Three years after Medina Spirit's victory was stripped due to a failed drug test, Baffert looks to reclaim his place at Churchill Downs.

The story of Bob Baffert is not a tale of a singular sinner, but instead a parable for a sport struggling to explain its welfare and medication practices to an American public that increasingly disapproves of it.

The famed horse trainer, who is going for his seventh Kentucky Derby victory on Saturday, is back at the track for the first time since 2021 following a three-year suspension. Churchill Downs punished Baffert after Medina Spirit won the Derby then tested positive for banned substances.