Amr Zedan | Horse Racing Free Tips

Split Sample Confirms Betamethasone Positive In Kentucky Derby Winner Medina Spirit

The New York Times reported Wednesday morning that a split sample from Bob Baffert-trained Medina Spirit, who crossed the wire first in this year's Kentucky Derby, has confirmed the presence of betamethasone. A statement from Baffert's lawyer, attorney Craig Robertson, said the confirmed concentration was 25 pg/ml.

One week after this year's Derby, Baffert told media that he had been informed initial testing on post-race samples from Medina Spirit had detected the corticosteroid, which is not permitted for use within 14 days of a race in Kentucky. At the time, split sample testing had not yet been completed to confirm the finding.

Attorney Clark Brewster, who represents Medina Spirit owner Amr Zedan, revealed that the University of California-Davis performed the split sample test, which was aimed at confirming or denying the original finding of Industrial Laboratories.

Learn more about split sample testing in this May 21 feature.

Brewster told writer Joe Drape that UC-Davis did not do any further analysis on the sample to see whether it contained other substances that could give clues as to the origins of the betamethasone. (This type of additional analysis is not typically part of a split sample test.) Brewster will request further analysis be done on the post-race samples by a different laboratory.

Robertson released the following statement, which indicated DNA testing would also be done on the sample:

“In response to the inquiries, this will acknowledge that the Medina Spirit split sample confirmed the finding of betamethasone at 25 picograms. There is other testing that is being conducted, including DNA testing. We expect this additional testing to confirm that the presence of the betamethasone was from the topical ointment Otomax and not an injection. At the end of the day, we anticipate this case to be about the treatment of Medina Spirit's skin rash with Otomax. We will have nothing further to say until the additional testing is complete.”

Baffert initially told media he did not know why the horse had betamethasone in its system, and cast suspicion that he was a victim of some kind of tampering or sabotage. Two days later, he announced that Medina Spirit had been treated with a topical cream that contained betamethasone while treating a skin rash on the horse's hindquarters.

Betamethasone is a corticosteroid which is often used therapeutically to assist with reducing inflammation in equine joints, although it is also present in some topical applications like Otomax. Kentucky changed its regulations governing corticosteroid joint injections last August, pushing out the pre-race administration time to 14 days pre-race and removing the drug threshold from its code, meaning no level of the drug is acceptable in a post-race finding. (The commission said at the time that testing could not detect administrations farther than 14 days out.)

In the wake of the Santa Anita breakdowns, Kentucky was one of several states that began requiring private veterinarians to examine horses several days pre-race in addition to the traditional pre-race examination from commission veterinarians. Commission staff had expressed concern that additional pre-race veterinary exams taking place farther ahead of race time could be influenced by the anti-inflammatory effects of corticosteroids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatories.

Baffert has had multiple high-profile therapeutic drug positives in the past year and a half, including one in Kentucky for betamethasone after the rule change when Gamine tested positive following the Kentucky Oaks.

‘Proper’ Quality Road Colt Brings $1.5 Million To Lead First Session Of Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale

Terry Finley of West Point Thoroughbreds knew he needed to pay attention to Hip 211 of the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds In Training Sale when consignor Eddie Woods described the Quality Road colt as a “proper horse.”

It might not sound like an open-throated endorsement of an animal, but in the shorthand of his relationship with Woods, it said everything he needed to know.

“Those Irish guys, when they throw that term out, that's a good indication,” Finley said. “They'll say 'He's a nice horse,' but when they push it to the next level and talk about this being a 'proper horse…' The fact that he did it so well, and he's a big, strong horse that worked :10 flat. You take a look at him, and he's not supposed to work that fast.”

So, what constitutes a “proper horse” to Eddie Woods?

“A proper horse is a horse that has all the attributes of being a very good horse mentally, physically, the way they move, the way they handle themselves,” he said. “You see him up in the back ring, and he'd walk beside you without a shank on. He's been like that since he came to us. I wish they were all like that.”

Two words – and a horse that lived up to them – led Finley to outlast Amr Zedan in a prolonged bidding staredown that ended with the West Point president and CEO signing the ticket for $1.5 million, making the colt the most expensive offering of Monday's opening session of the Midlantic sale.

It also tied for the most money spent for a colt in the history of the Midlantic sale, joining eventual Grade 2-placed stakes winner Curlin's Honor, who sold to Breeze Easy and John Oxley in 2017. The overall record belongs to champion filly Gamine, who brought $1.8 million in 2019.

Finley stood at the back of the Timonium, Md., pavilion as the dark bay or brown colt was led into the ring, while Zedan, two days removed from Medina Spirit's third-place effort in the Preakness Stakes, sat in the front row. Somewhere out there, an online bidder with deep pockets was also watching the proceedings with interest.

The auctioneer, looking to cut through the pleasantries, tried to open the bidding at $1 million on the colt, who breezed an eighth of a mile in :10 seconds flat to tie for the fastest effort at the distance in the under-tack show. The first raised hand ultimately came in the mid-six figures, but it didn't take long for the bidding to float back up to the seven-figure mark.

A three-way battle between Finley, Zedan, and the online bidder carried into the seven-figure stratosphere, but it narrowed down to the two parties in the pavilion once the bidding approached $1.4 million. Zedan raised the bid to $1.45 million, and the board soon flashed $1.5 million in response. When $1.55 million was asked from the stand, Zedan waved off the bidspotter, and after one more round of asking, the hammer fell to the back of the pavilion.

After the ticket came his way, Finley joked that the battle was longer than he wanted. However, the retired Army captain is battled-tested.

“This is our 30^th year, and you can't be intimidated when you walk onto the sales grounds,” he said. “If you do, you're going to be intimidated very quickly, because there's a lot of money in the world. That's the power of the partnership. I'm able to make some calls and tell people, 'Look, I've got a very good prospect. I think he could be a special horse, and I'd love for you to take a part of him.' I think this is one of those horses.”

Finley signed the ticket on behalf of West Point, but he noted a 50-percent partner whose name he declined to reveal. However, he did provide a few hints.

“He's a West Pointer, he's a little bit older than I am, and he hasn't had a whole lot of success in the business,” Finley said. “He called me a couple days after the Kentucky Derby and said, 'I want to compete in the big races.' I said, 'I can give you my best effort,' and that's what we did.

“The last week has obviously been turbulent, but up until then, I think people are looking at the Horse Racing Integrity Act as something that'll help our business,” he continued. “I think it's really going to attract people and investors, and it's going to present us with a level playing field.”

After the session, Finley confirmed that Dallas Stewart would train the new seven-figure purchase.

The session-topper was bred in Kentucky by Jon Clay's Alpha Delta Stables, and Woods consigned him for the breeder as agent.

The colt is out of the unraced Storm Cat mare Stormy Welcome, whose runners of note include stakes-placed Welcoming. His third dam is Broodmare of the Year Weekend Surprise, putting him in the family of Hall of Famer A.P. Indy, Preakness Stakes winner Summer Squall, and Grade 1 winners Happy Saver and Court Vision.

Though the final price and a stallion's pedigree might suggest the colt was born for a moment like this, Woods said that was not always the case.

“[Clay] usually sells as yearlings,” he said. “This horse was very backward as a yearling, and they weren't happy with the way he was coming into the sale, so they scratched him. They said, 'Give him a lot of time,' and we discussed it, and we said 'We'll go to Timonium, then.' He was always pointed for Timonium, and it was a great plan because it came together.”

It took longer than the connections might have expected, but Woods knew what he had by the time the Midlantic sale was approaching. It can be exciting to have a potential showstopper heading into a sale, but it also brings with it a crushing set of expectations.

The pressure went down immensely, though, after his under-tack performance last Wednesday.

“I was nervous before the breeze show, because I expected him to work really, really good; like, a top work, and it doesn't always happen,” Woods said. “But, he did and he nailed it, and he galloped out fantastic. When I came back and watched the video, about a half-hour later, I couldn't believe it. He's the best video of a horse I've had in five, six years. I couldn't stop watching it. He just nailed it, and that's why he brought what he brought.”

The Quality Road colt highlighted an especially strong opening session of the Midlantic sale, where 170 horses sold for revenues of $15,826,500.

Monday's average sale price closed at $93,097, the median was $45,000, and the buyback rate closed at an impressive 19 percent.

“The activity in the barn areas over the weekend was very strong,” said Paget Bennett, Fasig-Tipton's Midlantic sales director. “All the people you'd want to see at a 2-year-old sale were here. You just hope that everything lines up, and this morning, people just kept coming and coming. The pavilion was full of folks, and the [Maryland State Fairgrounds racetrack] infield was full of cars.

“Everybody was just remarking like, 'Have you ever seen this many people here?'” she continued. “We were thrilled, and luckily, the consignors were here with top horses, and people recognized that and battled for them.”

The post ‘Proper’ Quality Road Colt Brings $1.5 Million To Lead First Session Of Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Quality Road Colt Brings $1.5 Million at Fasig Midlantic

West Point Thoroughbreds' Terry Finley saw off a determined Amr Zedan to acquire a colt by Quality Road for $1.5 million Monday at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale. Consigned by Eddie Woods on behalf of breeder Jon Clay's Alpha Delta, the dark bay colt worked a co-bullet furlong in :10 flat during last week's under-tack preview. He is out of the unraced Stormy Welcome (Storm Cat), a half-sister to the dam of graded winner Guest Suite (Quality Road). His third dam is blue hen mare Weekend Surprise (Secretariat).

The post Quality Road Colt Brings $1.5 Million at Fasig Midlantic appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Horseplayers Sue Baffert, Zedan

Led by Michael Beychok, the winner of the 2012 NTRA National Horseplayers Championship, four gamblers have filed a Class Action Lawsuit against trainer Bob Baffert and owner Amr Zedan, alleging fraud. Each maintains that they made bets that would have won had GI Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit (Protonico) not been “doped.” The plaintiffs allege that Baffert and Zedan are in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), the California Control of Profits of Organized Crime Act (CCPOCA) and for committing state common law and equitable fraud.

The suit was filed Thursday in United States District Court for the Central District of California.

When reached by the TDN, Beychok declined to comment and referred all questions to his attorney, Bill Federman.

“The horse racing industry as a whole has refused or cannot take steps that are necessary to protect the horses and the horseplayers from cheats” Federman said. “That's really the bottom line. Bob Baffert is known to have drugged horses in the past. Each time he said that it was an accident, that something was wrong, that somebody with steroids walked into the barn and sneezed. Can you believe it, the horse then tested positive ? Enough is enough, and that is the bottom line. If the industry is not going to police itself it's going to have to be further regulated or you will have outside groups forcing change.”

In several tweets earlier this week, Beychok touched on the controversy and welcomed gamblers to join in the class action suit.

“This guy Baffert wants us to believe that a horse in his care for the biggest horse race in the world was given an injectable drug without anyone in the barn's knowledge,” he wrote. “Are you kidding me with this? That's the best he's got?”

It was revealed shortly after the Derby that Medina Spirit had tested positive for a banned corticosteroid, Betamethasone. Subsequently, Baffert revealed that Medina Spirit was treated with an antifungal medication that contained Betamethasone to clear up a case of dermatitis and that he was treated with the ointment as late as Apr. 30, the day before the Derby. He maintained that he made an innocent mistake and gave the horse a medication that could not have had any effect on his performance.

The Kentucky Racing Commission has yet to take any action against Baffert and cannot do so until a second lab has tested a split sample.

In the suit, Beychok claims he made bets totaling $966 that would have resulted in payoffs between $10,000 and $100,000 had Medina Sprit not won the race. The other plaintiffs are Justin Wunderler, Michael Meegan and Keith Mauer. Wunderler claims he bet roughly $2,000 and stood to win at least $40,000. Meegan and Mauer each made small wagers.

In 2020, a bettor, Jeff Tretter, backed by PETA, sued harness trainer Robert Bresnahan, Jr. and owner J.L. Sadowsky for doping, racketeering and fraud after betting on a horse that finished behind a Bresnahan trained horse who won a 2016 race at the Meadowlands and tested positive for EPO. Bresnahan and Sadowsky settled with Tretter out of court, paying the Illinois gambler $20,000.

“The New Jersey case was clearly a shot across the bow for the trainer and the industry that apparently went unnoticed,” Federman said. “It's time for the industry to regulate itself. The industry has not been willing to represent those who bet their money.”

The plaintiffs maintain that they wagered on the Derby with the belief that there would be a level playing field and that none of the starters would be racing on prohibited medications.

“Bettors and members of the public expect that horses will give their best effort in every race and that all horses entered in every race will not be racing under the influence of a drug or foreign substance that has been administered in violation of racing rules and regulations,” the suit reads.

They contend that Baffert and Zedan committed fraud because they misrepresented to bettors that they had entered a horse that complied with all racetrack rules. The suit also points to the numerous drug positives racked up by Baffert throughout his career.

“The Baffert Defendants' acts are not isolated events; rather they are a pattern of events related to each other in that they have similar purposes, participants, methods of commission, and other distinguishing characteristics,” the suit reads. “Relatedness is also established by the fact that all acts were done for the purpose of winning thoroughbred races, including but not limited to the Kentucky Derby.”

Beychok is a partner and creative director at Ourso Beychok Inc., a Democratic direct mail consulting firm based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He has worked on political campaigns at the local, state and national levels. His victory in the NHC netted him $1 million plus an Eclipse Award for best handicapper of 2012.

The post Horseplayers Sue Baffert, Zedan appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post