroughbred racing, even if the label didn’t neatly fit his crimes and misdemeanors. According to HISA statistics, racing fatalities have dropped considerably, by an average of one horse per U.S. track per week. That’s good news, albeit well short of total victory. And Baffert’s return to the Derby will rile up opponents of the sport regardless of his current spotless record with HISA.
“We very much believe at HISA, when you’ve served your time and it’s over, you deserve the chance to come back with a clean slate,” Lazarus says.
Among Baffert’s fellow trainers at Churchill, the prevailing tone is a hearty welcome back. Mark Casse, trainer of Derby third choice Sandman, stopped by Baffert’s barn for a long talk. Bill Mott, trainer of second–choice Sovereignty, rode over on horseback to shake his hand. And D. Wayne Lukas, the 89-year-old winner of 15 Triple Crown races, remains a strident Baffert supporter (after the two were fierce rivals in the 1990s).
“He belongs here,” Lukas says. “He’s the face of it. I’ve said it for three years—that [suspension] was wrong. But I can see their [Churchill’s] side of it, too. It’s really good to have him back.”
Back at Barn 33
In 1996, Bob Baffert’s first Derby ended in agonizing defeat—his Cavonnier was nipped at the wire by Lukas’ Grindstone in a photo finish. Afterward, the former quarterhorse trainer stood on the Churchill paddock bricks, overwhelmed by the day and wondering if he’d ever be back.
Baffert was back the very next year, winning the roses with Silver Charm, who then captured the Preakness before being passed in the stretch in the Belmont to deny a Triple Crown. In ’98, he came even closer, winning the first two legs with bargain purchase Real Quiet before being caught at the wire by Victory Gallop in the Belmont. It was a rocket ride to fame, with fans (and thoroughbred owners) flocking to him. A third Derby win followed shortly thereafter with War Emblem in 2002. He became synonymous with the biggest race in the United States.
“My greatest memories are the Kentucky Derby,” he said. “They always will be.”
Thirteen years later, Baffert captured the Derby and broke a 37-year Triple Crown drought with American Pharaoh, then followed it up with Justify to win a second Crown in 2018. He became regarded as the best trainer in the history of an ancient sport, and further solidified that spot by winning the 2020 pandemic Derby in September with Authentic.
But by 2021, the positive tests were encroaching upon his lore. And then came the Medina Spirit bombshell—the most prominent drug DQ in Derby history, which took away Baffert’s record seventh Derby title. He went into exile, and the Derby went to a weird place where strange results just kept happening.
Seeing him back at Barn 33, with the plaques on his back, delivers some normalcy to the race and a jolt of renewed energy in the sport. But the familiar Baffert storylines are more complicated now. Shady’s back, at a place where he's been both revered and reviled, ready for a new chapter.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as The Exile Ends: Bob Baffert Steps Back Into the Kentucky Derby.