Uh Oh... Ky Derby Winner
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Baffert says Derby winner Medina Spirit tested positive
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Kentucky Derby Horse Racing
Jockey John Velazquez, left, watches as trainer Bob Baffert holds up the winner's trophy after they victory with Medina Spirit in the 147th running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, Saturday, May 1, 2021, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
GARY B. GRAVES
Sun, May 9, 2021, 9:58 AM
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert said Sunday that his barn has been told Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit failed a postrace drug test, the latest doping scandal for horse racing and arguably the sport’s premier trainer.
Flanked by his attorney Craig Robertson in a morning news conference at Churchill Downs on Sunday, Baffert said Medina Spirit was found to have 21 picograms of the steroid betamethasone, double the legal threshold in Kentucky racing, in a postrace sample.
That is the same drug that was found in the system of Gamine, another Baffert-trained horse who finished third in the Kentucky Oaks last September.
Baffert denied any wrongdoing and said he did not know how Medina Spirit could have tested positive. He said Medina Spirit has never been treated with betamethasone and called it “a complete injustice."
“I got the biggest gut-punch in racing, for something I didn't do," said Baffert, who vowed to be transparent with racing investigators.
Baffert said his camp received the word of the positive test from Kentucky officials on Saturday. Baffert said Medina Spirit has not yet been officially disqualified from the Kentucky Derby, though that still could happen after other tests and processes are completed.
“This shouldn’t have happened,” Baffert said. “There’s a problem somewhere. It didn’t come from us.”
Medina Spirit won the Kentucky Derby on May 1 by a half-length over Mandaloun, giving Baffert his recordsetting seventh victory in the race that starts the Triple Crown season. Medina Spirit is still expected to race in the Preakness, the Triple Crown’s second jewel, on Saturday.
“He ran a gallant race," Baffert said.
Last month, Baffert won an appeals case before the Arkansas Racing Commission, which had suspended him for 15 days for a pair of positive drug tests involving two of his horses that won at Oaklawn Park on May 2, 2020. The horses tested positive for lidocaine, a painkiller, which Baffert said they were exposed to inadvertently.
“There’s problems in racing,” Baffert said. “But it’s not Bob Baffert.”
The New York Times said in November 2020 that Baffert-trained horses have failed at least 29 drug tests in his four-decade career.
“I’m worried about our sport,” Baffert said. “Our sport, we’ve taken a lot of hits as a sport. These are pretty serious accusations here, but we’re going to get to the bottom of it and find out. We know we didn’t do it.”
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Comments
It ain't cheatin' if you don't get caught. Signed, Smokey Y.
Two possibilities: Baffert is a serial cheat who just denies everything. Or...Somebody is intent on bringing down Baffert through bogus test results because they can't beat him on the track.
You would think they were smart enough to give the horse some sort of Pre Race Drug Test.
First Lance Armstrong, and now a horse! What is the world coming to.
They are ALL tested after a winning race so I am of the sort someone wants Baffert gone from racing. Gamine tested positive also a couple weeks ago, not buying he is doing it.
Whoa, Wilbur!
Naa! The test mistook a recent Covid shot for steroids! 😁
So do the folks that bet on the horse that came in 2nd have any retribution here🙄
Do they test the jockeys, too? They are the ones in control.
just like pro athletes shoot them full of drugs and get better results . win at all cost
soon they will get participation awards any way no winner or looser as that hurts feelings
Yes they do test jockeys.
Sure do, place and show money.
https://images.app.goo.gl/f6kiducD5CpbVp6R9
Hilarious
Now comes a massive cover-up due to the money involved. I see excuses @ie. such as a faulty test giving a "positive hit", we've got way too much money involved so lets sweep it under the rug and all will be well. Watch the following results, the horse will be clean on a re-test, anyone want to bet....😀
"Never do wrong to make a friend----or to keep one".....Robert E. Lee
The new lineup... Methaholic in the first gate, Crackababy gate 2, Heroric herion gate 3, ropy dopy gate4, just a toke gate 5 , pass a round gate6, wasted gate 7, out on bail gate 8
If the governing body of horse racing isn’t testing the horses BEFORE the race, they may as well be colluding to drug the horses.
A third possibility seems most likely, and that is a party sympathetic to the owner snuck the horse the PED without the owner knowing.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
I went to three Kentucky Derby's and never saw a horse.
Horse doping has been around for a long time.
I worked with several people who went often they did not seem like horse race people , so I ask why
they said the same thing never saw a race but the party out side was a free for all drinking partying girls wearing, well for the most part nothing , it was a wild and fun time . just a place to gather and party
I had never heard or even thought of such a thing at a horse race but they loved it
You would not believe some of the women and their lack of outfits, and they don't look like horses either. It's gets insane about last half of the meet.
Just read..bets are final..no adjusting bets if the winner is disqualified
https://youtu.be/TuoBsa0Mfdc