Medina Spirit has been stripped of last year’s Kentucky Derby victory and trainer Bob Baffert suspended and fined over the colt’s positive drug test in May last year, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) said on Monday.
The Amr Zedan-owned colt — which died suddenly during a workout in California in December — tested positive for traces of betamethasone, an anti-inflammatory steroid medication that is legal in US racing, but cannot be used within 14 days of competition.
Churchill Downs racetrack had banned Baffert, who denied all wrongdoing, for two years while the KHRC investigated the matter.
Photo: AP
Medina Spirit has been disqualified “and all purse money forfeited,” the KHRC said in a statement on Monday.
It is just the third time in the 146-year history of the Kentucky Derby that a winner has been disqualified.
The move makes Mandaloun the winner of the Kentucky Derby, although there would be no refunds or payouts for anyone who bet on the horse, officials said.
The last time a horse was disqualified for a prohibited substance in the Kentucky Derby was in 1968, when Dancer’s Image was removed as the winner and Forward Pass was awarded the victory in a case that took four years to resolve.
Baffert was suspended 90 days and fined US$7,500. The winner’s purse of US$1.86 million would have to be returned and will be awarded to Mandaloun’s owners.
“I am very disappointed in the ruling,” Baffert said in a statement via his lawyer. “It runs contrary to the scientifically proven facts in this case and the rules of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. We will be filing an immediate appeal.”
Baffert has said the medication found in Medina Spirit’s system was the result of a legal application of a topical ointment, rather than an injection.
The colt was the fifth horse trained by Baffert in 12 months to fail a drugs test.
He was already barred from entering horses in this year’s Kentucky Derby and next year’s edition, and has also been banned by New York racing authorities from entering horses at Belmont, Saratoga and Aqueduct race tracks.
Medina spirit collapsed and died at the end of a workout at Santa Anita Park on Dec. 6.
This month the California Horse Racing Board released the report of a necropsy on the colt that showed no definitive cause of death.
The post-mortem examination, required for any horse that dies suddenly at a California racing facility, included toxicology tests that found anti-ulcer medication and the diuretic Lasix, but “no other drugs, heavy metals or toxicants” in blood or urine samples.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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