Kentucky Derby winner linked to drug overage,
Trainer Baffert denies report
Sitting on top of the racing world after winning a record seventh Kentucky Derby, Bob Baffert explored the sport’s dark side again on the Sunday before the Preakness.
In what is becoming an all-too-familiar storyline regarding the Hall of Fame trainer, drugs are at the center of the controversy.
Medina Spirit’s May 1 Derby victory is in question after the colt tested positive for an excessive trace of an anti-inflammatory drug. Baffert denied the report, which came with a Kentucky Horse Racing Commission notice to assistant Jimmy Barnes that Medina Spirit was found to have 21 picograms of betamethasone in his system, 11 picograms over the limit established by the KHRC. A picogram is a trillionth of a gram.
“We did not give it,” Baffert said Sunday at his Churchill Downs barn in company of attorney Craig Robertson. “Medina Spirit has never been treated with betamethasone.”
The KHRC did not publicly confirm the test results. Under Kentucky racing law, Medina Spirit could not be disqualified before a second test sample was evaluated.
Baffert’s press conference came after Medina Spirit and stablemate Concert Tour breezed at Churchill Downs in preparation for Saturday’s race at Pimlico in Baltimore. Baffert has won the Preakness a record-tying seven times.
“I got the biggest gut punch in racing for something I didn’t do,” Baffert said. “It’s a complete injustice, and I’m going to fight it tooth and nail.”
Last month, the Arkansas Racing Commission overturned a suspension of Baffert after two of his horses tested positive for the numbing agent lidocaine after May 2, 2020, victories in Hot Springs. Charlatan’s victory in a division of the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby and Gamine’s triumph in a allowance race were restored.
Attending a two-day hearing at Oaklawn in which he was represented by Robertson, Baffert said the lidocaine positives were not confined to his barn after he first suspected the source was a pain-relief patch worn by Barnes. Seven months after the Arkansas stewards disqualified the horses and suspended Baffert, the state panel fined the trainer $5,000 per horse.
In another case involving medication, the KHRC disqualified Gamine, a future Breeders’ Cup winner, from a third-place finish in the 2020 Kentucky Oaks. Baffert did not appeal that ruling.
Despite a record 17 victories in Triple Crown and saddling the two most recent Triple Crown winners, Baffert has become a lightning rod for controversy. He faced formal medication scrutiny in the wake of Justify’s 2018
Triple Crown sweep.
“I am not a conspiracy theorist,” Baffert said. “I know everybody is not out to get me, but there is definitely something wrong. Why is it happening to me? There’s problems in racing, but it’s not Bob Baffert.”
Addressing reporters, Baffert said, “Imagine yourself going to work every day, and they tested you every day for these contamination levels, and they told you if you tested positive, you were going to be fired. That’s how I feel. I do not feel safe, and it’s getting worse. How do I move forward from this knowing something like this can happen.”
Medina Spirit and Concert
Tour are scheduled to be vanned from Louisville today to arrive before dawn Tuesday in Baltimore. Concert Tour, winner of Oaklawn’s Grade 2 Rebel Stakes March 13 and third in the Arkansas Derby, skipped the Kentucky Derby. With Hall of Famer riding John Velazquez riding, Medina Spirit won in front-running style by a halflength over Mandaloun at 12-1 odds.
Other possible Oaklawn-raced horses in the Preakness are Keepmeinmind, trained by Robertino Diodoro, and Ram, a last-out allowance winner at Churchill Downs for Hall of Famer Wayne Lukas.