What's Going On Here : bob baffert

A Little Tolerance - By Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:26:00 GMT

The unwritten rule has always been that police officers won’t stop you if you are driving five miles over the speed limit. You might call it their “threshold level.”

As the case of trainer Steve Asmussen clearly illustrates, the Thoroughbred industry is in need of medication threshold levels.

On July 16 Lone Star Park stewards, following Texas Racing Commission guidelines, suspended Assmussen for six months (and fined him $1,500) for a medication positive dating back to May 2008, when the filly Timber Trick’s spit box urine test showed a metabolite of the local anesthetic lidocaine.

Asmussen, who has appealed, has denied administering the drug, and his request to have the filly’s blood tested was denied because Texas has a zero-tolerance policy, thus making the level of the drug irrelevant.

It is relevant, however, because the blood level might prove whether the drug was administered or the positive was due to contamination.

In a perfect world, zero tolerance might work. But this is far from a perfect world, and zero tolerance doesn’t work.

In 2000 Bob Baffert was facing a similar suspension, though for a much stronger drug, after a filly he trained, Nautical Look, won an allowance race at Hollywood Park and tested positive for morphine. Dr. Steven Barker, chief state chemist for the Louisiana Racing Commission, testified the amount of morphine in Nautical Look was 73 billionths of one gram.

Barker testified at Asmussen’s hearing as well and stated he believed the positive to be consistent with contamination.

After nearly five years of fighting the charges, Baffert was exonerated after testimony before an administrative law judge showed that during May and June 2000, 13 of 95 samples were deemed to be “suspect” for opiates, which seemed to indicate environmental contamination.

Dr. B. William Bell, the California Horse Racing Board veterinarian, testified the amount of morphine found in the filly was, “pharmacologically insignificant and most likely due to environmental contamination.”

California has probably had more cases that fit this bill than any other state. Trainer Bobby Frankel had two horses in 2001 test positive for small amounts of morphine, but the charges were dropped after the now infamous “poppy seed” defense. Indeed, studies have proved the ingestion of poppy seed bagels or poppy seed cake can produce false positives for morphine.

In 1989, charges were dropped against California trainers D. Wayne Lukas, Laz Barrera, Albert Barrera, Anthony Hemmerick, and Bryan Webb after accusations that horses they trained were positive for cocaine or its principal metabolite. It was believed the testing samples were contaminated.

In another California case, trainers Richard Mandella, Ron McAnally, Willard Proctor, Mark Hennig, Lewis Cenicola, and Bill Shoemaker were absolved of wrong doing after 1994 positives for scopolamine in post-race urine samples. The trainers proved the depressant was traced to the presence of jimsonweed in stall bedding.

Now comes the case of Asmussen, the leading trainer in the country last year by wins (a record 622) and atop that category again so far this year; the man who guided Curlin through two Horse of the Year campaigns and now oversees the training of the brilliant filly Rachel Alexandra.

There is no arguing about what zero- or no-tolerance means or that those who support it are trying to rid the sport of cheaters, but it doesn’t separate the cheaters from those unfairly tainted by contamination positives.

If the blood levels were tested, we would know if Asmussen indeed administered lidocaine to the filly, and, therefore, whether he should be punished by such a harsh penalty. Should the blood test indicate contamination, a more appropriate punishment of 15 or 30 days could be ordered.

In the Baffert case the administrative law judge stated, “These facts and (Baffert’s) success as a trainer support the conclusion he had nothing to gain and a great deal to lose by the use of a banned substance on this horse.”

The same could be said today of Steve Asmussen.

Hall Call - by Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:03:00 GMT

(Originally published in the April 25, 2009 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)

While spending a spring morning watching horses gallop at Keeneland in 1990, I met a relative newcomer to training Thoroughbreds. He was searching for the clockers, and as it was his first trip to the Kentucky track, the West Coast-based conditioner was unaware they timed horses from the press box.

I showed him the way.

“I have a horse here for the Lexington (Stakes, gr. II),” he said as we walked. “If he wins this, we’ll go on to the (Kentucky) Derby (gr. I).”

I listened, not letting on I was convinced I had already seen the Derby winner at Keeneland, a horse named Unbridled who had run third in the Blue Grass Stakes (gr. II) as a perfect prep for the first Saturday in May.

“I’m Bob Baffert,” he said to the clockers. “I breezed a horse named Thirty Slews.”

Thirty Slews ran third in the 1 1⁄16-mile Lexington, and Baffert saw all he needed to see. The job of a trainer is to find where his horse can be the most competitive, and Baffert never ran Thirty Slews farther than seven furlongs in 18 subsequent races. Thirty Slews won the 1992 Breeders’ Cup Sprint to become Baffert’s first grade I winner.

Baffert has been adept at figuring out where his horses are the most competitive, and though he didn’t make it to the Derby with Thirty Slews, he eventually found his way to Churchill Downs. More importantly, he found the hallowed winner’s circle.

Now, racing has honored Baffert by voting him into the sport’s Hall of Fame, one of six members of the class of 2009 announced April 20 to be inducted in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Aug. 14.

Baffert nearly won the Derby in his first try when Cavonnier ran second in 1996 by a nose (he also started Semoran that year, who ran 14th). Almost immediately, Baffert became a media darling. He stood out with his white hair and dark sunglasses, and was always good for a quote or 20.

Baffert returned to Louisville, Ky., the following year and won the Derby by a head with Silver Charm for Bob and Beverly Lewis. The next year he won the race for his good friend Mike Pegram, as Real Quiet scored by a half-length.

The days since he won the $2,000 Turquoise Futurity at Rillito Park in 1982 were long gone. Baffert was quickly proving he is one of the best in the game.

He won the Derby a third time in 2002 with War Emblem for the late Prince Ahmed Salman and returns this year with one of the favorites, Pioneerof the Nile. Baffert has also won the Preakness Stakes (gr. I) four times and the Belmont Stakes (gr. I) once. He was less than a length away from winning the Triple Crown twice, Silver Charm beaten three-quarters of a length in the Belmont and Real Quiet losing by a scant nose.

Thirty Slews was the first of seven Breeders’ Cup winners for Baffert, who was the leading money-winning trainer three straight years, 1998-2000.

Baffert enters the Hall the same year as one of his trainees, Silverbulletday, one of 10 champions he has conditioned. His other household names include such stars as Chilukki, Indian Blessing, Midnight Lute, Congaree, Vindication, Point Given, Captain Steve, Excellent Meeting, El Corredor, and Indian Charlie.

Baffert was first discussed by members of the Hall of Fame nominating committee two years ago, but he failed to receive the necessary votes to appear on the ballot in 2007 and 2008 because some were concerned he had not trained enough Thoroughbreds during the years when he was first transitioning from training Quarter Horses.

Now, in his first year on the ballot, the 56-year-old Baffert has been elected to a spot alongside the best the sport has known. It may be a couple of years overdue, but it is a most-deserving honor for a most-deserving recipient.

Dear John - by Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:09:00 GMT

One night during the 2007 Keeneland November sale, Eoin Harty was enjoying a leisurely dinner when the topic turned to horses, in particular those in his Southern California stable.
The trainer got a twinkle in his eye when he began to speak about a colt that had impressively broken his maiden the month before, in his second start, and was preparing for his first stakes outing.

“He has the look of a Derby horse,” Harty said matter-of-factly. “I see the things in him that I saw in the others we took to Louisville.”

The “we” referred to the past, when Harty was an assistant to Bob Baffert, who burst on the Derby scene and etched his name in the history books with two victories and a close second in consecutive years. They finished second in 1996 with Cavonnier, who was beaten just a nose by Grindstone, and then won the Run for the Roses in 1997 and 1998 with Silver Charm and Real Quiet, respectively. (Baffert won another Derby, in 2002 with War Emblem, after Harty had struck out on his own.)

Many a trainer has a 2-year-old he thinks has what it takes to get to Louisville, Ky., for the world’s greatest race on the first Saturday each May. But the way is lined with roadblocks, pitfalls, injuries, and, of course, the fact many horses prove to simply not be good enough.

There also is something some encounter that is every bit as contagious as the flu, but for which there is no vaccine. They call it Derby fever.

Harty doesn’t have Derby fever. From his experiences with Baffert, Harty knows what it takes to get to the Derby, and six months ago he thought he had a colt that possessed those special qualities.

Bred and owned by WinStar Farm, the Tiznow colt out of the Turkoman mare Sweet Damsel won that stakes last November, ironically named the Real Quiet. At 1 1⁄16 miles, it was his first time around two turns, and the colt showed he was bred for distance and would have no trouble getting a route of ground.

The final start in his juvenile campaign came in late December in the CashCall Futurity (gr. I), producing a second-place finish.

In four starts as a 2-year-old, he had two wins and two seconds, and in January was assigned 116 pounds by the handicappers who compile the Experimental Free Handicap. Published annually by The Jockey Club since 1935, the Experimental is a weight assignment based on juvenile accomplishments for a hypothetical race at 1 1⁄16 miles on dirt. Champion War Pass received top weight of 127 pounds.

At his Santa Anita base, Harty mapped out a plan that would have his colt make only two starts prior to the May 3 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I). That is contrary to what his former boss did in the ’90s—Cavonnier had four previous starts at 3; Silver Charm and Real Quiet each had three—but a horseman has to know his horse, and Harty believes he does.

In the March 1 Sham Stakes (gr. III), the colt’s first start at nine furlongs, he hung closer to the pace, had to duel for the first time, and won by a half-length. In the Santa Anita Derby (gr. I) five weeks later, Harty looked on as his charge appeared beaten at the quarter pole. But he found that something extra good horses need to find sometimes, getting in stride late to again post a half-length victory.

The question Harty is asked most is whether his colt, who has only started on synthetic surfaces, can win on dirt. Well, his sire won the Breeders’ Cup Classic (gr. I) twice, once at Churchill. His broodmare sire was represented last year by Hard Spun, who ran second in the Derby.

Like Harty, this writer has a twinkle in his eye when thinking about Colonel John.