Baffert changes his drug story, serial cheater won’t be at Pimlico

Updated Wednesday, May 12, 2021

Bob Baffert will not attend Saturday’s Preakness Stakes, continuing a streak of  dodgy behavior that began when his colt, Medina Spirit, was found to be using a banned steroid, betamethasone.  The stewards at Churchill Downs disqualified Medina Spirit from a Kentucky Derby win that had so temporarily made Baffert No. 1 on the all-time list, seemingly uncatachable by Ben A. Jones RIP.  

The stewards at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore say Medina Spirit can run at their track as long as he passes a pre-race drug test.  Baffert said he will not be there because he’d be “a distraction.”

Imagine that, the face of the sport in hiding, white mop, dark sunglasses and all.  If he’d make himself available to the national press, he’d be asked about the emphatic denial that Medina was ever treated with betamethasone.  On Tuesday he acknowledged that the colt in fact had been dabbed with otomax, an anti-fungal ointment whose active ingredient is betamethasone.  

Perhaps telling the truth was part of the agreement that Baffert’s attorney, Craig Robertson, reached with the Maryland Racing Commission.  Robertson pointed out that under Kentucky law, Medina’s victory can’t be rescinded until a split/sample corroborating drug test is completed by a pharmacologist approved by Baffert.  

Would it be fair to deny the horse an opportunity to continue his Triple Crown pursuit while the first jewel remains in limbo?

Before retreating from the limelight that usually soothes him, Baffert laid out his case for Medina Spirit’s restoration, saying he “earned his Kentucky Derby win, and my pharmacologists have told me that 21 picograms of betamethasone would have had no effect on the outcome of the race.”

Except that without that steroid (twice the maximum allowed), the horse might have been in too much pain to run fast enough to win.  Like LeBron limping on a sore ankle.  

Medina Spirit would not be the first Kentucky Derby winner to be disqualified for drugs, but he’d be the first since Dancer’s Image in 1968.  If the disqualification stands, Mandaloun, who’s not running in the Preakness, becomes the Derby winner. If the split sample is negative, then the first test will be regarded as false positive, and Baffert’s seventh Derby triumph is restored.

Last year, when Baffert won the Kentucky Derby with Authentic, he was being investigated for betamethasone found in another of his horses at Churchill Downs the day before.  Gamine had finished third in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks, but she was DQ’d, and Baffert was fined $1,500.  He admitted applying the drug 18 days before the Oaks, with such usage allowed up to 14 days before the race. 

“With Gamine and the betamethasone,” Baffert said, “we did everything by the rules, and we still got in trouble.  Racing regulators need to figure out the science.”

Or horse trainers need to figure out how long a drug remains detectable and err on the side of extra time.  This is happening too often to Baffert.

The Hall of Fame trainer said, belatedly, that he used betamethasone for Medina Spirit for treatment of dermatitis.  Perhaps he was trying to time it perfectly, 18 days before the Kentucky Derby.  But he mistimed, and then he misspoke.   

Remember in 2018 when Justify, on his way to Baffert’s second Triple Crown, flunked a drug test after the Santa Anita Derby.  Baffert blamed contaminated hay, but other horse trainers said the amount of the banned scopolamine suggested something more malicious.  

Baffert had enough pull with the California Horse Racing Board – chairman Chuck Winner is one of his clients – to prevent disqualification of Justify, which would have made him ineligible for the Kentucky Derby.    

Perhaps Baffert needs to figure out the science of barn security.  I’ve spent enough time at racetracks to notice that the barn areas typically lack oversight.  “I’m not a conspiracy theorist,” Baffert said.  “I know everybody’s not out to get me, but there’s definitely something wrong.”  It’s possible that rivals are sometimes tampering with his horses, but he’s still accountable for their security.  

Baffert has urged Congress to take some responsibility in governing his sport.  He’d like to see a commissioner.  How about a drug czar?  But there is one encouraging development: Next year’s Kentucky Derby will be monitored by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.   

Medina Spirit’s failed test was the fifth known drug positive in Baffert’s barn in a span of six months and at least the 31st of his Hall of Fame career.

Barry Irwin, owner of the 2011 Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom, told The Louisville Courier Journal last year that Baffert “thinks he’s gotten bigger than the game,’’ that his drug violations reflect a lack of attention and bad management.  Irwin moved most of his horses to Europe, frustrated with “running here in America against guys that cheat.”

I think Baffert tries not to cheat, but to get as close as he can without crossing the line.  His Triple Crown success is based on having top-quality colts that he develops with a series of timed workouts that are greater in number, speed and distance than his competitors.  The evidence is now overwhelming that he relies excessively on medications to relieve inflammation and pain so his horses can be tightly conditioned for the Triple Crown circuit.  This strategy is no longer working, and his legacy is forever tarnished.