John Clay: A petty feud is likely to keep the best 3-year-old out of the 2024 Kentucky Derby

LEXINGTON, Ky. — No doubt Churchill Downs wanted the lead-up to this year’s Kentucky Derby to be all about the milestone 150th running of the nation’s most famous race.

Looks like that’s going to be a scratch.

As soon as the brilliant 3-year-old Nysos hit the wire 7 1/2 lengths in front of his competition last Saturday in the Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis Stakes, an early Kentucky Derby prep, the folks at CDI had to know their petty feud with the game’s top trainer will dominate the spring.

Nysos is trained by Bob Baffert. And Baffert is banned from the Kentucky Derby for a third consecutive year. And unlike the last two years, the owners of horses trained by Baffert have chosen not to transfer their contenders to another trainer in order to be eligible for this year’s running on May 4.

Churchill had moved the transfer deadline to Jan. 29. The owners ignored the date. Faced with choosing the trainer or the now $5 million race, the owners chose Baffert.

“Bob Baffert is our trainer and we stand with him and the decisions he makes regarding our horses,” Ed Nevins, director of Baoma Corp., which owns Nysos, told Ron Flatter of Horse Racing Nation.

“No move,” Amr Zedan, owner of the highly-regarded Muth, told Bill Finley of Thoroughbred Daily News. “Baffert (is) our man.”

Zedan owned the late Medina Spirit, disqualified after winning the 2021 when the horse tested positive for betamethasone, banned on race day. Churchill banned Baffert for two years, then extended the ban for what it said was the trainer “continuing to peddle a false narrative concerning the failed drug test of Medina Spirit.”

On Jan. 22, Baffert announced he was dropping all legal appeals against CDI. The track responded by issuing a statement saying nothing had changed. The ban stands.

So as of now, the front-runner in this year’s 3-year-old crop won’t be in Louisville. The son of 2016 Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist, Nysos has won his three career starts by a combined 26 3/4 lengths. The Beyer Speed Figure for his Bob Lewis romp was a sizzling 105.

Muth is second to Nysos in TDN’s Kentucky Derby rankings. He’s also trained by Baffert. The son of Good Magic won the Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes on Jan. 6, his third win in five lifetime starts.

Baffert also trains Maymun, a 3-year-old who won his career debut by 7 1/2 lengths on Jan. 20 at Santa Anita. “He was ridiculously fast,” Baffert said afterward.

Surely, secretly, Churchill has to be rooting for Hades, winner of last Saturday’s Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream. And Uncle Heavy, winner of the Grade 3 Withers Stakes at Aqueduct. And Mystik Dan, winner of the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes on a muddy track at Oaklawn and trained by Lexington’s Kenny McPeek, who as of Tuesday was five wins shy of his 2,000th career victory.

Then there’s Fierceness, trained by two-time Derby winner Todd Pletcher. Pletcher trained Forte, the presumptive Derby favorite who was scratched by the track veterinarian the morning of the race. Fierceness won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and finished third in the Holy Bull, his sophomore debut.

Still, the shadow Churchill can’t shake is Baffert, the 71-year-old trainer who has won a record six Kentucky Derbys.

Considering the trainer’s troubled history and the Medina Spirit DQ in its most prominent race — and largest money-maker — CDI was within its rights to issue the original two-year ban. Moving the goal posts by extending the ban to a third year makes the action more personal than professional. Baffert’s owners apparently agree.

After all, Baffert is free to run his horses at any other track in America except for the ones owned by CDI. That includes Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, home of the May 18 Preakness Stakes. Banned from last year’s Derby, Baffert won the Preakness with National Treasure. It’s an almost sure bet that Baffert will be back in 2024 to prove that the best horses did not run in the 150th Kentucky Derby.