ROMBAUER HORSE OF HOUR
Controversy shelved as tainted Derby winner Medina Spirit takes 3rd
BALTIMORE — Little-known Rombauer left Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit behind and put the latest controversy in horse racing on the back burner.
Rombauer sprung an 11-1 upset to win the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, passing Medina Spirit to end a potential Triple Crown bid that would have carried a giant asterisk. Medina Spirit finished third and won’t go on to the Belmont Stakes on June 5 with a Triple Crown on the line and a potential Derby disqualification hanging over the sport.
‘‘A little disappointed, but we’ll go on from here,’’ said Medina Spirit assistant trainer Jimmy Barnes, who saddled the horse in trainer Bob Baffert’s absence.
Baffert was not present at Pimlico Race Course, opting to stay away because of the controversy surrounding Medina Spirit, who tested positive for the steroid betamethasone in post-Derby testing. In a spotlight-stealing statement hours before the race, he said: ‘‘Today is not about Bob Baffert. Instead, it is about Medina Spirit and all of the other equine athletes in our tremendous sport.’’
Nonetheless, all the focus was on 2-1 favorite Medina Spirit, Baffert and his other Preakness runner, Concert Tour, who went off at 4-1. Medina Spirit was passed for the first time in his career by Rombauer, who won by 3oe lengths over runner-up Midnight Bourbon.
‘‘I had to come out running to get my position,’’ said Medina Spirit jockey John Velazquez, who fell to 0-for-11 in the Preakness. ‘‘I knew that he was going to be pressed today. I was hoping that he wouldn’t overdo it, and we did.’’
Concert Tour was a disappointing ninth in the 10-horse field.
Maryland racing officials required Concert Tour and Medina Spirit to undergo additional testing and monitoring as conditions to run in the Preakness. Those three rounds of tests came back Friday, clearing them to race. None of the other horses were subject to that level of scrutiny, which came out of the situation at Churchill Downs and Baffert’s four other medication violations with other horses in the last 13 months.
All that, however, was set aside for at least the 1 minute, 53.62 seconds it took for Rombauer to complete the 1›-mile race.
Trainer Michael McCarthy won a Triple Crown race for the first time and captured the Preakness before former boss Todd Pletcher, for whom he worked as an assistant before opening his own barn.
Rombauer is owned by John and Diane Fradkin, a far cry from Medina Spirit’s Zedan Racing Stables and other conglomerates.
McCarthy choked back tears while talking about everyone involved with Rombauer.
‘‘Means a lot to be here, to participate on a day like this,’’ he said.
‘‘Happy for the Fradkins. Just goes to show you that small players in the game can be successful, as well.’’
Rombauer busted the bias of horses hugging the rail on the dirt at Pimlico all day, going past Midnight Bourbon and Medina Spirit down the stretch.
Jockey Flavien Prat won the Preakness two years after being elevated to the Derby winner aboard Country House when Maximum Security was disqualified.
‘‘Of course, it’s a lot different when you cross the wire first,’’ Prat said. ‘‘You get that feeling. It’s a lot of joy.’’
With the usual joy replaced by chatter about Baffert and medication violations, the Preakness was run in front of a limited capacity of 10,000 fans — a fraction of the crowd of 100,000-plus that typically packs Pimlico on the third Saturday in May — because of city and track coronavirus protocols.
Still, it was a step forward from the no fans allowed when the race was run as the third leg of the Triple Crown last fall.