Bob Baffert is back at the Kentucky Derby with 2 contenders after serving a 3-year suspension

Bob Baffert is back at the Kentucky Derby for the first time in four years, having served his punishment for Medina Spirit's failed drug test and coming to the place where he's won a record-tying six times. He's settled in at his old Barn 33, the signs boasting of his Churchill Downs triumphs again hanging on the outside wall. "I'm going to have fun now that everything is behind me," Baffert told The Associated Press in an interview this week. The white-haired trainer will saddle Wood Memorial winner Rodriguez and Citizen Bull, last year's 2-year-old champion, in the Derby on May 3. "Going back with a live horse is more important to me," he said. "I really feel like this year I have two horses that could be in the top five, top 10." Baffert spent the last three years away from the race he values most, relegated to watching on television with family and friends. Taking away some of the sting was the knowledge that he didn't have a horse he believed could have won it those years. "The Derby is a great experience if you have a horse that's capable and has a chance," he said. He thought he had that horse in 2021, with Medina Spirit crossing the finish line first to give Baffert a record-breaking seventh Derby victory. Until a failed drug test ultimately disqualified the colt — just the second in Derby history to be DQ'd for that reason — and tarnished the reputation of a trainer known as the face of horse racing, having won the Triple Crown in 2015 and 2018. Baffert initially was suspended two years in June 2021 for Medina Spirit testing positive for betamethasone, a steroid which is legal as a therapeutic in Kentucky but not allowed in a horse's system on race day. "We never denied the positive," he said. "We knew we had the positive." Baffert said he and his lawyers attempted to explain that Medina Spirit had been treated with a topical ointment containing the steroid for a skin inflammation. His biggest regret? "I wish I would have known about the (steroid) having the betamethasone," he said. "In hindsight we would have left it (in California). Then we wouldn't have had this issue. "But at the end of the day, it still can't be in his system and that was the problem." The Louisville track tacked on an extra year to his suspension in July 2023 after continuous legal appeals by Baffert about the failed test. In January 2024, he dropped the appeal related to Medina Spirit's DQ. The colt had died following a workout in late 2021. Accepting Baffert's words of contrition, Churchill Downs lifted his suspension last July and he returned to the track in the fall to win a race. Bill Carstanjen, CEO of Churchill Downs Inc., was there to shake his hand. "We had a good talk," Baffert said. "I understood his position." The ordeal took a toll on the 72-year-old trainer and his family, his clients and his wallet. "It's one of those things where I'm just tired of talking about it," he said. "It's been a tough three years and I've put that behind me." While the suspension kept Baffert from competing at Churchill Downs, his horses were able to run in the other Triple Crown races. He won the Preakness in 2023 for a record eighth time. Being back at his old Kentucky home is reuniting Baffert with folks he hasn't seen in recent years. And his return is welcomed by some rival trainers. "There's no question that Bob Baffert is very popular and draws a lot of people's attention. He deserves to be back," said Mark Casse, who saddles Sandman in the Derby. "We all want to win, but we want to beat the best." Michael McCarthy trains likely Derby favorite Journalism and sees Baffert daily at their shared Santa Anita base in California. "He's a polarizing figure in our sport," McCarthy said, adding that Baffert "puts people in the seats." Despite precarious times for racing in California, Baffert sees himself continuing in the only job he's ever had as long as he still enjoys it and attracts the type of owners who can afford quality horses. "I love the journey of it all," he said. "After so many years of being successful, you think you've built enough equity where you could sort of cruise along, but not as a horse trainer. Every year I'm starting out fresh. That's what keeps me going. These horses are great therapy." Baffert is winning at a 33% clip so far this year in a sport where misery is often just around the corner. "It's a fun business if you let it be a fun business," he said. "If you don't let it get you bitter, you'll be fine, and I have not let it get me bitter. What happened, happened. I took responsibility for it, so that's it."