Stardom, and along with that, controversy. That’s what has followed Bob Baffert throughout his thoroughbred racing journey. And lately, it has been the scandals that have kept Bob Baffert in the newspapers. The latest of it has been his 2021 Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit failing the post-race test. It even got Baffert suspended for 3 years.

The decorated trainer has raked up so many controversies, so many scandalous headlines because of the way he has operated, he has become the de facto poster boy of what’s wrong with sports. But every now and then, we get reminded that the iconic trainer does have a heart. Like we got to see in his handling of his 4-year-old colt, Nysos. So, what’s the story?

The iconic trainer was on the Horse Racing Radio Network (HRRN) on April 29 to talk about his return to the Run to the Roses. And while his 3-year-old thoroughbreds, Rodriguez and Citizen Bull, take the field at the Kentucky Derby, his 4-year-old Nysos will be at the starting gates of the Churchill Downs GI Stakes. What’s so interesting about this participation is that this will be the colt’s first race since February 3, 2024.

Yes, that’s right. It has left many perplexed, including the HRRN hosts. And they asked Baffert what was that about? Nysos had bagged 3 back-to-back wins, and that too by dominant margins. The Robert B. Lewis Stakes win on February 3, 2024, extended his unbeaten win by 3, and the gap? A total of 26 3/4 lengths across the 3 races. And the colt also scored wins at Del Mar and Santa Anita.

While everyone was gearing up for more, Bob Baffert would announce sidelining the in-form thoroughbred for about a month. And now it’s May 2025. Well, it was all about protection. “He had a little hiccup, so we gave him 30, 45 days off,” the 2-time Triple Crown winner shared on the HRRN show. And he continued, “Then I gave him like 60 – no rush for him or anything like that. We are not going anywhere.” And he slowly brought the colt back. But alas! Problems still persisted.

The 2020 Kentucky Derby winner explained, “When you bring these horses off layoff, they come up with other things … so, we gave him another 60 off.”, Seems like Bob Baffert staved off the temptation of getting Nysos into a race, despite him being an in-form runner at that time. Nysos’ talent probably comes from his pedigree, being sired by 2016 Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist. But instead of getting the horse for a race, Baffert let his colt rest.

“I just took my time with him, and then once we knew we are gonna miss all the good stuff, we just, you know, go ahead and give them all the time off.” After the G3 Robert B. Lewis win, Nysos’ first work was in Oct 2024, when he ran the 4-furlong stretch at the Santa Anita in 47.6 seconds. And he will get his first test at the Churchill Downs in a couple of days. Going back to the extended break, Baffert said, “I think you end up getting like 4 months off, you know. And then, he gets something and would stop bottom. But he was always at the barn.”

After the long hiatus, Nysos will make his much-anticipated return on Kentucky Derby Day. Along with his trainer. Although Bob Baffert’s return is shrouded in doubts about his integrity. And questions have been raised long ago about his care for the thoroughbreds, who are, after all, the lifeblood of the sports.

Bob Baffert and the questionable handling of his thoroughbreds

Is one good deed enough? Not when you have the highest death rates for racehorses in the state of California. At 8.3 per 1000 race starts, Baffert indeed has an incriminating Association with him. Overall, more than 74 horses have died in the trainer’s barn since 2000. And that number leaves him in 2nd behind Jerry Hollendorfer at 122. Such an elite trainer, who has won 6 Kentucky Derbys, 8 Preakness Stakes, and 3 Belmont Stakes, the thoroughbred deaths and countless post-race test violations are blemishes on his legacy.

Before Medina Spirit’s failed test controversy and his subsequent death because of a suspected heart attack, Baffert had seen many of his thoroughbreds die because of breakdowns. Between 2011 and 2013, 7 of his horses died from Barn 61 at Hollywood Park, a Los Angeles racetrack. Before that, between 2000 and 2005, 34 of his thoroughbreds died, 9 alone in 2000.

His horses have been repeatedly found to have banned substances in their system, for which he has faced many penalties and fines. But what’s important is how it impacts the horses. One of Baffert’s thoroughbreds, Havnameltdown, suffered an injury to his front left ankle while running on the Pimlico Race Course, Baltimore, in May 2020 and had to be euthanized. But what was found in the necropsies was damning.

Veterinarian Dr. Sheila Lyons’ diagnosis was that Havnameltdown should not have been raced at all. “Havnameltdown should not have been racing that day. Absolutely not, under any circumstances,” said the doctor to The New York Times. The pathology showed Havnameltdown had lesions in all four fetlock joints, which occurs when repetitive injury wears away at cartilage.

What baffled Dr. Lyons was that it could be easily diagnosed if the trainer cared and got thorough checkups. The 4-year-old colt at that time also had a choppy or abnormal gait. “How it was never red-flagged just baffles me.” And there was more. The colt had been administered corticosteroid and hyaluronic acid injections into both the hocks and stifles, the different joints in a horse’s leg. What it does is it allows a thoroughbred with compromised pathology to race and train which otherwise wouldn’t be possible.

But that increases the risk of a fatal breakdown. And it’s just the nature of how things were done. “Continuing to train and race a horse that has significant pathology in one or more joints is abusive,” Dr. Lyons plainly states. And “it was only a matter of when” Havnameltdown succumbed. But some say it’s Bob Baffert’s MO. “He’ll do anything to win, and he’s got all his bases covered politically,” 2011 Kentucky Derby winner Barry Irwin said to the Washington Post in June 2021. “And because of that, he has become arrogant as hell. He’s Mr. Teflon.”

When Havnameltdown died, PETA sharply criticized why Bob Baffert was still being entertained. “Pimlico should have followed Churchill Downs’ example and barred Bob Baffert from the track,” PETA’s statement read in the New York Post dated May 2023. “Baffert has been implicated in drugging scandals, the deaths of seven horses who collapsed in California, and at least 75 horses in his care have died.”

Even many fellow trainers, who advocate for humane thoroughbred racing and reform to eradicate the toxic and abusive cultures running in the industry, think Bob Baffert is the one who stops wholesome positive change from taking place. Monty Roberts, who has been in the business for 6 decades, is one of such progressive trainers.

In fact, when he was asked if it’s surprising that the barn of Bob Baffert, who is allegedly one of the greatest proponents of American horse racing, has the highest fatality, the veteran mockingly told the Washington Post, “If it surprised me it would be that I expected more.”

His opinion was more damning: “Bob Baffert has moved his way up the ladder to the extent that he has the most influential, the wealthiest owners in the industry, that he takes on the highest-quality horses possible — because he wins races. And he pushes the envelope to the extent that they give their lives for his bank account.”

With so much baggage, Bob Baffert enters the 2025 Kentucky Derby. And actually, he is not letting the outside noise disturb him. He wants more glory.