Amr Zedan | Horse Racing Free Tips

Testing On Medina Spirit’s Urine Sample Ready To Proceed In New York

Extra testing on Medina Spirit's post-Kentucky Derby urine sample will begin next week, according to bloodhorse.com. Dr. George Maylin, director of the New York Equine Drug Testing and Research Laboratory, has now received the relevant drug metabolite reference standards from Frontier BioPharm. Testing of the sample is expected to take approximately two weeks.

The Protonico colt's Derby win is in jeopardy due to a positive post-race test result for betamethasone, a therapeutic medication that is not allowed on race day. Trainer Bob Baffert and his attorney have claimed the positive is a result of a topical cream (Otomax) used to treat a case of dermatitis on the colt's hindquarters. Though the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission has not yet held a hearing, required to disqualify Medina Spirit.

Counsel for Medina Spirit's trainer Bob Baffert and owner Zedan Stables, Craig Robertson, filed a civil suit against the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission on June 7 demanding their right to test the split urine sample, which sat undisturbed in the commission's freezer. Remnants of the original biologic samples were initially sent to be tested for those ingredients, but they were reportedly damaged before arrival at the plaintiffs' choice of labs, the New York Equine Drug Testing and Research Laboratory.

Franklin County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wingate ordered June 16 that the remaining urine sample be flown to the New York lab, that two KHRC representatives travel with the sample, and that plaintiffs fund the flight. Upon arrival, the KHRC was to retain 5 milliliters of the sample, while the remainder was to be tested for clotrimazole, gentamicin, and betamethasone valerate, active ingredients in the topical cream Otomax.

On July 14, the sample was flown to New York accompanied by Dr. Clara Fenger and Tom Huckeby, representing Baffert and Medina Spirit's owner, Amr Zedan, as well as by KHRC executive director Marc Guilfoil and equine medical director Dr. Bruce Howard.

On Aug. 9 in Judge Wingate's courtroom, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission's general counsel Jennifer Wolsing explained: “My understanding is that an affirmative defense is being mounted by the plaintiffs, to the extent that there may be some evidence as to how this substance (betamethasone) was introduced to the horse.

“We can't have a stewards hearing until those testing results have come back, because that appears to form the basis of the defense the plaintiffs want to mount. We would really like those results so that we can press forward with a stewards hearing and find out more about this case.”

When that hearing occurs, Medina Spirit could be disqualified and Baffert could be fined and/or suspended by the KHRC. A suspension would be reciprocated across other racing jurisdictions.

Since his run in the Kentucky Derby, Medina Spirit has run four times. He finished third in the Preakness, then won the Shared Belief Stakes and G1 Awesome Again, and finished second in the G1 Breeders' Cup Classic.

Medina Spirit Breezes Through The Fog

Zedan Racing Stables' Medina Spirit (Protonico) drilled six furlongs in 1:13 (2/7) on a foggy Friday morning at Santa Anita as he prepares for his next start in the $6-million GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic at Del Mar Nov. 6. The Florida-bred was put through his paces by former jockey Juan Ochoa.

“I got :59 and four,” said bloodstock agent Gary Young, who recommended the purchase of Medina Spirit to owner Amr Zedan. “You can see fine now [8:15 a.m.], but you couldn't see him when he worked. It was dark but I think the times are close enough,” Young said. “He looked good doing it.”

Medina Spirit, who will try to add to trainer Bob Baffert's four previous wins in the Classic, earned his way into the championship weekend centerpiece with a dominating five-length victory in the GI Awesome Again S. at Santa Anita Oct. 2.

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More Allegations of Damaged Samples in Medina Spirit Testing

An attempt by the connections of Medina Spirit (Protonico) to have a third-party lab perform a new series of tests on the colt's bodily fluids in the wake of the colt's GI Kentucky Derby betamethasone positive has resulted in allegations by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) of a “lack of candor and contemptuous conduct by the New York Laboratory, [trainer Bob Baffert and owner Zedan Racing Stables], or both.”

According to a status report and motion for order filed in Kentucky's Franklin Circuit Court July 19, the KHRC wants the judge in the case to compel that Baffert and/or Zedan Racing disclose what methods of testing were performed on a urine sample whose remnants allegedly came back damaged after undergoing testing July 14 in New York.

It is the second time in seven weeks that a party in this court case has alleged that samples came back contaminated from an accredited lab.

On June 1–the same date that Medina Spirit's referee sample was announced as positive–the KHRC informed Baffert and Zedan that body fluid remnants had been damaged during transport to the split-sample testing lab.

The July 14 new round of testing performed by the New York Equine Drug Testing and Research Laboratory was part of a court mandate in a lawsuit initiated by Baffert and Zedan Racing on June 7 that sought, in part, some form of “limits of detection” testing that could purportedly show that the betamethasone was present along with other compounds in the topical ointment Otomax.

Betamethasone is a corticosteroid allowed in Kentucky as a therapeutic medication, but state rules require at least a 14-day withdrawal time before racing.

Attorneys for Baffert and stable owner Amr Zedan have stated a desire to prove that the Derby winner's betamethasone positive–which has yet to be adjudicated by the KHRC–resulted from an ointment to treat a skin condition and not from an intra-articular injection.

Yet any level of detection on race day is a Class C violation in Kentucky, with no distinction listed in the rules pertaining how the substance got inside a horse.

Tim Sullivan of the Louisville Courier-Journal reported Tuesday that KHRC executive director Marc Guilfoil and equine medical director Dr. Bruce Howard transported a second urine sample to New York while accompanied by Dr. Clara Fenger and Tom Huckabee, who represented Baffert and Zedan.

Sullivan wrote that, “In signed affidavits, Guilfoil and Howard said the [New York] lab's program director, Dr. George Maylin, initially insisted on retaining remnants of the original sample, and subsequently said he had not read the court order requiring the return of those remnants despite a June 21 email in which he had pledged to abide by that order….

“When the remnants were ultimately produced, however, the KHRC filing says the urine tube contained only one to two milliliters of 'bloody fluid,' a broken serum separator tube and another tube with serum that had been saved–all presented at room temperature instead of frozen, as preferred. According to Guilfoil and Howard, Maylin explained that most of the urine sample had been used up in testing, but did not provide a clear answer when twice asked what testing had been conducted,” the Courier-Journal story explained.

Maylin did not immediately respond to an interview request from the Courier-Journal on Tuesday.

W. Craig Robertson, an attorney for Baffert and Zedan, told the paper the plaintiffs would be responding in court, adding that, “The statements contained in the KHRC's status report are inaccurate. We have intentionally had no direct communication with the New York lab, so we are unaware of any testing or the results.”

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Crawford: Racing Needs ‘Fair, Transparent, And Timely Resolution’ To Medina Spirit Case

Sports journalist Eric Crawford of WDRB urged the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission to issue a decision on whether or not Bob Baffert trainee Medina Spirit will be disqualified from his victory in this year's Kentucky Derby.

He points out that in the only other similar case, when 1968 Derby first-place finisher Dancer's Image was disqualified over a post-race drug test, that decision was handed down three days after the race. Crawford acknowledged that the lawsuits dragged on for another four years, but adds that the lawsuits are “inevitable.”

“The state racing commission should do all it can to make sure Baffert and Medina Spirit's owner, Amr Zedan, get due process,” Crawford wrote. “But in the end, that body must also realize that racing as a sport needs a fair, transparent and timely resolution of this high-profile situation.

“For the sport of horse racing, which long has been (rightly) accused of capitulating to big-name trainers, dragging its feet on potentially controversial drug rulings or washing its hands of them altogether, the public nature of this particular allegation adds an urgency to getting it right – and doing it in the right way.”