Bob Baffert is the most recognizable and well-known trainer in horse racing, but for the last three years he has been absent from the Kentucky Derby.
After winning a then-record seventh Kentucky Derby with Medina Spirit in 2021, the horse tested positive for an anti-inflammatory in post-race testing. While it wasn’t a doping violation — the substance Medina Spirit tested positive for was a legal therapeutic drug but one that must be out of the horse’s system by the time they race — Churchill Downs hit Baffert with a two-year ban and stripped Medina Spirit of the 2021 Derby win.
Baffert’s legal fight against the ban earned him a third year added on, but now he is looking to move forward and move on from what he’s called an “honest mistake” as he is back in the paddock for 2025’s Run for the Roses.
“I know people will still have opinions, and there’s nothing I can do about that,” Baffert recently told The Athletic. “People will say what they say or think what they think. I know it was an honest mistake, but at the end of the day, it couldn’t be in the horse’s system. That’s the rule, and Churchill had to do what they had to do. I respect that. I’m grateful to be back. I love this race. I just want to move forward.”
In his return to Churchill Downs, Baffert will have two horses in the field for the 151st Kentucky Derby: Rodriguez (12-1) and Citizen Bull (20-1). Neither are the favorite (that would be Journalism at 3-1), but both have the pedigree to compete and potentially win Baffert that record seventh Derby that got stripped.
Citizen Bull won the 2024 Eclipse Award as the top American 2-year-old, winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and setting high expectations coming into 2025.
However, he didn’t have the results early this year, finishing fourth at the Santa Anita Derby (won by Journalism), and has slid down the odds board as a result.
Rodriguez, on the other hand, won the Wood Memorial (Grade 2) in an impressive wire-to-wire showing and is considered one of the top challengers to Journalism.
Baffert’s return to the Kentucky Derby is a major story, and while he didn’t arrive to Churchill Downs with the favorite this week, both Rodriguez and Citizen Bull give him a real chance at a seventh Derby win and breaking his tie with Ben Jones for the most Kentucky Derby victories by a trainer.
This news was originally published on this post .
About the author
Aided by epic Bucks collapse, Pacers advance with thrilling OT win
An incredible Game 5 collapse by the Milwaukee Bucks stunned NBA fans Tuesday night as Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers closed out their first-round playoff series with a dramatic 119-118 overtime victory.The Bucks held a 20-point lead early in the game, only to see the Pacers battle back and eventually force overtime. Milwaukee then built a seven-point lead in the extra period before falling apart.AdvertisementIndiana’s stunning turnaround began with 40 seconds left in OT and Milwaukee leading, 118-111. After corralling a rebound off a missed free throw, Pacers forward Pascal Siakam passed it to guard Andrew Nembhard for a deep 3 to cut the deficit to four and force a Bucks timeout. Nembhard added to his heroics with a steal shortly after the inbounds pass, setting the stage for Haliburton.A timely and-1 by Haliburton after a foul on Bucks […]
Why Rick Tocchet left the Canucks and what it means for their offseason
Rick Tocchet and Vancouver Canucks hockey operations leadership spent last weekend in meetings, discussing the difficult year they’d just endured, the future of the organization and their plans for a high stakes, all-in summer.Less than a week later, Tocchet and his agent informed Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford that he’d decided not to return to Vancouver as head coach.As the Tocchet saga reached its conclusion this week, it really wasn’t a back-and-forth negotiation. There was nothing adversarial or acrimonious about it.The Canucks “stepped up” financially, according to two league sources. Keeping Tocchet was the club’s first choice, a fact that Rutherford wasn’t going to shy away from Tuesday simply because the outcome was a disappointing one from the team’s perspective.AdvertisementAs Tocchet wrestled with his decision over the past week, which was an arduous process for him, it wasn’t […]
Blue Jays CF Daulton Varsho makes season debut with wildest, weirdest catch of the year
Daulton Varsho certainly made a catch on Tuesday. But was it a great catch?Very, very few people could ever flash their glove like the Toronto Blue Jays center fielder did in the seventh inning (video above), but he only needed to do it because he tripped over his own feet on the warning track. It went from being a brutal error to one of the most incredible highlights of the MLB season, with both the culpability and credit on Varsho.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSo maybe not a great catch, but definitely an entertaining one, and a weird one, and one that probably leaves you more impressed with a player who made the rare transition from catcher to Gold Glove center fielder. We could get behind calling that the catch of the year.The 28-year-old outfielder was making his season debut after missing most of April […]
Blue Jays CF Daulton Varsho makes season debut with wildest, weirdest catch of the year
Daulton Varsho certainly made a catch on Tuesday. But was it a great catch?Very, very few people could ever flash their glove like the Toronto Blue Jays center fielder did in the seventh inning (video above), but he only needed to do it because he tripped over his own feet on the warning track. It went from being a brutal error to one of the most incredible highlights of the MLB season, with both the culpability and credit on Varsho.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSo maybe not a great catch, but definitely an entertaining one, and a weird one, and one that probably leaves you more impressed with a player who made the rare transition from catcher to Gold Glove center fielder. We could get behind calling that the catch of the year.The 28-year-old outfielder was making his season debut after missing most of April […]
NBA playoffs: Giannis Antetokounmpo gets into exchange with Tyrese Haliburton’s dad, scuffle with Ben Mathurin after loss
Things were extremely heated on the court at Gainbridge Fieldhouse after the final buzzer sounded on Tuesday night.Giannis Antetokounmpo got into it with Pacers guard Ben Mathurin at center court, which led to a scuffle that required the two men being separated, and then he got into an emotional exchange with Tyrese Haliburton's dad after the Milwaukee Bucks' season-ending loss to Indiana.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAntetokounmpo and John Haliburton met on the court after the Pacers’ 119-118 overtime win over the Bucks on Tuesday. The two shook hands in a crowd of people, but immediately went forehead-to-forehead and started exchanging words. Eventually, the two were separated and parted ways. Giannis gave the elder Haliburton a thumbs up as he did so.It’s unclear what was said, or if there was any issue between the two men, but the conversation was clearly an emotional one.Antetokounmpo met […]
NBA playoffs: Giannis Antetokounmpo gets into exchange with Tyrese Haliburton’s dad, scuffle with Ben Mathurin after loss
Things were extremely heated on the court at Gainbridge Fieldhouse after the final buzzer sounded on Tuesday night.Giannis Antetokounmpo got into it with Pacers guard Ben Mathurin at center court, which led to a scuffle that required the two men being separated, and then he got into an emotional exchange with Tyrese Haliburton's dad after the Milwaukee Bucks' season-ending loss to Indiana.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAntetokounmpo and John Haliburton met on the court after the Pacers’ 119-118 overtime win over the Bucks on Tuesday. The two shook hands in a crowd of people, but immediately went forehead-to-forehead and started exchanging words. Eventually, the two were separated and parted ways. Giannis gave the elder Haliburton a thumbs up as he did so.It’s unclear what was said, or if there was any issue between the two men, but the conversation was clearly an emotional one.Antetokounmpo met […]
Related
Aided by epic Bucks collapse, Pacers advance with thrilling OT win
An incredible Game 5 collapse by the Milwaukee Bucks stunned NBA fans Tuesday night as Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers closed out their first-round playoff series with a dramatic 119-118 overtime victory.The Bucks held a 20-point lead early in the game, only to see the Pacers battle back and eventually force overtime. Milwaukee then built a seven-point lead in the extra period before falling apart.AdvertisementIndiana’s stunning turnaround began with 40 seconds left in OT and Milwaukee leading, 118-111. After corralling a rebound off a missed free throw, Pacers forward Pascal Siakam passed it to guard Andrew Nembhard for a deep 3 to cut the deficit to four and force a Bucks timeout. Nembhard added to his heroics with a steal shortly after the inbounds pass, setting the stage for Haliburton.A timely and-1 by Haliburton after a foul on Bucks […]
Why Rick Tocchet left the Canucks and what it means for their offseason
Rick Tocchet and Vancouver Canucks hockey operations leadership spent last weekend in meetings, discussing the difficult year they’d just endured, the future of the organization and their plans for a high stakes, all-in summer.Less than a week later, Tocchet and his agent informed Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford that he’d decided not to return to Vancouver as head coach.As the Tocchet saga reached its conclusion this week, it really wasn’t a back-and-forth negotiation. There was nothing adversarial or acrimonious about it.The Canucks “stepped up” financially, according to two league sources. Keeping Tocchet was the club’s first choice, a fact that Rutherford wasn’t going to shy away from Tuesday simply because the outcome was a disappointing one from the team’s perspective.AdvertisementAs Tocchet wrestled with his decision over the past week, which was an arduous process for him, it wasn’t […]
Blue Jays CF Daulton Varsho makes season debut with wildest, weirdest catch of the year
Daulton Varsho certainly made a catch on Tuesday. But was it a great catch?Very, very few people could ever flash their glove like the Toronto Blue Jays center fielder did in the seventh inning (video above), but he only needed to do it because he tripped over his own feet on the warning track. It went from being a brutal error to one of the most incredible highlights of the MLB season, with both the culpability and credit on Varsho.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSo maybe not a great catch, but definitely an entertaining one, and a weird one, and one that probably leaves you more impressed with a player who made the rare transition from catcher to Gold Glove center fielder. We could get behind calling that the catch of the year.The 28-year-old outfielder was making his season debut after missing most of April […]
Blue Jays CF Daulton Varsho makes season debut with wildest, weirdest catch of the year
Daulton Varsho certainly made a catch on Tuesday. But was it a great catch?Very, very few people could ever flash their glove like the Toronto Blue Jays center fielder did in the seventh inning (video above), but he only needed to do it because he tripped over his own feet on the warning track. It went from being a brutal error to one of the most incredible highlights of the MLB season, with both the culpability and credit on Varsho.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSo maybe not a great catch, but definitely an entertaining one, and a weird one, and one that probably leaves you more impressed with a player who made the rare transition from catcher to Gold Glove center fielder. We could get behind calling that the catch of the year.The 28-year-old outfielder was making his season debut after missing most of April […]
NBA playoffs: Giannis Antetokounmpo gets into exchange with Tyrese Haliburton’s dad, scuffle with Ben Mathurin after loss
Things were extremely heated on the court at Gainbridge Fieldhouse after the final buzzer sounded on Tuesday night.Giannis Antetokounmpo got into it with Pacers guard Ben Mathurin at center court, which led to a scuffle that required the two men being separated, and then he got into an emotional exchange with Tyrese Haliburton's dad after the Milwaukee Bucks' season-ending loss to Indiana.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAntetokounmpo and John Haliburton met on the court after the Pacers’ 119-118 overtime win over the Bucks on Tuesday. The two shook hands in a crowd of people, but immediately went forehead-to-forehead and started exchanging words. Eventually, the two were separated and parted ways. Giannis gave the elder Haliburton a thumbs up as he did so.It’s unclear what was said, or if there was any issue between the two men, but the conversation was clearly an emotional one.Antetokounmpo met […]
NBA playoffs: Giannis Antetokounmpo gets into exchange with Tyrese Haliburton’s dad, scuffle with Ben Mathurin after loss
Things were extremely heated on the court at Gainbridge Fieldhouse after the final buzzer sounded on Tuesday night.Giannis Antetokounmpo got into it with Pacers guard Ben Mathurin at center court, which led to a scuffle that required the two men being separated, and then he got into an emotional exchange with Tyrese Haliburton's dad after the Milwaukee Bucks' season-ending loss to Indiana.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAntetokounmpo and John Haliburton met on the court after the Pacers’ 119-118 overtime win over the Bucks on Tuesday. The two shook hands in a crowd of people, but immediately went forehead-to-forehead and started exchanging words. Eventually, the two were separated and parted ways. Giannis gave the elder Haliburton a thumbs up as he did so.It’s unclear what was said, or if there was any issue between the two men, but the conversation was clearly an emotional one.Antetokounmpo met […]
Be the first to leave a comment