After a former stakes-caliber racehorse was euthanized following an injury sustained in a cheap claiming race at Santa Anita Park, his Hall of Fame trainer, Bob Baffert, acknowledged that the precipitous drop in class might have looked suspicious, but insisted that he had sent a sound horse to the racetrack.
Rob Carr/Associated Press
Bob Baffert, one of the world's most prominent trainers, said he dropped Tweebster into the bottom ranks of racing in the hopes of getting the horse a "confidence booster" in an easy race.
The horse, Tweebster, a 5-year-old gelding who had earned more than $250,000, sustained multiple fractures in his left front leg, racing officials said, while racing for a $12,500 claiming price Sunday at Santa Anita Park. In 2011, he had finished third in the Native Diver Handicap, a Grade 3 race. He competed in stakes races as recently as September.
But in October, Baffert and the horse's owner, Kaleem Shah, ran Tweebster for a $40,000 claiming price. When he finished a well beaten fourth, they entered him in a sprint race for the track's lowest price, $12,500. He finished fifth of nine and was taken off the track by ambulance after being pulled up past the wire.
Baffert, a three-time Kentucky Derby winner and one of the world's most prominent trainers, said in a statement that he dropped Tweebster into the bottom ranks of racing in the hopes of getting the horse a "confidence booster" in an easy race.
"I understand a severe drop in class can indicate a horse is unsound, but I assure you that was not the case with Tweebster," Baffert said in a statement released through Santa Anita Park.
In the statement, Baffert acknowledged that he was responding to criticism on Twitter and other social media that pointed out gaps in Tweebster's workout schedule and his precipitous drop as telltale signs of unsoundness. Baffert, who is known for putting his horses through aggressive timed workouts, put Tweebster under the stopwatch only twice in the two months since the gelding's last race.
"As is required, Tweebster was thoroughly examined by the state veterinarian yesterday morning and found to be perfectly sound going into the race," Baffert said in the statement.
Baffert did not respond to a request to share Tweebster's veterinary records, to detail his medication history, or to explain the gap in the horse's workout patterns.
The California Horse Racing Board is investigating the breakdown and death of Tweebster, as it does with all equine fatalities.
"The death of any horse on the racetrack is hard to accept," Baffert said in the statement. "When that horse is one who you saw and took care of every day, the pain is physically gut-wrenching. While I realize some people are going to think what they want, I want to express my feelings and deepest regret over the loss of a horse for whom I had a great deal of affection."
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