Officials worked secretly to clear Bob Baffert’s Justify amid 2018 Triple Crown run, records show

On May 5, Justify won the Kentucky Derby, upping the stakes of the investigation. A CHRB investigator, searching for Jimson weed, had found a leafy substance at Santa Anita Park, the records show, and following the Derby, Arthur and the CHRB’s lawyer agreed to have it tested. When the CHRB also decided to run DNA tests on the horses’ blood samples, the records show Arthur said the request would be a “big deal” and asked if they could “wait until after the Preakness,” which was 10 days away.