By the end of this week, racing fans should know whether a lawsuit filed by owner Amr Zedan will be successful in allowing Muth, trained by Bob Baffert, to run in this year's Kentucky Derby.
Baffert is not a party to the suit. Last summer, Churchill Downs announced it would extend its ban on the trainer, based on private property rights of exclusion, through at least 2024. Since the racetrack writes the conditions for its signature race, any horse conditioned by a trainer banned by Churchill is ineligible to earn Kentucky Derby qualifying points in Road to the Kentucky Derby races. Churchill also instituted a deadline by which owners must transfer their horses away from banned trainers in order for them to earn qualifying points. Baffert's owners, including Zedan, opted not to move 3-year-olds away from him in 2024 as they have done the previous two years.
Zedan's Zedan Racing Stables filed a civil lawsuit in Kentucky's Jefferson Circuit Court on April 3, in hopes his horses may be allowed to run in this year's Kentucky Derby. During Monday's hearing in front of Judge Mitchell Perry, Zedan and his attorneys defended that timeline. They said the issue was "hypothetical" until Muth won the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby, which would have earned the colt 100 points toward the Kentucky Derby, were he not in Baffert's barn.
Perry chastised Zedan's legal team, stating that the last-minute filing caused an "incredible time crunch on everyone involved, including this court."
Zedan's legal argument is three-fold: that Churchill's exclusion of Baffert runners is not based in contractural or common law; that it damages the race's value; and that it defies the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority's attempts to create a level playing field.
Churchill's attorneys argued that Baffert signed a Triple Crown nomination form for several of Zedan's horses which states that the three host tracks can deny entry to any trainer’s horses “for any reason," and that allowing the Baffert-trained horses into the race would be "unjust" to other horse owners and trainers who played by the rules.
Another hearing will be held on Wednesday to discuss constitutionality issues. Judge Perry will solicit input from the Attorney General on prior to ruling on the injunction which would allow Muth entry into the Kentucky Derby; he expects that to take at least 48 hours, so a decision is not likely until Wednesday afternoon at the earliest.
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