“Who would’ve thought an ointment — an ointment — took down the Kentucky Derby winner?” Bob Baffert told ESPN’s Marty Smith in 2022. The Triple Crown-winning trainer said this nearly a year after Churchill Downs Inc. stripped his horse Medina Spirit of his Kentucky Derby title. Back then, the six-time Derby winner argued that he never got his “due process” in the controversy surrounding Medina Spirit failing a test the day after winning the 2021. Almost three years later, Baffert’s outlook has changed, but one thing remains the same.
The iconic Derby horse trainer is vying to make Kentucky Derby history in his bid to win a seventh title. But before Baffert gets the opportunity to do that, the veteran trainer sat down with Fox News’ Janice Dean, where he revisited the controversy that sparked his three-year suspension. Yet this time, the 72-year-old’s statement proved that he had not only moved on but had come to terms with the CDI’s decision following the incident.
So when Dean stated that the infamous ‘ointment’ may not have been applied with the “performance enhancing” internet, Bob Baffert made a different argument. “At the end of the day, it cannot be in the horse’s system,” the legendary trainer told Fox News. And while Baffert fought against it three years ago, this was also the crux of CDI and the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission’s decision to bar Baffert.
This story is developing…
The post Bob Baffert Justifies Churchill Downs Suspension as 3-Year Kentucky Derby Suspension Lifted appeared first on EssentiallySports.