Racing officials strip Medina Spirit of his 2021 Kentucky Derby win, trainer Bob Baffert suspended for 90 days and fined $7,500

Jim Owens/USA Today Sports/Reuters

Bob Baffert, who is the alleged villain in this whole sorted affair, gets a mere slap on the wrist. Meanwhile, a talented racehorse who – like any other horse – never had any say in his care and handling, and who died tragically (and suspiciously) of a heart attack just two months ago, is being stripped of his place in history. Forgive me for feeling as though justice has not been served here. The New York Times -  

Medina Spirit is no longer the winner of the 2021 Kentucky Derby. The colt, who died unexpectedly in December, was officially disqualified by Kentucky racing officials on Monday for failing a drug test after winning the race. 

Medina Spirit is only the third horse in the race’s 147-year history to receive such a penalty after finishing first. The decision means the colt’s owner, Amr Zedan, will not collect the $1.8 million first-place check, which was never paid out and will now go to Mandaloun’s owner, Juddmonte, the racing and breeding enterprise founded by Prince Khalid bin Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who died last year. 

Churchill Downs, the track in Louisville, Ky., that hosts the Derby, said in a statement that it now recognizes Mandaloun as the winner of the 2021 race, adding, “We look forward to celebrating Mandaloun on a future date in a way that is fitting of this rare distinction.” 

The ruling also erased the Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert’s seventh Kentucky Derby victory, which had been a record. 

In addition, Baffert was suspended for 90 days beginning March 8 and fined $7,500. The ruling followed a hearing via videoconference on Feb. 14 before a three-member panel of stewards for the Kentucky Horse Racing Association. 

The drug found in Medina Spirit’s system was betamethasone, a corticosteroid injected into joints to reduce pain and swelling. Baffert and his lawyers denied injecting the colt and said the drug was applied topically to treat a skin rash on Medina Spirit’s hind end. (Read more)

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