CNN
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It was 1:30am in Monrovia, California, and wasn’t too far from the state’s biggest racetrack. One of the truck-based horse trainers, Tim Yakteen, woke up to a strange noise in front of his house.
When he checked footage from his security cameras, he saw at least two men in his truck taking photos of his house, and, most strangely, angering his trash on the curb.
The yakteen with a child at home was scared. He submitted a police report.
He could not have been any more wrong.
In fact, the shadowy figure was a private investigator, hired at Kentucky’s top racetracks, where he investigated legendary trainer Bob Baffert, a former boss of the Yakteen, to find evidence that the famous gray-haired jockey had doped his horse.
Is one of the CNNs to race on the last leg?
Advances this year’s Kentucky Derby, horse racing critics are asking well-known questions about animal safety and care in a gambling-backed industry. We look at how the famous horse death and FBI investigation into doping allegations have driven the sport to reform. Guest: CNN Senior Reporter & Author Katy Vollilith, “The Death of a Racehorse: A Story of America”
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Because investigators had come to the Yakteen’s house, he was training some of the Buffaloat horses at the time. Buffalo himself was suspended from the race after one of his horses, Medina Spirit, was tested positive for common anti-inflammatory drugs during the 2021 Kentucky Derby. Although this drug was legal to use during training, small amounts of that amount were found in the horse’s post-race blood and urine samples on race day. This was against the rules of the race.
Buffaloat has long been operating under a cloud of doubts both inside and outside the race. This is thanks to a series of other small drug violations in the big races up to the 2021 Derby, thanks to more public personas than in the hands of the hands and full domination of racetrack competition. That history, along with the trademark purple sunglasses, has become the face of the American public who may be paying attention to horse racing on the first Saturday of May, when the Derby operates.
Baffert is infamous when Medina Spirit tests positive. NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” made him a pillar during the “Weekend Update” segment, falsely suggesting that the horse was given anabolic steroids. The racetrack hosting the Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs, banned him for three years and moved to hire a private intelligence company to explore Buffalt’s practices more deeply. I will only report in new books. The death of a racehorse.
But after more than two years of reporting, I discovered that Bob Baffert’s story is not a singular sinner story, but a parable of a sport that struggles to explain its welfare and medication practices to the American public.
On Saturday, Baffert will return to the Derby for the first time since 2021. He brings in a horse called Citizen Bull. He’s not a favorite, but no one counts Bob Bufferte when it comes to the Kentucky Derby. He won six times.
The 2021 Medina Spirit positive test was sternly highlighted by the public’s attention for a sport that had already suffered negative coverage after a high-profile fatal injury at the California track where Buffate is based in 2019.
In a statement announcing the initial suspension of Buffaloat, Churchill Downs highlighted horse safety as a top priority in the decision praised by animal welfare groups. Baffert challenged the suspension, and in subsequent court proceedings, a Churchill Downs executive was openly speaking about the reasons behind the ban. The positive test and the series of reveals that Baffert defended himself were “a danger to the (Churchyll Downs) brand.”
They also hired 5 Stones Intelligence, a private intelligence company where other top industry groups were trying to chase after Doper. A few years ago, five stones were given to the FBI a package of information about trainers suspected of doping.
Under the Churchill Downs contract, he held a steady hand in his five-stones tail buffered and monitored the outside of his gated home in Canada, California. It was not clear whether Churchill, who worked through the law firm, had put Baffert’s name on the contract. Still, he is definitely one of the top targets, if not the top target of the probe, and multiple sources with direct knowledge of the work told me.
But neither was the positive test of Medina Spirit in the Derby nor the other recent positives of Baffert. Anti-inflammatory corticosteroids were called Betamethasonethe race rules allow training to be used during training, but not on race day, it is one of a completely legal “treatment” arrangement.
According to my sources, the five stones ultimately seemed unable to find reliable evidence that Baffert was using a banned performance enhancer on his horse. Truck ended its contract after months of efforts by Private Eyes.
Certainly, in more than two years of reporting, I was unable to identify any information suggesting buffered, despite recording positive tests of “treatment”. Buffert is often treated as extraordinary, but a thorough investigation of available records shows that when it comes to drug violations, Buffert records are essentially consistent with other top trainers in the sport, namely trainers who are not attracting attention from the same national.
For example, less than a year went by between 2022 and 2023, prominent East Coast trainer Todd Pletcher won six positive tests. Most were due to common anti-inflammatory agents, and one was a top race of drugs not permitted in any environment of racehorses. Pletcher fixed a positive rash in a lab test that was too sensitive and refused to give him drugs that were not permitted under the rules of the race.
According to experts in the lab test, Baffert claims that a positive Medina Spirit came from an ointment given to horses due to skin rashes. For three years he has felt violent and personally suffered. He attempted to meet with former GE executive Churchill Downs CEO, Bill Kalstangen.
“Perhaps the bias against me, it’s just scary,” he told me in early 2023 when he was still banned from Churchill Downs. “The only thing that leads this to me is knowing we didn’t do anything wrong. We were treating horses for skin rashes. That’s not what they said.”
Churchill Downs refused to respond to repeated requests for comments in the process of reporting the book.
Racing sports struggle to explain to the general public why they allow training from anti-inflammatory to painkillers to sedatives, and how they allow illegal performance enhancers and differences.
Animal welfare advocates claim trainers are hiding the pain to run injured horses, but horse racing experts say many of these drugs are comparable to providing palliative care to professional human athletes and are part of humanitarian management for performance animals.
The reality is somewhere in the middle, and within the industry there is fierce debate within the industry about how those drugs should be regulated to balance the need to keep horses safe, while allowing trainers and owners to manage their horses with the ultimate goal of reaching the race.
However, the nuances of the debate are cluttered in the public eye. There, violations like Baffert are often considered “doping” violations in headlines across the country.
We send messages to them like pets, but we treat them like livestocka racing expert told me.
After the Justice Department’s indictment was made public, a new federal law passed in late 2020 established a unified national authority to govern medication and safety regulations. The states in which it operates accounted for a 27% decline between 2023 and 2024, which has a major impact on deaths.
However, some states are fighting the law. Additionally, even if there is standardized tests for therapeutic agents, a wide range of tests can be used.
The reaction to Buffate’s return to the Derby is mixed. Some other trainers praise his return, claiming that the penalty vaffert he faced due to a small overdose of everyday drugs is disproportionately harsh. However, a boo was heard as Buffalo’s first horse was drawn during the draw that took place the week before the Derby and the fans attended.
Churchill dropped the ban on Buffert last summer shortly after running his 150th Marquee run for the Kentucky Derby. Baffert issued an official statement saying, “Accepting responsibility for the positive test of the Medina Spirit (editor).” It was all over and he was free to return this year.
“It wasn’t personal with Bill (Calstangen),” he told me. “It was just business.”
