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Preakness Stakes 2021: Bob Baffert s Medina Spirit passes final drug tests
By The Athletic Staff Comments
Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit has passed three drug tests and is cleared to race in Saturday s Preakness Stakes in Baltimore.
Concert Tour, the other Bob Baffert-trained horse in the 10-horse field, also passed three rounds of pre-race testing. Medina Spirit failed a post-race drug test after the Kentucky Derby, testing positive for betamethasone, an anti-inflammatory, at more than double the legal limit in Kentucky.
At 9-5 odds, Medina Spirit is the morning-line favorite for Saturday s race. Concert Tour is the second favorite at 5-2. Baffert-trained horses have won the Preakness seven times, most recently in 2018.
05/11/2021
The last few days have seen quite the horse-racing story developing around Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit. The horse failed a post-race drug test after its win Saturday, which could lead to a disqualification barring the results of a second test, but that disqualification hasn’t formally happened yet. Meanwhile, trainer Bob Baffert (who has previously had quite a history of horses failing drug tests) went on Fox News Monday to call this potential disqualification “cancel culture” (as seen above), and also spread a story that the positive test here for betamethasone (at 21 picograms, more than twice the amount considered allowable) possibly came from a groom urinating in the horse’s stall after taking cough syrup:
By Steve DelVecchio | Last updated 5/9/21
The horse that won the Kentucky Derby last Saturday has tested positive for an illegal substance.
Medina Spirit trainer Bob Baffert revealed on Sunday morning that the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission has informed assistant trainer Jimmy Barnes that the horse tested positive for betamethasone. All horses are tested after the Kentucky Derby, and the results take a week to come back.
The corticosteroid is the same one another Baffert horse, Gamine, tested positive for after winning the Kentucky Oaks last year. Other Baffert horses have also had issues with failed drug tests. Justify reportedly failed a drug test before winning the Triple Crown in 2018, but the inquiry was quietly dropped under the guise that the horse could have eaten contaminated food. Two other Baffert horses tested positive for lidocaine last year and Baffert complained about confidentiality.