Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit failed a second post-race drug test, securing a pathway for the horse to be the second Derby winner in history to be disqualified.
The laboratory at the University of California, Davis, found that the drug betamethasone was injected in the horse at a higher level than allowed, said Clark Brewster, the lawyer who represents Medina Spirit’s owner Amr Zedan. Betamethasone is a corticosteroid used to reduce joint pain and swelling.
MEDINA SPIRIT CLEARED TO RACE IN PREAKNESS DESPITE FAILED KENTUCKY DERBY DRUG TEST
Medina Spirit’s blood and urine samples were not tested for other compounds that “could prove the trace positive came from an inadvertent and materially inconsequential contamination sourced from a topical ointment used to treat Medina Spirit for a skin lesion on his hip,” Brewster told the New York Times.
Medina Spirit trainer Bob Baffert announced May 9, eight days after the Kentucky Derby, that the horse had tested positive for 21 picograms of betamethasone.
Baffert initially said he had nothing to do with the illegal levels of drugs found in the colt and that Medina Spirit had become a victim of “cancel culture.”
The trainer later acknowledged treating Medina Spirit for a rash by using an antifungal ointment but said he was not aware it contained betamethasone.
Churchill Downs indefinitely disqualified the colt after it was revealed that it had failed the first drug test. Officials previously said that if a second sample came back positive, Medina Spirit would be disqualified and the runner-up winner, Mandaloun, would be declared the Derby winner.
If Medina Spirit is disqualified, Zedan would have to forfeit the nearly $2 million first-place check given to the winner.
A spokesperson for Animal Wellness Action, an animal advocacy organization, said it supported the disqualification of Medina Spirit after the results of the second drug test.
“The news of Medina Spirit’s second test confirmed positive is no shock. Churchill Downs, the Kentucky Derby, and the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission must stand firmly together in agreement to take the 2021 Derby title away from Bob Baffert and the horse,” a spokesperson said in a statement obtained by the Washington Examiner. “We call on Churchill Downs to show no mercy and permanently ban Bob Baffert and his horses from the Kentucky Derby and all of Churchill Downs’ tracks.”
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The last horse to be disqualified for a positive drug test was Dancer’s Image in 1968.
