Kentucky Derby stewards vote to disqualify 2021 winner Medina Spirit, suspend Bob Baffert for 90 days

After months of delay, litigation and laboratory tests, the 2021 Kentucky Derby finally reached at least a temporary resolution Monday when stewards disqualified Medina Spirit for a positive drug test.

The outcome had seemed inevitable to racing officials because Kentucky racing regulations allow no detectable betamethasone in a horse’s system on race day. But attorneys for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert argued the ban applied only to injectable betamethasone and that Medina Spirit had absorbed the corticosteroid through the ointment Otomax. 

Though seven days passed between the Feb. 14 hearing and Monday's ruling, Baffert's argument did not prove persuasive to the three stewards adjudicating the case. Stewards Barbara Borden, Brooks Becraft and Tyler Picklesimer disqualified Baffert’s colt, now deceased, and imposed a 90-day suspension and a $7,500 fine on Baffert.

“We are disappointed by the Commission’s ruling, but not surprised," said Baffert's attorney, Clark Brewster. "This ruling represents an egregious departure from both the facts and the law, but the numerous public statements by KHRC officials over the last several months have made perfectly clear that Bob Baffert’s fate was decided before we ever sat down for a hearing before the three stewards, one of whom is directly employed by Churchill Downs as the racing director at Turfway Park (Picklesimer). We will appeal, and we will prevail when the facts and rules are presented to detached, neutral decisionmakers."

Runner-up Mandaloun on track to become Kentucky Derby winner

Pending that appeal, which Brewster said has already been filed, runner-up Mandaloun stands to become the winner of Derby 147 and further enhance the resume and the net worth of Louisville trainer Brad Cox, who had already set a North American earnings record in 2021 with $31 million in purses. The Derby winner's purse is worth $1.86 million. Cox would also benefit from fourth-place finisher Essential Quality being moved up to third place behind trainer Doug O'Neill's Hot Rod Charlie.

Churchill Downs issued a statement recognizing Mandaloun as the winner of the 147th Derby, congratulating Cox, owner Juddmonte and jockey Florent Geroux.

"Winning the Kentucky Derby is one of the most exciting achievements in sports," the statement said, "and we look forward to celebrating Mandaloun on a future date in a way that is fitting of this rare distinction."

Churchill Downs plans to switch the paddock sign honoring Medina Spirit for one bearing Mandaloun's name Tuesday morning. The Kentucky Derby trophy, yet to be engraved, remains in the possession of the track.

Bob Baffert's suspension details

Baffert's 90-day suspension is scheduled to start on March 8 and run through June 5, a span that would include the first two legs of the Triple Crown: the Derby and Preakness Stakes. The trainer has 10 days to request a review of the stewards' ruling by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission or to apply for a stay from the commission's executive director, Marc Guilfoil. He may eventually take his case to Franklin Circuit Court, which could delay final resolution of the race for months or even years.

The previous Derby drug disqualification, the 1968 case in which Dancer’s Image was taken down in favor of Forward Pass, was not ultimately resolved until owner Peter Fuller abandoned his court fight on behalf of Dancer's Image in 1973.

The 90-day suspension for Baffert reflected not only his Kentucky Derby positive, but the four other times his horses had tested positive in the previous 364 days. KHRC guidelines call for a 30-60-day suspension in the event of a third positive test within a one-year span, but there is no formal provision for additional positives.

Gamine, a Baffert-trained filly, was disqualified in January 2021 after testing positive following the 2020 Kentucky Oaks, also for betamethasone. Baffert also experienced one positive test at Del Mar and two on Arkansas Derby day at Oaklawn.

"We applaud the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission for taking action against American horse racing's most infamous violator, Bob Baffert, and are pleased to see some justice brought to the tragic life and death of Medina Spirit," said Marty Irby, executive director of Animal Wellness Action. "Baffert continues to drag horse racing through the mud in scandal after scandal, and we call on every racing jurisdiction in the nation to hold him accountable by reciprocating the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission's suspension in their own state. We're elated that Baffert won't be participating in the upcoming 2022 Kentucky Derby and believe the horses will be better off, and the event will have more credibility, without him." 

Though Baffert admitted Gamine’s positive test, while claiming the filly had been taken off the medication before the state’s 14-day withdrawal period, he bitterly disputed Medina Spirit had been treated with betamethasone in confirming the initial test results. But he backed down days later by acknowledging the horse had been treated for a skin condition with the ointment Otomax, which contains betamethasone.

Baffert’s attorneys sought to draw a critical distinction by insisting Kentucky regulations applied only to the injectable drug and not the ointment. But regulators, including Guilfoil and Dr. Mary Scollay, executive director of the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium, clung to the letter of Kentucky law, which defines a positive test as the presence of a restricted or prohibited drug in a sample. KHRC general counsel Jennifer Wolsing told Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate in a June hearing that the method in which betamethasone is administered is "not differentiated" in Kentucky regulations.

Baffert sued the KHRC to seek additional testing in an effort to confirm the origin of the betamethasone, and his attorneys claimed vindication when a New York lab reported Medina Spirit’s sample contained betamethasone valerate (which the ointment contains), but not the acetate version found in the injectable betamethasone. Though the attorneys have characterized the results as definitive, the report issued by the New York Drug Testing and Research Program included a caution that its research had not been peer reviewed.

While Scollay insisted the positive test meant a “non-negotiable” disqualification, regardless of the source of the substance, Baffert’s camp was also waging a public relations battle in an effort to minimize the trainer’s potential penalties and the impact on his business.

If Medina Spirit was being treated with an ointment for a skin condition as opposed to being injected with a drug some authorities considered performance-enhancing, that might be considered a mitigating factor in the stewards' deliberations.

Despite an earlier two-year suspension imposed by Churchill Downs, and the approach of Derby 148, Baffert’s clients have mostly remained loyal. Seven different horses would have accumulated Derby qualifying points if they were not being trained by Baffert. Of the 21 prep races eligible for qualifying points that have already been run, six have been won by Baffert horses, most recently Blackadder's victory in the Feb. 12 El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate. 

Unless Baffert's owners move their horses to other trainers or the trainer somehow finesses the stewards' suspension and Churchill's ban, some of the year's most promising 3-year-olds will be unable to run for the roses. If that should diminish Derby 148, that's a price Churchill Downs appears willing to pay.

"The Derby's got deep roots," said Louisville-based trainer Dale Romans. "I think it would have diminished the Derby if he didn't get the penalty."

Tim Sullivan: 502-582-4650, tsullivan@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @TimSullivan714