No, failed Derby drug test is not ‘cancel culture.’ But racing needs culture change.
It’s not clear if Bob Baffert’s horses have failed drug tests because of cheating or because of various and sundry reasons such as sabotage, jimson weed, ointments etc., (although certain corners of racing Twitter seems to have a definitive opinion). If Baffert — who won his seventh Kentucky Derby with Medina Spirit on May 1 and is probably the industry’s most successful and recognizable celebrity — is right about sabotage being the cause of a recent stream of failed tests on his horses, then we have a Dick Francis novel par excellence on our hands. If not, we have cheating of a magnitude reminiscent of another great star, Lance Armstrong. Whatever the case, Medina Spirit’s positive test for betamethasone, a corticosteroid injected into joints to reduce pain, has now forever sullied this brave colt’s unlikely win in the Kentucky Derby.
But two things were made crystalline on Monday. Bob Baffert has learned a thing or two from Donald Trump, quickly jumping on the Fox morning shows to declare himself a victim of “cancel culture,” because Churchill Downs actually held him accountable for a positive test with an immediate suspension. His lawyer, W. Craig Robertson III is already preparing to go to battle in Maryland in case Pimlico decides it might not look so good for Medina Spirit to run in the Preakness. Robertston also spent a lot of time in Arkansas last year lessening some of Baffert’s punishments for failed tests there. The best offense, naturally, is to blame those well-known liberals at Churchill Downs.
(While on Fox, Baffert also explained another one of his horse’s positive tests as being due to a groom working with COVID-19 on cough medicine peeing on the hay the horse subsequently ate. There are many things wrong with that sentence and none of them have to do with the groom who almost certainly would not pee on one of his horses’ hay.)
The second and more important piece made clear by this week’s debacle is how overdue the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act is and how misguided certain organizations are in opposing it. The federal law, spearheaded in part by U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., opposed for many years by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell until last year, would finally centralize authority under a board overseen by the Federal Trade Commission to write rules, with penalties to be enforced by the United States Anti-Doping Agency. That means one set of rules on medication and punishments, without the current confusing patchwork of state rules and oversight. Presumably, once HISA is in place, Mr. Robertston would not be jetting off to Maryland because if Baffert was suspended from one track, he would be suspended from all of them.
The bill’s creation has been an extremely long and tortuous process with the Jockey Club pulling groups like Churchill Downs along kicking and screaming. McConnell’s support appeared only after Churchill Downs decided it could support the bill. Even now, after it was signed into law by none other than Donald Trump, the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association (National HBPA) and state affiliates in Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Illinois, Louisiana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington and West Virginia sued to stop the act, according to the Thoroughbred Daily News, saying it is unconstitutional “because it gives powers to private individuals and a private organization in an area where only a government entity should be allowed such powers.”
But Staci Hancock, one of the founders of Water Hay Oats Alliance (WHOA) to end drugs in racing, said HISA would have prevented the scenario we see today.
“It just shows the need for uniform national rules and uniform national penalties,” she said. “The next time this kind of thing won’t happen because we’ll be protected with robust national rules and penalties.”
Baffert himself supports HISA, along with most of the big tracks and trainers who have finally realized that over-medication may be part of why so many horses break down, which is what we call a “bad look” for an industry that is supposed to celebrate the majesty of Thoroughbreds. It’s always been a dirty business, and HISA is one belated attempt to clean it up. But if thanks to people like Baffert, cleaning it up becomes “cancel culture,” instead, then the industry will be right back where it started.
This story was originally published May 11, 2021 at 9:24 AM.
