Despite a positive drug test following the race, the California Horse Racing Board declined a request to halt the court-ordered disqualification of Justify, the 2018 Santa Anita Derby winner and the race that helped the colt capture a Triple Crown championship.
The CHRB responded to Justify's previous connections in writing on Wednesday, saying, "After due consideration, it is hereby ordered that the request of owners China Horse Club, Head of Plains Partners, Starlight Racing, WinStar Farm, jockey Mike Smith, and trainer (Bob) Baffert for a stay from the decision of the stewards in the above-referenced matter is denied." "In this case, the CHRB will designate a hearing officer to hear arguments regarding the appeal's timeliness and appeal content, and then the hearing officer will present a recommended decision to the board for review."
Mick Ruis's latest triumph came from the CHRB's unwillingness to halt the disqualification procedure in its tracks. He was the owner and trainer of Bolt d'Oro, the Santa Anita Derby winner who finished second to Justify.
Carlo Fisco, an attorney defending Ruis in Culver City, California, remarked, "Upon review of the appeal letter, it is apparent that not a single valid legal basis has been stated to challenge the order." "Let us not forget that a class 3 violation at the time of the violation entailed a mandatory disqualification and purse redistribution, notwithstanding the efforts of some shady characters who sought to push this swindle through covertly. Clearly. The story ends here.
Team Justify's California-based lawyer, Amanda Groves, could not be reached to provide an immediate response to the CHRB ruling.
Judge Mitchell Beckloff of the Los Angeles Superior Court issued the disqualification order for Justify on December 1. At the time, Beckloff stated, "There is no real doubt the stewards would have disqualified Justify if they understood that (the CHRB) provided them with such authority."
At their meeting on March 30, the CHRB formally ordered Justify's disqualification, adhering to Beckloff's directive. It completed the settlement on March 4th, in which Ruis's team received instructions for Justify to pay $700,000 to Ruis's former contacts. Of that amount, $400,000 was set aside as payment for the $200,000 second-place reward and the $600,000 first-place prize. The Ruis lawsuit was settled for the remaining $300,000.
It wasn't until September 2019, 17 months after the Santa Anita Derby, that Justify's positive test results for scopolamine—an alkaloid that is prohibited in horse racing—came to light in a story by Joe Drape of The New York Times.
Baffert attributed the test result to a batch of feed that many horses at Santa Anita consumed in April 2018 that was contaminated with jimsonweed. The CHRB concurred and determined in 2020 that scopolamine was not a medication that should result in disqualification.
Beckloff concurred with Ruis that the CHRB had overreached itself in reducing the class 3 positive test to a class 4 positive test and utilizing the contamination argument as a guideline.
Had the disqualification occurred during the month following the Santa Anita Derby, Justify would not have been qualified for the first jewel of his Triple Crown—the Kentucky Derby. Nevertheless, following the court decision in December, Churchill Downs Inc. and the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission declared that they would not contemplate modifying the race's outcome.
A spokesman for CDI, Tonya Abeln, stated in December that "new rules and requirements in place since 2018 to prevent a scenario like this in the future, which is the important thing." "We don't intend to go back in time to see who won the Kentucky Derby."
At the time, commission spokesperson Kristin Voskuhl stated, "Justify was eligible at the time of the 2018 Kentucky Derby, and the KHRC has no current plans to retroactively consider that eligibility."