Bob Baffert Attorneys Condemn KHRC Stewards for Secretly Recording Conversations in the Wake of Medina Spirit Initial Testing; Tapes Show Baffert Called for a Full Investigation

TULSA, Okla., April 5, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Attorneys for Bob Baffert today questioned the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) for secretly recording telephone conversations with Bob Baffert, his veterinarian Dr. Vince Baker, Medina Spirit owner Amr Zedan, and Baffert attorney Craig Robertson without any of their consent in the direct aftermath of the horse's initial positive betamethasone test, which later turned out to be tied to a permitted ointment and not an injection.

KHRC revealed its secret recordings to Baffert and his legal team in March, nearly a year after they were made, during a KHRC hearing in which Baffert sought a stay of his 90-day KHRC suspension.

The recordings were made by: Barbara Borden, Chief State Steward for KHRC; Brooks "Butch" Becraft, State Steward for KHRC; and Tyler Picklesimer, Association Steward for KHRC who is also employed by Churchill Downs as Director of Racing and Racing Secretary for Turfway Park--all of whom were on the phone with Baffert.

Baffert and Baker had their conversations recorded by KHRC while they were in California, raising questions as to whether the state's two-party consent laws were violated. California requires all parties to a conversation to consent to being recorded, even if the person recording the conversation is not physically in California during the conversation.

At the start of Baffert's recorded conversation with the KHRC stewards, Borden told him, "Butch B. Craft, Tyler Picklesimer and I are in here. Nobody else.", and then proceeded to record Baffert. According to Baffert's legal team, the concept of secretly recording a person at the outset of a telephone conversation suggests an intent to trap or later embarrass a person, and it certainly does not comport with the standards of fairness or objectivity that KHRC is bound to follow. 

Notably, KHRC did not record its conversations with any investigators or other parties involved in the case beyond individuals on Baffert's team.

The KHRC stewards' secret recordings will provide no legal or evidentiary boost to KHRC's case to suspend Baffert from Kentucky racing, but they highlight the fact that, even as early as May 8, 2021 (when the tapes were made), Baffert was calling on KHRC to conduct a thorough, transparent and fair investigation into the results, including a hair test, which is a particularly reliable form of drug testing. Although in the recordings KHRC said it would conduct a hair test, it never facilitated one and it still has not.

In addition, the tapes show that Baffert welcomed KHRC to thoroughly search his barn for any restricted medications. KHRC's subsequent search found nothing, despite the fact that the tube of Otomax used to treat Medina Spirit was sitting in plain sight, according to Baffert's attorneys, who added that it was missed because Kentucky only expressly regulates the injectable form of betamethasone and not the topical form contained in Otomax. Laboratory testing has confirmed that the positive test resulted from the use of Otomax, a commonly used topical ointment for skin lesions. The use of ointments for topical treatment is expressly permitted under Kentucky rules.

"These secret recordings reveal a fundamental contradiction in the false narrative that KHRC and Churchill Downs have pushed about Bob. They show a man who cares deeply about the integrity of racing and who from the beginning called for a full and fair investigation into Medina Spirit's positive test," said Baffert attorney Clark O. Brewster of Brewster & De Angelis. "They also show KHRC committing to a hair test, but they never followed through, failing to meet Bob's call for transparency and the truth."

Brewster added, "These secret tapes raise a number of troubling questions. Why did the KHRC stewards secretly make these tapes and only record Bob, Dr. Baker and Mr. Zedan and no one else? Why withhold them from discovery? And why wait nearly a year to reveal them, only after the 90-day suspension was imposed? Powerful forces have aligned against Bob, but we believe the facts, the truth and transparency will win every time against a false narrative, secrecy and obfuscation."   

Media Contacts:

Caroline Beckmann – Trident DMG
[email protected]
202-440-1783

Lincoln Zweig – Trident DMG
[email protected]
202-906-0292

SOURCE Brewster & De Angelis, PLLC