Jennifer Wolsing

The rules committee of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) on Tuesday advanced a recommendation to amend the state's horse ownership regulations to do away with a requirement that no more than five individuals can be licensed as owners of a single horse. In addition, a separate tweak would codify that up to 10 individual owners or entities may be listed in the track program as owners of a single horse. That limit was previously five, and it was based on the above-referenced regulation that also stated if more than...

 Just a few days short of exactly two years after her third-place finish and eventual disqualification in the 2020 GI Kentucky Oaks, Gamine (Into Mischief) was brought to the forefront once again when Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert made his second appearance on the witness stand during the final session of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission's appeal hearing. Baffert originally filed the appeal that led to this six-day hearing to clear from his record a 90-day suspension that he has already served and to also reverse Medina Spirit (Protonico)'s...

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission's hearing to address Bob Baffert's appeal came to a crossroad early in its fifth session on Monday in Frankfort, Kentucky following a three-day break over the weekend. After the KHRC closed their case at the start of the session, the appellants began their case by calling for a partial directive verdict in their favor based on their claim that the KHRC never proved how Medina Spirit (Protonico) received the betamethasone that led to his positive test and subsequent disqualification from his 2021 GI Kentucky Derby...

FRANKFORT, KY - After a brief private meeting between attorneys and the hearing officer to discuss "confidentiality" matters, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission's hearing addressing trainer Bob Baffert's appeal continued, slowly but surely, on Wednesday in Frankfort, KY. While Tuesday's session focused on the KHRC's medication rules, along with those established by the industry's Racing Medication and Testing Consortium (RMTC) and the model rules of the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI), the center of interest Wednesday was the corticosteroid betamethasone itself. The day started off with Dr. Heather Knych,...

Trainer Bob Baffert spent 2 1/2 hours on the witness stand testifying at a Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) appeal hearing Monday. Baffert's intent by filing the appeal is to clear from his record a 90-day suspension he has already served while also reversing the KHRC's disqualification of Medina Spirit from the 2021 GI Kentucky Derby. Those penalties were the result of the Baffert-trained colt returning a positive for betamethasone after crossing the finish wire first in America's most historic and important horse race. Beyond the already-served suspension (which ran...

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) voted 10-0 Friday to deny stays of penalties while trainer Bob Baffert and owner Amr Zedan appeal their equine drug positive rulings related to Medina Spirit's disqualification from the 2021 GI Kentucky Derby. One of Baffert's attorneys, W. Craig Robertson III, told TDN after the vote that the decision was "very disappointing." He added that "I have never seen the KHRC not grant a stay in the past. We will take the matter back up with the Franklin Circuit Court on Mar. 17." Robertson...

Against the backdrop of the 2021 GI Kentucky Derby drug positive investigation dragging past the nine-month mark and the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) maintaining a conspicuous silence throughout the drawn-out process, KHRC chairman Jonathan Rabinowitz obliquely referred to the scandal for the first time at an open, public meeting Tuesday. Although Rabinowitz did not specifically mention Medina Spirit's betamethasone overage or trainer Bob Baffert's long-delayed stewards' hearing that was finally conducted Feb. 14, that controversy was almost certainly the catalyst for the chairman stating that the KHRC is seeking...

An attorney for Gary and Mary West argued in a federal appeals court teleconference Tuesday that a 2019 dismissal of their civil rights lawsuit pertaining to the disqualification of Maximum Security (New Year's Day) in the GI Kentucky Derby should be overturned on the basis that a Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) regulation should not pre-empt a state statute that gives power to courts to review final orders of agency determinations. "If this decision of the district court is not reversed, what it means is that the stewards' decision to...