Derby Lawsuit

Following a summary judgment issued by a federal judge Wednesday that dismissed Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert's lone remaining claim in his lawsuit against Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), Churchill Downs issued a statement on Thursday. The statement appears in its entirety below. "Churchill Downs is pleased that the Court granted our Motion for Summary Judgement in the Civil Action brought against our company, CEO and Board Chairman by Bob Baffert, resolving in our favor the last remaining claim, just as the Court had ruled in our favor on all...

Trainer Bob Baffert now wants the federal judge handling his year-old lawsuit against Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), to recuse herself. The stated reason is that legislative lobbying efforts conducted by the judge's husband for two racing industry clients allegedly create a conflict of interest for Judge Rebecca Jennings in adjudicating Baffert's case. Baffert is attempting to reverse the second year of a two-year ban by CDI that prohibits his trainees from accruing qualifying points and competing in the 2023 GI Kentucky Derby. CDI first imposed that punishment in June 2021...

Alleging that trainer Bob Baffert "is the Lance Armstrong of the horse racing world" because of a purported years-long pattern of racketeering activity related to the alleged "doping" of Thoroughbreds, a group of horse bettors who brought a class-action lawsuit seeking compensation for damages over the result of the 2021 GI Kentucky Derby urged a federal judge Wednesday not to grant Baffert's motion to dismiss the case. The original version of the suit, led by Michael Beychok, the winner of the 2012 National Horseplayers Championship, was filed four days after...

The federal judge in charge of the Bob Baffert vs. the New York Racing Association (NYRA) case told lawyers for NYRA that she would not schedule a last-minute conference the defendant's counsel had requested to discuss a planned "motion to dismiss" filing. Instead, in a swift and terse reply written shortly after NYRA's July 6 filing, Judge Carol Bagley Amon entered an order in United States District Court (Eastern District of New York) that stated, "Defendant has filed a request for a pre-motion conference. The request shall be taken up...

Led by Michael Beychok, the winner of the 2012 NTRA National Horseplayers Championship, four gamblers have filed a Class Action Lawsuit against trainer Bob Baffert and owner Amr Zedan, alleging fraud. Each maintains that they made bets that would have won had GI Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit (Protonico) not been "doped." The plaintiffs allege that Baffert and Zedan are in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), the California Control of Profits of Organized Crime Act (CCPOCA) and for committing state common law and equitable fraud....

A three-judge panel of a federal appeals court Friday upheld a district court's decision from last November to dismiss a lawsuit by Gary and Mary West, the owners of Maximum Security (New Year's Day), which sought to overturn the colt's controversial disqualification from first place in the 2019 GI Kentucky Derby. "What should have been the fastest two minutes in sports turned into over a year of litigation," wrote Judge John K. Bush in the opinion accompanying the judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit....