Home Sports Medina Spirit’s Kentucky Derby win in doubt after failing postrace drug test

Medina Spirit’s Kentucky Derby win in doubt after failing postrace drug test

0
Medina Spirit’s Kentucky Derby win in doubt after failing postrace drug test

[ad_1]

Speaking to reporters Sunday morning, Baffert denied that the horse had ever been handled with the drug, saying his staff would conduct its personal investigation.

“Yesterday I got the biggest gut punch in racing for something that I didn’t do,” Baffert stated, including it was an “injustice to the horse.”

“I don’t feel embarrassed, I feel like I was wronged. But I’m going to fight it.”

Betamethasone is an anti-inflammatory corticosteroid that’s allowed in horse racing at a sure stage. But Baffert stated he’d been knowledgeable that Medina Spirit’s postrace test detected 21 picograms per milliliter — greater than double the authorized threshold in Kentucky racing.

The information comes simply over every week after the 3-year-old brown colt gained the Derby, one of many sport’s most well-known occasions, at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, beating out second-place Mandaloun by half a size. It was Baffert’s seventh victory on the Derby, a document.

As of Sunday, Medina Spirit had not been disqualified, Baffert stated. A break up pattern from Medina Spirit will now be examined, and if the unique outcomes are confirmed, then Baffert would have an opportunity to attraction.

If an attraction is unsuccessful, Medina Spirit could be stripped of the Kentucky Derby crown in addition to the successful prize cash.

There is not any phrase but if Sunday’s announcement will have an effect on plans for Medina Spirit to run in subsequent Saturday’s Preakness Stakes, the second jewel of horse racing’s Triple Crown.

In a press release Sunday, Churchill Downs stated it was conscious of the allegations. Churchill Downs stated it “will immediately suspend Bob Baffert, the trainer of Medina Spirit, from entering any horses at Churchill Downs Racetrack.”

“To be clear, if the findings are upheld, Medina Spirit’s results in the Kentucky Derby will be invalidated and Mandaloun will be declared the winner,” the assertion stated.

“We will await the conclusion of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commissions’ investigation before taking further steps.”

This isn’t Baffert’s first run-in with studies that his horse failed a drug test: Last month, in response to a number of studies, including the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the Arkansas Racing Commission upheld a ruling that two of Baffert’s horses had examined constructive for lidocaine past the accepted ranges. However, the fee dropped a 15-day suspension for Baffert.

[ad_2]

Source link