Tex Sutton, the dominant equine air-transport company in the U.S., is anticipating a service disruption beginning next week due to its ongoing efforts to secure a new lease for a cargo plane, the company’s president said on Monday. The disruption became known on Sunday when trainer Bob Baffert mentioned during a post-Kentucky Derby press conference that the usual flight transporting horses in Louisville to the next Triple Crown site in Baltimore, Pimlico Race Course, would not be available next Wednesday due to the lease negotiations. Baffert said that he would van his Derby winner, Medina Spirit, to Pimlico instead. In a statement, the president of Tex Sutton, Rob Clark, said that the company’s current lease on its aircraft expires on May 8, and that new lease negotiations have begun. “We are in the process of putting a new contract together with another cargo airline,” the statement said. “Because of the regulatory process required to get them up and running, we anticipate a short-term gap in our normal service.” In a text message Monday issued in response to a phone message, Clark said that it was “hard to determine” when the company would be back to normal operations, given that “there are many regulatory details that need to be completed and approved” for equine-transport companies following the signing of a lease agreement. However, Clark said that the company will utilize the existing equine-transport options available through FedEx and “charter flights for where there is enough demand” to maintain its operations as it works through the disruption. He said those workarounds will enable the company to “satisfy customers’ travel needs.” Tex Sutton exclusively operates charter flights for equine transportation, and it has firmly established itself in the racing industry. The company currently uses a modified 727 for its service, which it calls “Air Horse One.” The aircraft is configured for horse transport, and its flight crews are trained in protocols to handle the freight. While horses can also be vanned to racetracks, flights are usually the quickest and most uneventful way to get horses to far-off destinations. Almost all of the horses currently pointing to the Preakness Stakes are currently in the Midwest or on the East Coast, so the race is unlikely to be disrupted due to any gap in service. Rombauer, winner of the El Camino Real Derby and third in the Blue Grass, was scheduled to fly to Newark, N.J., from Southern California on May 11. - additional reporting by David Grening