LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Bob Baffert doesn’t have a horse in the Kentucky Derby — or any other race at Churchill Downs Saturday. But the legendary trainer, who was suspended by the track for two years following last year’s failed drug test by Medina Spirit, is still looming over the run for the roses.
Earlier this year, after the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission upheld a separate 90-day suspension for Baffert, he relinquished control over two horses — Messier and Taiba — who are now top Derby contenders. The trainer who took them on, Tim Yakteen, is a former apprentice of Baffert’s.
For Ray Derubin, who lives in El Paso, Texas, and is attending his tenth Derby, that connection is eyebrow raising.
“He’s clearly still going to have an influence,” said Derubin, who added that Yakteen is no doubt familiar with Baffert’s training routines.
Now, Derubin said, there’s a Baffert-shaped “cloud” hanging over the Derby.
Travis Sensabaugh, who attended the 148th Derby with his father, Phil, agreed that the arrangement seemed a “little shady.”
Sensabaugh said he worries that if either of the horses transferred from Baffert to Yakteen wins the Derby, their former trainer will “take the headlines away.”
Yakteen has insisted that he hasn’t coordinated with Baffert regarding Taiba and Messier, but not everyone believes that.
Last month, legendary trainer D. Wayne Lukas, whose horse won Friday’s Kentucky Oaks, told the Courier-Journal he was sure Baffert gave Yakteen a “crash course” on the horses.
“I think no matter how those horses run, they’ll be Bob’s,” Lukas said.
Not all horse players are worried about the connection between Baffert and Yakteen, though. Frank, from South Bend, Ind., said he’s glad Messier and Taiba are running in the Derby.
“The horses are just the horses,” he said, “and I think they deserve to be there.”