San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
Bob Baffert’s Concert Tour and Medina Spirit come up short.
Once Baffert’s top 3-year-old comes in disappointing ninth
“He didn’t seem to participate at all down the backside. He just wasn’t going anywhere, and when I put my hands down, he just backed off. It was very strange.” Mike Smith • Concert Tour’s jockey
For all the hype surrounding Medina Spirit coming off his victory at the Kentucky Derby, fellow Bob Baffert-trained Concert Tour was a popular pick to win the Preakness. Instead, he fell flat. Concert Tour, owned by Gary and Mary West of Rancho Santa Fe, finished an inexplicable ninth in the 10horse field, ahead of only D. Wayne Lukas’ long shot, Ram.
A horse who once looked like Baffert’s best 3-year-old this year was never in contention in the second leg of the Triple Crown.
“I am at a loss for words,” said jockey Mike Smith, who rode Midnight Bourbon in the Kentucky Derby and switched to Concert Tour for the Preakness.
“He didn’t seem to participate at all down the backside. He just wasn’t going anywhere, and when I put my hands down, he just backed off. It was very strange.”
With Baffert staying away from Pimlico Race Course because of the controversy surrounding Medina Spirit’s failed postderby drug test, assistant Jimmy Barnes was left to saddle two horses in the race.
He wondered if it was Concert Tour’s “chance to shine” after skipping the Derby.
Concert Tour didn’t go out to the lead as expected and never challenged, as 11-1 long shot Rombauer pulled off the upset.
“(Smith) said he was out of horse turning for home,” Barnes said.
It’s a second consecutive disappointing result for Concert Tour, whose thirdplace finish in the Arkansas Derby on April 10 led Baffert and the Wests to skip the Kentucky Derby with eyes on the Preakness.
Much like the last week, that didn’t work out so well for Baffert.
The potential disqualification cast a harsh spotlight on Baffert, the biggest star in modern racing and most successful trainer in Triple Crown series history. He was already under fire for a string of violations involving champions such as Justify, Gamine and Charlatan. Though Baffert had successfully appealed penalties in some of those cases, the prospect of having a Derby win overturned pushed debates over his legacy to new extremes.
On a more practical level, it was not clear until Tuesday afternoon whether Preakness organizers would allow Medina Spirit to race. They ultimately did, citing Baffert’s right to due process, but his Preakness entrants had to pass three prerace drug tests.
Baffert did not attend the Preakness and explained his absence in a statement provided by his attorney. W. Craig Robertson III: “As Medina Spirit prepares to run in the Preakness Stakes today, I want to keep the focus on this amazing equine athlete and not me, which is the primary reason I will not personally be in attendance. I do not want to serve as a distraction to what has always been of paramount importance — the joy of this great sport and the horses that make it possible.”
He said there was “never any attempt to cheat the system” and that even if a split sample confirms the positive test “it would have nothing to do with Medina Spirit’s hard-earned and deserved win.”
He noted that betamethasone is a commonly used medication outside of competition and disputed the characterization of Medina Spirit’s situation as a doping scandal.
Baffert added that he “could have better handled the initial announcement of this news” and that he reacted emotionally because “it truly was the biggest gut punch I had ever received and I was devastated.”