Bob Baffert's Kentucky Derby return: A timeline of the saga that kept the famed trainer from Churchill Downs

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The 151st running of the Kentucky Derby will take place at the famous Churchill Downs racetrack in Louisville, Kentucky, on Saturday, May 3, and returning for the first time in four years will be Hall of Fame horse trainer, Bob Baffert. 

Baffert, one of the most successful trainers in the history of the sport, returns this year after having missed the first leg of the Triple Crown for three consecutive years – a suspension that began with his record-breaking seventh victory at the race in 2021 that was later stripped because of a failed drug test.

Baffert, one of only two trainers to ever win the coveted Triple Crown on two occasions, became considered by some an outcast in the horse racing community following the fallout of Medina Spirit’s Kentucky Derby victory in 2021.

Trainer Bob Baffert motions to a visitor outside his barn at Churchill Downs on Tuesday, April 29, 2025 in Louisville, Kentucky. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

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Baffert secured his seventh Kentucky Derby win on May 1, 2021, when Medina Spirit, the 3-year-old colt owned by Zedan Racing Stables, won the first leg of the Triple Crown by a half-length. The victory at Churchill Downs broke the record previously shared between Baffert and fellow Hall of Fame trainer Ben Jones.

Days after being declared the winner, it was announced on May 9, 2021, that Medina Spirit had failed a postrace drug test after testing positive for an excessive amount of the steroid betamethasone. Churchill Downs immediately suspended Baffert, who denied any wrongdoing.

"It is our understanding that Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit’s post-race