Baffert to Appeal His 60-Day Ban

Neil Papiano, the attorney for Bob Baffert, said he will appeal a ruling issued Sunday suspending the nation’s top trainer for 60 days stemming from a positive drug test on one of his horses more than 13 months ago.

An eight-day hearing was conducted in April at Santa Anita by stewards Ingrid Fermin, Dave Samuel and Tom Ward after Nautical Look, a filly who won at Hollywood Park on May 3, 2000, tested positive for morphine in a post-race urine test.

After accepting written closing arguments from Papiano and Deputy Attorney General Judith Seligman, who represented the California Horse Racing Board, the stewards issued their ruling Sunday afternoon.

The suspension for Baffert is scheduled to run from June 25-Aug. 23 unless a stay is granted by the CHRB or the court system.

“We were going to appeal the ruling no matter what it was, whether it be 30 days, 60 days or 30 years,” Papiano said Sunday at Hollywood Park. “I’m a little surprised about 60 days. I thought it would be 30.

“There was so little of the drug that it couldn’t be measured and it didn’t affect the performance of the horse. The amount was so small that if the horse lived to be 32 years old, it would amount to one breath in her lifetime.

“The horse was a favorite and she ran like she was supposed too. Baffert wasn’t even in the state at the time. He was in Kentucky.”

Morphine is a drug that cannot be found in a horse’s post-race urine test at any level. In the ruling, Baffert was also cited for violation of CHRB Rule 1887, which says that the trainer is responsible for ensuring the condition of his/her horses.

Besides the ruling, the stewards also issued a six-page statement outlining the case and summarizing the proceedings, copies of which will go to Papiano and Roy Wood, the CHRB’s executive director.

Mike Marten, a spokesman for the CHRB, said the board wouldn’t elaborate beyond the stewards’ ruling.

Until Sundown, the 11-10 favorite, gave trainer Laura De Seroux her first graded stakes win when he beat 6-1 third choice Top Hit by a neck to win the $100,000 Affirmed Handicap Sunday at Hollywood Park.

Winning for the third time in five starts, the 3-year-old son of Smart Strike tracked the slow pace set by Take My Note, got the lead after six furlongs, then gamely withstood the challenge of the runner-up to prevail in 1:43 for the 1 1/16 miles.

“He ran a game race,” said jockey Gary Stevens, who has been aboard in all of Until Sundown’s races. “He got attacked from all sides and he responded the right way.

“I can’t say enough about the way he ran the last 100 yards. He showed a lot of gameness and determination, but he still wasn’t all out. He was looking for more. I think the better competition he faces, the better he’s going to respond.”

Top Hit finished 2 1/2 lengths in front of Bayou The Moon, the 7-5 second choice who had his three-race win streak ended, then came Mr. Joe C and Take My Note.

Jockey Mike Smith earned his 4,000th career win when Lift Off, a 9-2 shot, won the ninth race at Hollywood Park.

Smith, who recently shifted to California after spending most of his career in New York, also had won the sixth race aboard first-time starter Bella Drive.

At Churchill Downs, jockey Donnie Meche escaped serious injury when he was thrown from his mount in an unusual incident in the fourth race.

Meche replaced Pat Day, who became ill and had given up his mounts after the third race. Meche was unseated when Frisco Bay, the odds-on favorite in the turf contest for maidens, broke his right foreleg just before the finish line. He appeared to be on his way to a narrow victory.

Meche took off the remainder of his mounts while Frisco Bay, a 3-year-old son of Mr. Prospector and half-brother to 1996 2-year-old champion Boston Harbor, had to be euthanized. The colt was owned by Bill Young’s Overbrook Farm and trained by Wayne Lukas.

San Francisco Bay Area jockey Russell Baze moved to fourth place on the all-time list Saturday with three victories.

Baze rode Red Work to victory in the fourth race at Bay Meadows racetrack in San Mateo. That win took him past retired jockey David Gall, who ended his career with 7,396 victories.

Baze also won the fifth and sixth races, aboard Betrayer and Alltime Blues respectively, and now has 7,399 victories. He ranks behind three riding legends: Laffit Pincay Jr., retired Bill Shoemaker and Pat Day.

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The Associated Press contributed to this story.