Baffert Responds to Allegations in New York Times

[Wandering Eyes]

In his first public comments since a New York Times story broke that 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify (Scat Daddy) tested positive for the prohibited substance Scopolamine following the colt’s win in the GI Santa Anita Derby, trainer Bob Baffert denied that the drug was intentionally given to the horse. Had the California Horse Racing Board disqualified Justify from his win in the Santa Anita Derby, he would not have had enough points to make the field for the GI Kentucky Derby.

“I unequivocally reject any implication that Scopolamine was ever intentionally administered to Justify, or any of my horses,” Baffert said. “Test results indicating trace amounts of the drug were undoubtedly the result of environmental contamination caused by the presence of jimsonweed in feed, a naturally growing substance in areas where hay and straw are produced in California. In addition, I had no input into, or influence on, the decisions made by the California Horse Racing Board.

“Following the Santa Anita Derby, Justify raced in three different jurisdictions during his Triple Crown run – Kentucky, Maryland and New York. He passed all drug tests in those jurisdictions. I
call on the relevant testing agencies in those jurisdictions to immediately release information related to Justify’s test results.

“Justify is the one of the finest horses I’ve had the privilege of training and by any standard is one of the greatest of all time. I am proud to stand by his record, and my own.”

As reported in Thursday’s TDN, reporter Joe Drape quotes Dr. Rick Sams, who formerly ran the drug lab for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, as saying that the amount of Scopolamine in Justify’s system, which Drape reports Sams saying was 300 nanograms per millileter, suggested “intentional intervention.” He does not say why a former drug lab head in Kentucky would have knowledge of the level found in the CHRB test, and Drape does not quote anyone from the CHRB or UC Davis, who performed the test, as specifying the level found.

“It’s a year and a half later, so I don’t remember the exact date, but we were notified about it in mid-April,” Elliott Walden, the president, CEO and Racing Manager of WinStar Farm, who raced the colt in partnership, told the TDN Thursday morning. “I understood it was a contaminant, a known contaminant in California. We turned it over to an attorney, Craig Robertson, he communicated with them that he was handling it for us, and never heard about it again.

“Bob Baffert’s reputation speaks for itself,” Walden continued. “He’s a great ambassador for the sport, and it’s a shame it has come to this.”

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