Column: Let's welcome Baffert to the Doping Hall of Infamy

Bob Baffert, welcome to the Doping Hall of Infamy.

You're joining a very accomplished group, the crème de la crème of chemically enhanced miscreants.

Over there is the East German Olympic team. Right next to them, you'll find Ben Johnson and Marion Jones. That big guy is Mark McGwire. And, of course, the shamelessly corrupt Lance Armstrong needs no introduction.

Sure, you didn't actually inject the illicit substance into your own body, like the rest of the inductees, but you'll fit right in.

Yep, this is Baffert’s legacy — not all those great horses he trained.

Even if one of Baffert's myriad excuses for a positive drug test at the Kentucky Derby somehow passes muster — to hear him tell it, he's the innocent victim of A) cancel culture pervading the nation, B) a groom who relieved himself in the barn, C) a veterinarian who prescribed the drug in question, or D) the dog ate his homework, we presume — there is no chance of him getting his reputation back.

That's the way it should be.

For far too long — and this is an indictment of those of us in the media, as well — Baffert has largely gotten a free pass for his seemingly magic touch with equines while everyone looked the other way at his expanding list of doping violations.

In just the past year, he's been cited five times. The New York Times found a much more sinister record — 29 cases spanning more than four decades.

In any other athletic pursuit, Baffert would have long since been banned.

But horse racing, in a desperate bid to stay relevant and create stars who might attract new fans to the sport of kings, has treated the white-haired trainer's dubious methods with repeated slaps on the wrist.

Maybe a fine, or a brief suspension from the track where the offense...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Column-Let-s-welcome-Baffert-to-the-Doping-Hall-16175400.php