Horse Racing

Baffert amends lawsuit to attack NYRA’s alleged ‘fake’ hearing


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Bob Baffert filed the revised complaint Friday in his ongoing constitutional rights court battle against the New York Racing Association (NYRA). The new sections of the revised lawsuit contain no new charges and largely reflect points his legal team had previously made about what they described as a “sham” hearing process led by NYRA initiated to determine if Baffert would be dropped from New York’s top shows.

The “statement of charges” that the NYRA asserted against Baffert on September 10, 2021, is entirely vague and entirely subjective,” the amended complaint states. The “Statement of Charges” alleges that Baffert engaged in: 1) “conduct that is in the best interests of racing”; 2) ‘behavior to the health and safety of horses and jockeys’; and 3) ‘conduct to the detriment of NYRA’s business.’ “

The November 19 Amendment filed in the United States District Court (Eastern District of New York) further states that “there is no unambiguous standard for determining whether Baffert’s conduct in jurisdictions whether other reasons are detrimental or not”.

Thus, the revised complaint adds, “Under this ambiguous framework, the NYRA seeks to ignore [legal matters that have already been decided] in other jurisdictions and impose its own discretionary penalties. “

The Hall of Fame coach’s initial version of this lawsuit begins June 14. It alleges the NYRA violated his constitutional right to due process by attempting to bar him from returning. history of drug violations for horses.

NYRA expelled seven-time GI Kentucky Derby-winning coach back May 17 after Baffert trained Medina Spirit (Protonico) tested positive for betamethasone residue upon winning the May 1 Run for the Roses Competition.

That incident has not yet resulted in any Kentucky rulings against Baffert. In a separate testing effort, Baffert is trying to demonstrate that Medina Spirit’s detection of betamethasone is the result of the application of an antifungal ointment, not an injection of the drug. NS Blood horse reported Thursday that the long-delayed urine sample testing won’t even begin until next week.

But the NYRA’s desire to eliminate Baffert extends beyond Medina Spirit’s still-luring Derby penalty situation. In the 12 months before Medina Spirit was positive, four other Baffert interns also tested positive for the average drug, two of them in Class I shares.

On July 14, the court granted Baffert a preliminary injunction allowing him to race at New York’s top tracks until his case is heard in full.

But Judge Carol Bagley Amon also wrote in that ruling that “Baffert should have been informed of all the reasons the NYRA intended to suspend him….[The] The benefits of providing notice and a pre-suspension hearing are likely to be substantial. “

So, following that decision, the NYRA drafted a new set of procedures for holding hearings and issuing decisions designed to suspend licensees for causing injury.

After those rules were made widely available, the NYRA wrote a September 10 letter summoning Baffert to appear at an exclusion hearing.

On September 22, Baffert filed a motion asking the judge to hold the NYRA in civil contempt for attempting to schedule such a hearing and uphold the hearing. Both requests were denied.

  1. Craig Robertson, lead attorney on Baffert’s legal team, then wrote a letter on October 21 to the judge asking for permission to amend the original complaint to address the alleged hearing process. unfair. His argument, in part, states that “The rules and procedures that the NYRA developed for Baffert were all created after the fact.”

On November 9, in an attempt to resolve the already cumbersome litigation process, Amon said she would allow Baffert to amend his complaint, because if she didn’t, it would be very likely. It is possible that he would simply file a new, separate lawsuit to have his allegation of the exclusion hearing ruled in court.

“The NYRA intends to act under a new ‘rule’ that is supposed to give them the power to suspend Baffert for conduct that occurs ‘in any jurisdiction,’ ‘ the revised complaint now states. .

“However, prior to this case, the NYRA had never had such a regulation and had never attempted to punish a coach for conduct that occurred outside of New York State,” the complaint continued. “It created this rule (and related procedures) after the alleged misconduct occurred. The promulgation of rules and procedures by the NYRA and the attempt to apply them is a violation of fundamental due process for the NYRA. ”

The new charges add that “There are many other coaches that, unlike Baffert, have actually violated New York’s racing rules, but the NYRA continues to allow racing. The NYRA’s duplicate actions make it clear that they simply chose to target Baffert for differential treatment.”

Even if Baffert’s legal team is fighting an exclusion hearing, they still have to prepare for that process in the event the court doesn’t step in to overturn it. The parties have agreed to a start date of January 24.

The NYRA has until December 3 to file a response to the revised complaint. When the NYRA previously addressed the issue of the hearing in court documents, it called Baffert’s description of the process “erroneous,” noting that “plaintiff’s argument that he had no Reporting of conduct prohibited by the NYRA has also failed because common law has long recognized the standards and interests that the NYRA intends to uphold.”

The NYRA had also previously indicated to the judge that they were “giving Plaintiff exactly what he argued he was entitled to in support of his motion for a preliminary order notice and chance to be heard.”





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