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

LOS ANGELES — In 2018, as star trainer Bob Baffert led his thoroughbred Justify to the Triple Crown, California regulators embarked on a secret effort to exonerate Baffert after the horse's positive test for a banned substance, according to confidential records obtained by The Washington Post that fully detail the saga for the first time.