Two Complicated Princes of the Sport of Kings

Bob Baffert held the shank reverently, as if attending to the cape of a king, as he walked American Pharoah to his barn at Keeneland, a country manor of a racetrack in Lexington, Ky. Alongside him, at his invitation, walked Todd Pletcher, another prince of thoroughbred racing.

Four months earlier, on June 6, 2015, American Pharoah had bounded down the stretch amid the cathartic roar and wet cheeks of horse lovers to win the Belmont Stakes and become the first Triple Crown champion in 37 years. It was a long-awaited moment of jubilation for a battered old pastime whose relevance to casual sports fans had long been waning.

Now, American Pharoah was in Kentucky to run in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. It would be the colt’s last race, and Baffert wanted Pletcher to absorb the majesty of what he considered a once in a lifetime horse.

“I just wanted to share him with my friends in the sport,” Baffert said at the time.

Since the two shared that moment eight years ago, the two trainers — both members of the Hall of Fame — have continued to reign over the sport, for better and for worse.

Both Baffert and Pletcher have a gift with horses and their demanding owners. Their frequent trips to prestigious winners’ circles have attracted a steady procession of investors willing to spend tens of millions in the auction ring for well-bred horses that will eventually be worth hundreds of millions in the stallion barn.

At the same time, both men have achieved their astonishing success by pushing horses hard in training and relying on the skills of veterinarians to keep their mounts on the racetrack, sometimes in violation of the sport’s rules and its spirit.

In just the past 11 months, horses trained by Pletcher have failed six drug tests in three states, according to documents obtained by The New York Times and two people familiar with the disposition of the cases. One of the horses, a colt named Forte, will face off against the Baffert-trained National Treasure and seven other thoroughbreds in the 155th running of the Belmont Stakes on Saturday.

Baffert has his own lengthy record of rule violations. Horses that he trains have failed 30 drug tests over four decades — most notably Medina Spirit, who won the 2021 Kentucky Derby but failed a test for a prohibited drug and was disqualified. That colt was only the second horse in the Derby’s 149-year history whose victory was revoked because of a drug violation.

Months later, Medina Spirit died, possibly from a heart attack.

Pletcher declined to comment on Forte or any of the other five drug violations he has incurred in the past 11 months. Baffert did not return a call seeking comment.

During this Triple Crown season, a spate of racehorse deaths has further eroded the sport’s credibility with a public that was already concerned about the treatment of the animals and increasingly drawn to other forms of betting. This week, horse racing was suspended at Churchill Downs so state and federal regulators could continue to investigate the deaths of 12 horses — two of them on Kentucky Derby day — at the track.

Three weeks ago, Baffert returned to the Preakness for the first time since he was barred from the Triple Crown because of Medina Spirit’s disqualification. His horse National Treasure won the race, but only after another Baffert colt, Havnameltdown, tumbled to the ground in an undercard race with a with a leg injury and had to be euthanized on the track.

The deaths at Churchill have prompted the Congressional Animal Protection Caucus to call for an investigation into the fatalities and animal rights activists to call for horse racing to be banned altogether. The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, overseen by the Federal Trade Commission, has put in place new safety measures and has promised to be vigilant.

The authority was created to establish strict antidoping rules and meaningful punishments for violations. It is also expected to streamline an adjudication process that has varied from state to state and has often taken months or even years to play out. It took over those duties last month.

Under the authority’s rules for handling drug violations, the public will know within weeks the name of the horse and the trainer involved, as well as the drug detected. Within four months, a finding will be made and, if necessary, a punishment issued.

“We’ve got to get past the point at which we rock from crisis to crisis and prove to the public that those responsible for the conduct of the sport are doing so with the highest possible standards of integrity and safety,” said James L. Gagliano, the president and chief operating officer of the Jockey Club.

Baffert and Pletcher learned how to make horses run fast as boys alongside their fathers. Both studied at the University of Arizona’s Race Track Industry Program. Both put in time on the back roads of the sport — Baffert in Arizona with quarter horses before moving to California; Pletcher as an apprentice with the Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas before striking out on his own in New York.

Baffert has won the Kentucky Derby six times, has been named champion trainer four times and is third on the career earnings list with more than $344 million in purses. Pletcher has two Derby victories and eight training titles and, with more than $460 million in purses, is the sport’s career money leader.

Baffert and Pletcher became prominent in an era when drugs and lax regulation were prevalent and regulatory transparency was nonexistent.

Over the decades, cobra venom, Viagra, blood doping agents and cancer drugs have been employed by horsemen looking for an edge. Last year, Jason Servis pleaded guilty for his role acquiring, distributing and directing others to administer performance-enhancing drugs to racehorses, one of more than 20 trainers and veterinarians indicted on such charges. Servis trained Maximum Security, the colt that crossed the finish line first at the 2019 Kentucky Derby but was disqualified for interference.

Baffert’s and Pletcher’s violations have mostly involved corticosteroid injections and anti-inflammatories. Therapeutic drugs — pain medicine in particular — pose a pernicious risk because they can mask injury, especially at higher doses, rendering prerace examinations less effective. If a horse cannot feel an existing injury, it may run harder than it otherwise would, putting extra stress on the injury.

“Instead of resting horses, there is a reliance on anti-inflammatories that makes whatever amount of lameness present undetectable to the examining veterinarian,” Dr. Tom David, a former chief veterinarian for the Louisiana Racing Commission, said in an interview.

Forte, the Pletcher horse, was the favorite heading into the Derby, but bettors might have had reason to be concerned. Two weeks before the Derby, Forte was placed on the vet’s list, meaning his trainer or regulatory veterinarians had declared him unsound or he had received a joint injection, which in Kentucky is allowed at least 14 days before a race.

The public had no way of knowing what, if anything, was wrong with the horse because the reason he was on the list wasn’t disclosed.

“We publish the vet’s list with no comment,” Bruce Howard, the veterinarian for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, said. “Horses go on to the vet’s list for different reasons.”

Pletcher declined to say why Forte was on the list. The colt’s co-owners — Mike Repole, who made his fortune in the beverage industry, and Vincent Viola, the owner of the Florida Panthers — also declined to comment.

Under the new rules of the horse racing authority, the reason a horse is on the vet’s list will be public. On Derby Day, Forte was scratched with a bruised hoof.

Three days after the Derby, The New York Times revealed that Forte had failed a drug test in September after winning the Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. The colt tested positive for meloxicam, a potent nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug used to manage pain and swelling, according to the New York State Gaming Commission. The drug, widely prescribed to treat osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, is not approved in the United States for the treatment of racehorses in training.

While the case was underway but not yet public, Forte won his next four races, including two important events before the Derby: the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in November and the Florida Derby in April.

The Breeders’ Cup requires participants to disclose any previous drug violations when entering its championships. Neither Pletcher nor the owners did so, said Drew Fleming, president and chief executive of the Breeders’ Cup. The colt was named horse racing’s 2-year-old male champion, a title that greatly increased his value as a potential stallion for his owners.

On May 10, eight months after the failed test, New York regulators conducted a hearing, which resulted in a 10-day suspension and a $1,000 fine for Pletcher. Forte was disqualified from the Hopeful Stakes, which means Repole and Viola will not collect the $165,000 first-place check.

In a text message, Repole said Forte was a victim of environmental contamination. “He was NEVER on Meloxicam,” he wrote, adding several exclamation points.

Pletcher’s other violations within the past 11 months include a positive for phenylbutazone, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory, in a horse named Capensis on July 30 at Saratoga, according to two people familiar with the matter.

In Pennsylvania, hydrochlorothiazide, a diuretic, was detected in Mind Control after he won the $200,000 Parx Dirt Mile. In Florida on Dec. 10, two of Pletcher’s horses failed drug tests — the ulcer medication omeprazole sulfide was detected in Ari Gold after the colt won the Pulpit Stakes, and Ok Boomer tested positive for the corticosteroid dexamethasone after winning his debut race, according to records of the Florida Gaming Control Commission Division of Pari-mutuel Wagering.

On Feb. 3, elevated levels of two anti-inflammatories, ketoprofen and phenylbutazone, were found in a horse named Six Minus after a victory. In Florida, it is a violation to have more than one nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug above certain levels.

On Saturday, Baffert will return to Belmont Park for the first time since June 2018, when Justify won him his second Triple Crown. Baffert’s ban from the New York circuit for “conduct detrimental to the best interests of the sport of thoroughbred racing” ended in January.

Pletcher will also be at Belmont, where he has been the leading trainer for 14 meetings. In the feature race, he will saddle Forte and the favorite, Tapit Thrice, giving him a chance for a seventh win in a Triple Crown race, potentially adding to his legend. At some point after that, he will face hearings in his drug violation cases, none of which has been adjudicated.