The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission on Tuesday voted unanimously to uphold a hearing officer’s recommendation to deny an appeal by the trainer Bob Baffert of a 90-day suspension he served after a horse he trained, Medina Spirit, tested positive for a regulated medication in the 2021 Kentucky Derby. The commission accepted the entirety of the hearing officer’s report, which was delivered to the commission in late May, including the recommendation that Medina Spirit’s disqualification from the Derby also be upheld. Although the vote was unanimous, four commissioners abstained because of “conflicts of interest or perceived conflicts of interest.” Many of the commissioners on the KHRC are owners and/or breeders. Under KHRC’s rules, the commission had the options of accepting, modifying, or rejecting the hearing officer’s recommendations. The vote by the commission exhausts Baffert’s remedies through the KHRC appeals process. Any appeal of the initial stewards’ ruling or the KHRC’s actions would now need to be pursued through the Kentucky civic court system. Craig Robertson, an attorney for Baffert, said that it is “highly likely” the case will be appealed in Kentucky Circuit Court. Robertson said he had filed several objections to the hearing officer’s report after it was submitted to the commission. :: Bet with the Best! Get Free DRF PPs and Cashback when you wager. Join DRF Bets. “It’s disappointing that the KHRC engaged in no analysis whatsoever of the hearing officer’s findings of fact or conclusions of law,” Robertson said. “Neither did the KHRC’s order address any of the many objections we raised to the hearing officer’s ruling. Instead, the KHRC did what it does best – rubber-stamped its own foregone conclusion. I will discuss with Mr. Baffert, but believe it is highly likely the matter is appealed so that it can finally be presented to an impartial court.” Baffert’s attorneys had argued their appeal on several legal grounds, but the brunt of the case rested on their contention that the KHRC’s rules pertaining to betamethasone did not apply in the Medina Spirt case. Betamethasone is a regulated corticosteroid that is generally used to treat pain and inflammation by intra-articular injection into a horse’s joints. Baffert’s attorneys have said that the drug showed up in Medina Spirit’s post-race samples due to the application of an ointment to treat a skin rash. Kentucky’s stewards, who first handed down a penalty in the case in February of 2022, found Baffert at fault regardless of the route of administration, a decision upheld by the hearing officer, Eden Davis Stephens, in her 42-page review of the case after a hearing conducted in late August of last year. After the stewards’ ruling, Baffert appealed the penalty, but the commission denied a stay. He served the 90-day suspension in the spring of last year, which, combined with a ban implemented by Churchill Downs due to the positive, kept Baffert out of the Derby last year. He missed this year’s Derby as well due to the Churchill ban. Baffert had a previous positive for betamethasone in the state in the nine months prior to the 2021 Derby, when his horse Gamine tested positive for the medication after finishing third in the 2020 Kentucky Oaks, which was held in September due to the pandemic. The stewards’ ruling and the commission treated the Gamine positive as a factor in determining the 90-day suspension. Davis was appointed to hear the case after the first hearing officer, Clay Patrick, recused himself when he learned that he had sold a horse he co-owned to the attorney representing Medina Spirit’s owner at a public auction shortly after the hearing. The attorney, Clark Brewster, denied knowing that the hearing officer co-owned the horse (ownership of horses is not public information at auction). :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.