Medina Spirit finished third in the Preakness Stakes after passing a drug test to be allowed to race, but is not entered in the Belmont Stakes after Baffert was suspended from entering horses at New York racetracks, pending an investigation into the horse's first failed postrace drug test.Įven if Medina Spirit is disqualified, bettors who backed Mandaloun to win in the pari-mutuel pool will not be refunded or paid, despite potentially having the eventual winning horse. Sherelle Roberts-Pierre said the commission "values fairness and transparency and will provide information to the media and public at the close of an investigation.''īaffert said on May 9 that 21 picograms of the corticosteroid, which can be used to help a horse's joints, showed up in Medina Spirit's first blood sample.Ī day later, he said Otomax, an ointment used to treat Medina Spirit for a skin condition daily up until the Derby, included the substance.
"The whole basis for listing betamethasone is because it's injected into a joint and they want you not to inject the joints too close to the race, so the whole substantive basis is out the window if it's a salve, and it can be proven scientifically and empirically to be the salve.''Ī spokeswoman for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation. "I think that will shed the light most prominently on the issue here for us," Brewster told The Associated Press by phone. Robertson told The Associated Press that "we anticipate this case to be about the treatment of Medina Spirit's skin rash with Otomax" and said he would hold further comment until the additional testing was completed. Mandaloun, the horse that finished second in the Derby, is now poised to be declared the winner.īrewster, however, told The New York Times in a text message that the UC Davis lab didn't test for other compounds, "which 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."īrewster told The New York Times that the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission has agreed to send Medina Spirit's original blood and urine samples to an independent laboratory to test for the presence of other compounds.
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