More testing on Derby winner

A Kentucky judge has ordered the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission to allow further testing on a urine sample from Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit at the request of the horse’s connections.

Franklin Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wingate issued the ruling late on Wednesday, five days after conducting a hearing on the issue and urging the attorneys involved in the case to come to an agreement. Under the ruling, Wingate ordered that the KHRC allow testing for three specific substances, all of which are the active ingredients in a skin ointment that Medina Spirit’s connections contend was the source for a post-Derby positive for betamethasone, a regulated anti-inflammatory drug.

Attorneys for Bob Baffert, the horse’s trainer, and Amr Zedan, the horse’s owner, have argued that additional testing is necessary because they believe the source of the betamethasone will count as a “mitigating circumstance” when adjudicating the case. Although the KHRC has confirmed that betamethasone was found in Medina Spirit’s post-race Derby sample, they have not scheduled a hearing in the case or issued any ruling.

Under the judge’s ruling, two commission representatives and two representatives of the horse’s connections will be required to accompany the sample on a flight to upstate New York, where the sample is being tested. After arriving at the laboratory, the sample will be divided into two batches, with 20 milliliters reserved for testing and the remainder, approximately 5 milliliters, given to the KHRC as a reserve, the ruling states.

“The court believes that this is a fair and equitable distribution that will hopefully expedite this significant matter that not only has the Commonwealth, but also the entire horse racing industry, waiting with bated breath,” Wingate wrote. “This matter is of extraordinary importance to the Commonwealth and the horse racing industry and deserves swift attention and incontrovertible results.”

Kentucky rules require a disqualification for a positive test for betamethasone, which is normally injected into a horse’s joints in order to alleviate swelling and pain. The attorneys for Baffert and Zedan have said that they will argue that the disqualification is not required if the source of the substance came from a skin ointment instead of an injection.