LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A federal judge denied Bob Baffert’s request to lift his two-year suspension by Churchill Downs Inc., ruling Friday that the Hall of Fame trainer did not prove its discipline hurt his business and reputation.
Baffert will miss his second consecutive Kentucky Derby, and per a Churchill Downs rule, he has until Feb. 28 to transfer his Derby-eligible horses to other trainers in order for them to possibly run in the May 6 race.
Baffert last year transferred Taiba and Messier to former assistant Tim Yakteen for the Derby. Taiba finished 12th and Messier was 15th among 20 horses.
Baffert had sued Churchill Downs following his banishment in June 2021 after a failed postrace drug test by now-deceased colt Medina Spirit, who crossed the finish line first in the 147th Derby. The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission ultimately disqualified the colt in February 2022 and suspended Baffert for 90 days for a series of failed tests by his horses.
Baffert argued that Churchill Downs did not give him notice or explain the suspension. His attorney, Clark Brewster, contended earlier this month that the historic track was subject to state guidelines for due process. U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings ultimately rejected that argument and said that, as a privately owned company, Churchill Downs can set its own disciplinary policies.
While Baffert is banned from the first of the Triple Crown races, he’s eligible to run horses in Maryland at the Preakness and in New York at the Belmont Stakes. His one-year suspension by the New York Racing Association expired in January.
Churchill Downs had wanted the case dismissed, citing nine failed tests by Baffert-trained horses as justification for disciplining horse racing’s most visible figure. The list of violators includes 2020 Kentucky Oaks third-place finisher Gamine, who was ultimately disqualified.
Medina Spirit failed his test for having in his system the regulated medication corticosteroid betamethasone, which Baffert and Brewster have argued came from an ointment rather than an injection.
Track president Mike Anderson said the decision by Churchill Downs CEO Bill Carstanjen stemmed from Baffert’s “refusal to take responsibility for repeat violations.”
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — NASCAR Xfinity Series points leader Connor Zilisch broke his collarbone after a hard fall in Victory Lane at Watkins Glen International.
After his series-leading sixth victory, Zilisch was climbing onto the roof of his No. 88 Chevrolet to celebrate. He slipped after apparently getting his left foot caught in the driver’s side window netting and tumbled awkwardly onto the asphalt.
Zilisch, 19, was taken on a backboard to the trackside medical center and then transported to a hospital for further evaluation. He posted on X about two hours later that he had a broken collarbone and that CT scans showed no head injury.
“Thank you everybody for reaching out today,” Zilisch posted. “I’m out of the hospital and getting better already. Thankful for all the medics for quick attention and grateful it wasn’t any worse.”
Thank you everybody for reaching out today. I’m out of the hospital and getting better already. Thankfully, CT scans for my head are clear, I just have a broken collarbone. Thankful for all the medics for quick attention and grateful it wasn’t any worse.❤️
Zilisch will not be available for the Cup race Sunday at Watkins Glen. After racing in the Truck and Xfinity Series the past two days at the road course, he was scheduled to complete a tripleheader by making his fourth Cup start this season for Trackhouse Racing.
The scary incident capped an eventful day for Zilisch, who drives for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports team.
After starting from the pole position, Zilisch wrecked teammate Shane van Gisbergen’s car while battling for the lead on Lap 65. After being bumped from the lead to fifth on a restart, Zilisch retook first and led the final four laps.
“He did such a great job of getting back through the field and getting the lead,” crew chief Mardy Lindley told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio after the race. “Praying for Connor right now that he’s OK. I think he’s going to be fine.”
Zilisch missed a race earlier this season at Texas Motor Speedway after suffering a back injury during a crash at Talladega Superspeedway. He has 11 consecutive top-five finishes and five wins since his return.
NEW YORK — Roger Clemens came back to Yankee Stadium on Saturday, and so did the questions about his bat-throwing incident with Mike Piazza in the World Series 25 years earlier.
Piazza was batting against Clemens in the first inning of Game 2 of the 2000 World Series when his bat shattered along the first-base line. Clemens picked up part of it and fired it toward the Hall of Fame catcher.
Clemens made his debut in the Yankees’ Old-Timers’ Day game Saturday and faced four batters in the first exhibition game of the event since 2019. His manager on the 2000 championship team defended the pitcher’s actions in that at-bat against Piazza.
“There’s still a question with the broken bat, with Piazza and the whole thing in Game 2,” Joe Torre said at the podium right as Clemens walked in. “I think if Mike knew that the ball was foul, he wouldn’t have been starting to run to first base. That ball went over the first-base dugout, was foul right away. He didn’t know where it was, so he started running.”
Clemens made his first appearance as the Yankees honored the 2000 team, the last team to win three straight titles. Clemens heard a nice hand from the crowd as a montage of his highlights played on the center-field video board — omitting his notorious toss at Piazza.
“I didn’t know he was running, and Mike said that same thing, too,” Clemens said. “He didn’t know where the baseball was. So my first instinct when I shattered that bat in about four pieces, I thought it was a baseball coming at me.”
The Yankees went a combined 22-3 in the 1998 and 1999 postseasons but struggled at times in 2000, losing 15 of their final 18 regular-season games, before outlasting the A’s by winning a Game 5 on the road in their division series. After beating Seattle in a six-game ALCS, the Yankees beat the Mets in a five-game Fall Classic where every game was decided by two or fewer runs.
Clemens joined the Yankees in a trade with Toronto during spring training in 1999. He was 14-10 with a 4.60 ERA in 1999 and then 13-8 with a 3.70 ERA in 2000. During the postseason, Clemens won three games, including Game 2 against the Mets.
“When he was on the other team, you didn’t like him very much,” Torre said.
After two seasons of an on-field Q&A session with radio broadcaster Suzyn Waldman, the game has returned, and Johnny Damon hit an RBI single off Clemens.
Clemens was among several 2000 Yankees at the event, which did not feature former captain Derek Jeter. Jeter delivered a taped video message after Mariano Rivera was the final player introduced.
“He was in spring training,” fellow pitcher Andy Pettitte said of Clemens. “So it was good to see him in spring training and then of course here. A huge part of our 2000 team, and it was good.”
The only former player not introduced was current manager Aaron Boone, whose team entered Saturday with six losses in seven games.
A seven-time Cy Young Award winner, Clemens went 354-184 with a 3.12 ERA and 4,672 strikeouts, third behind Nolan Ryan (5,714) and Randy Johnson (4,875). In two stints with the Yankees, Clemens was 83-42 with a 4.01 ERA and retired after the 2007 season.
He was named in the Mitchell report in December 2007 but has denied PED usage. In his final year on the BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot in 2022, Clemens received 257 votes (65.2%).
Besides members of the 2000 team, Willie Randolph, Graig Nettles, Chris Chambliss, Ron Guidry, Bucky Dent and Mickey Rivers were introduced as members of the 1977 and 1978 World Series teams.
The widows of five-time manager Billy Martin, captain Thurman Munson and player-then-broadcaster Bobby Murcer were also introduced as part of an event that began in 1947, when Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth first appeared.
CHICAGO –The White Sox threw a party that would have made Bill Veeck proud.
The club celebrated its quirky former owner with Bill Veeck Night on Saturday by bringing back some of the stunts, tricks and exhibitions that added to the lore of the legendary showman and Hall of Famer.
There was a pregame petting zoo and a roving circus with — what else? — a clown to entertain fans entering Rate Field. There was ice sculpting on the concourse in the outfield and a chance to get a photo taken with a 50-foot hot dog, along with an offer of free haircuts. The first 15,000 fans received a Veeck bobblehead, and postgame fireworks were planned.
Another highlight was what the team described as a “married in a minute” event, with two White Sox fans tying the knot in a 60-second ceremony officiated by 1983 American League Rookie of the Year Ron Kittle.
Veeck’s son, Mike, threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the White Sox took on the Cleveland Guardians.
The fun wasn’t limited to fans in the stands. White Sox players turned back the clock by wearing pinstriped shorts during pregame warmups and batting practice. The team wore those unusual shorts — along with collared uniform tops — for some games during the 1976 season.
Veeck was a two-time owner of the White Sox, first from 1959-61 and again from 1975-81. His tenure was marked by memorable and forgettable stunts to enhance the fans’ game-day experience through entertainment.
His stunts included an exploding scoreboard in 1960 and a disastrous disco demolition night in 1979, when a crate of disco records was blown up between games of a doubleheader. The playing surface at Comiskey Field was so damaged by the blast and fans who rushed the field after the stunt that Chicago was forced to forfeit the second game to Detroit.
Another of his famous acts was signing 3-foot-7 Eddie Gaedel to be a pinch hitter in 1951, when Veeck owned the St. Louis Browns. Gaedel, who had a miniscule strike zone, walked on four pitches.
Veeck died in 1986 at 71 and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991.
