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National Media Reacts To Medina Spirit Scandal With Skepticism, Outrage

As the situation surrounding Medina Spirit's positive betamethasone test has evolved through the course of this week, racing and mainstream media have covered the story extensively. The revelation that the 2021 Kentucky Derby winner failed an initial post-race drug test has also garnered op/eds from industry and non-industry publications. Most of those headlines express little patience for trainer Bob Baffert's explanation of the drug's presence.

In the interest of understanding how racing and its issues are viewed in the broader, non-racing world, the Paulick Report staff has compiled a sampling of those opinion and analysis pieces here, along with observations therein that we found particularly interesting. We encourage you to click the underlined links to read the full op/eds.

The Kentucky Derby Deserves Better Than This Butt Rash Of A Mess, WDRB
Writer Eric Crawford mourns the reputation of the Run for the Roses, which he says will be tarnished in the future by what he calls Baffert's “clear negligence.” Crawford also points out that both Baffert and his veterinarian were required to sign a document as a condition of stabling acknowledging their intent to follow rules and regulations laid out by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, including the body's medication regulations.

No, Failed Derby Drug Test Is Not 'Cancel Culture.' But Racing Needs Culture Change, Lexington Herald-Leader
Columnist Linda Blackford, writing before Baffert's Tuesday statement attributing the betamethasone test to an anti-fungal ointment, took exception to Baffert's declaration on Fox News Monday that Churchill's immediate ban on his entries constituted “cancel culture.” Blackford also pointed out that the Baffert case demonstrates the need for the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA), under which medication rules will be the same across the country, reducing the likelihood of therapeutic drug positives.

Bob Baffert's Leaking Credibility Reaches Saturation Point After Derby Drug Positive, Sports Illustrated
Pat Forde sees Baffert's history of drug positives — albeit, therapeutic positives — as eroding confidence in America's most recognizable trainer, particularly when his explanations for them seem designed to excuse them. Individually, Baffert's explanation for each positive seems plausible, but together they begin to sound hollow to Forde.

“Ultimately, this very much seems like the same sad song, different verse, when it comes to drug testing and sports,” he writes. “The denials are always vigorous. They are often fanciful. They are rarely compelling.”

Opinion: As Another Excuse Arises, Pimlico Won't Hold Bob Baffert Accountable For Medina Spirit's Positive Test, USA Today
Dan Wolken expresses frustration that Pimlico did not follow the lead of Churchill Downs and decline to allow Baffert entries until the scandal over the betamethasone overage is resolved. He points out that without Baffert's two runners — Medina Spirit and Concert Tour — this year's Preakness would have a historically weak field. If either horse wins, racing will be in an especially awkward position in the event Medina Spirit's Derby victory is eventually stripped. Wolken makes clear that he doesn't expert racing commissions to take significant action against the trainer even if that disqualification happens.

“True accountability, in the end, is going to have to come from within,” he wrote, pointing out that Spendthrift has removed horses from Baffert's care.

Baffert In Spotlight For Wrong Reasons Going Into Preakness, Associated Press via Seattle Times
While Baffert and his team couldn't get enough of the media Sunday and Monday, Associated Press reporter Stephen Whyno writes that assistant Jimmy Barnes has refused to answer questions about the ongoing Medina Spirit debacle. And while the atmosphere at Pimlico is different this year, Whyno said one fixture, trainer D. Wayne Lukas, is still lingering outside the stakes barn and giving his opinion to whoever wants to hear it.

Lukas, for his part, believes the commission should raise the threshold for therapeutic substances “to what's realistic” and said he wishes he was still on the Kentucky commission to impact the outcome of any hearing Baffert may go through.

“I would absolutely today tell my colleagues that we need to just dismiss this, throw it out, put the Derby winner back on the throne and move on,” he said. “Obviously (21) picograms or whatever that horse had had no effect on the race or his performance. And every vet and every scientist and every lab will tell you that. You almost think the lab should probably have poured it down the sink in the first place.”

Sullivan: Bob Baffert Needs New Strategy After Betamethasone Claims Backfire, Louisville Courier-Journal
Tim Sullivan, who has been covering the scandal since the beginning, anticipates that Baffert's legal strategy will be to attack the credibility of the regulation guiding betamethasone withdrawal. Unfortunately for him, Sullivan believes Baffert's intent behind using an anti-fungal cream containing betamethasone isn't relevant based on how the rules are written. He points out that the phenylbutazone rule that resulted in the disqualification of Dancer's Image in 1968 wasn't changed until 1974, and in the meantime the Kentucky Supreme Court validated the stewards' decision to disqualify Dancer's Image under the rules in place when the horse ran.

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Lukas Argues Drug Threshold Levels

Bob Baffert has been placed the squarely in the cross hairs over Medina Spirit (Protonico)'s Betamethasone positive following last week's GI Kentucky Derby and amid the chorus of criticism, admonishment and outright verbal assault, a fellow Hall of Famer took up the mantle of defense for his beleaguered colleague.

“Unfortunately, it is the story of this Preakness,” said D. Wayne Lukas, who has won the second jewel of the Triple Crown six times. “Racing doesn't deserve to get the black eye for something this minor. Now, if there is an all-out performance- enhancing drug, that's obviously different. But that just wasn't the case in this instance.”

Lukas, who created his own stir earlier this week with a statement made in defense of Baffert when he suggested a test at this level should be thrown out, underscored what he felt was the central idea lost in the dissemination of his comment making its way through social media.

“The thresholds are so low now that [trainers] are all fair game,” he explained. “I'm here looking at my horses and think I could be next. It could be any one of them in the Preakness or any of these races the way the thresholds are set.”

In regards to the ensuing media nightmare ignited by this week's revelation, Lukas argues that many outside of the industry might not fully understand the facts in a case like the latest to take the nation by storm.

“The average fan following the news doesn't really get the scale of a picogram,” he said. “They think it's a blatant violation and that the horse had something in his system that enhanced his performance. And we can't explain that to everyone, so racing overall gets a black eye.”

He continued, “Testing is so sophisticated and sensitive nowadays that even a negligible level could fail. The drug thresholds have just gotten lower and lower and I really think we've legislated ourselves into a hole here. I really think we've painted ourselves into a corner with what I believe to be, in many cases, unrealistic levels.”

“Trainers have become so conscious of what we're giving to our horses,” he said. “I know that certain eye ointments have substances that would cause a violation. You have to be very careful what's on the label these days. Even then, with everything we feed them and everything we put on them now you are scrutinized pretty intensely.”

A trainer for over five decades, Lukas said he takes a basic approach in his own operation, while trying to navigate the razor-edge balance between maintaining optimal health in his animals while steering clear of a much-dreaded raceday positive.

“Part of the issue is that the withdrawal times we are given are often very limited,” he said. They're not always accurate or don't take into account all the factors. They tell us the withdrawal time is four days and somebody still gets a positive test even though they withdrew at six days. So, what I do is I just double it. If they tell us there is a four-day withdrawal, I automatically double it, so that's eight days on our books. You have to go beyond what they tell you because there are a lot of inaccuracies in that regard. There have been a lot of positives of late where trainers followed the guidelines they were given and still got a positive.”

And as the sport continues to regain its footing after its latest assault, Lukas offered a pragmatic approach to maintaining the health of sport.

“I hope the Horse Racing Integrity Act takes a realistic approach and sets the thresholds at a reasonable level and in a uniform way, so we're not failing for topical dressings and eye ointments, as in the case this week. Bob is under the gun right now, but it could have been any one of us.”

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Black-Eyed Susan Adventure

Godolphin's Adventuring (Pioneerof the Nile) rides a two-race win skein as she tries to add her first graded victory in Friday's GII George E. Mitchell Black-Eyed Susan S. at Pimlico. Second choice on the morning line at 4-1, the homebred hit the board in her first two starts–both off-turf tests–at the Fair Grounds late last season. Well supported in her Feb. 16 reappearance at the New Orleans oval, the daughter of dual Grade I winning Questing (Hard Spun) came from just off the pace to romp by 6 1/2 lengths before adding another to the win column in Turfway's Bourbonette S. going a mile over the synthetic Mar. 27.

“Obviously, she's very well bred,” said trainer Brad Cox. “We're hopeful that she'll be able to handle the mile and an eighth. She certainly appears that she can.

“She broke her maiden in an off-the-turf race on the dirt and performed extremely well. She was able to get the job done on the synthetic and she works well enough on the dirt to give us the confidence to try a graded stake on the dirt. We're looking forward getting her up there.”

Explaining the decision to bypass the Apr. 30 GI Kentucky Oaks, Cox added, “She had enough points to go in the Kentucky Oaks, but we thought the Black-Eyed Susan made more sense. Plus, she wasn't nominated to we'd have had an extra large fee to run.”

“I really like her…She's already a stakes winner, but we need to, hopefully, get some graded wins.”

Boama Corporation's Beautiful Gift (Medaglia d'Oro) broke her maiden second out stretching to a mile at Santa Anita last October. In a pair of starts facing short fields at that venue this term, the half to GSW and GISP Chitu (Henny Hughes) posted a head victory in the GIII Santa Ysabel S. Mar. 7 before succumbing by a half-length to Soothsay (Distorted Humor) in the GII Santa Anita Oaks Apr. 3. Both races were contested at 1 1/16 miles.

Hall of Famer John Velazquez will re-join the 9-5 program favorite who breaks from the 10 hole.

“She's run well,” trainer Bob Baffert said. “I was going to run her in the Kentucky Oaks, but it came up way too tough. That's one of the toughest Kentucky Oaks I've seen. I didn't want to put her through that. I said, 'We'll wait for the Black-Eyed Susan. You try to spot your horses, give them a chance where they have a chance to win.”

Three Diamonds Farm's Army Wife (Declaration of War) went winless in her first three starts last year–all on turf–before graduating in her first try on dirt at Churchill in October. Runner up going a mile in a Churchill optional claimer Nov. 28, she was a nose winner in a Gulfstream optional claimer Mar. 13 before running third behind winner Search Results (Flatter)–who subsequently finished a close-up second in the Kentucky Oaks–in a nine-furlong GIII Gazelle S. at Aqueduct Apr. 3.

“She's a filly we've always been high on. She makes a fabulous impression,” said trainer Mike Maker. “She had a couple of months off and got a little behind, but she's doing well and we're looking forward to it.”

Joel Rosario gets the call on Army Wife, who breaks from Post 1.

Alex and JoAnn Leiblong's Willful Woman (Nyquist) come into this off an optional claiming victory in the slop at Oaklawn Apr. 9. Prior to that, she finished seventh in the Mar. 6 GIII Honeybee S.

“She lost it at the break,” Alex Lieblong said of the Honeybee. “She was looking at something in the infield when they popped the gate and then got flustered when she missed it. It was just one of those deals where we were like, 'Ok. Let's start over.' That's what we did with the allowance. I hated that we missed the series there, but it might wind up being one of those deals where it worked out for the best, if you just give them time.”

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Calm After the Storm

Baltimore, MD–The leadup to this year's GI Preakness S. has proven anything but routine with news of the Bob Baffert-trained Medina Spirit (Protonico) testing positive for Betamethasone following his GI Kentucky Derby win two weeks ago. However, just two days before the second jewel in the Triple Crown, the vibe around the Stakes Barns on Pimlico's back side had a decidedly more business-as-usual feel rather than a Classic-week electric charge.

El Camino Real Derby winner Rombauer (Twirling Candy), third in the GII Toyota Blue Grass S., and Keepmeinmind (Laoban), last season's GII Kentucky Jockey Club victor, were among the initial horses to go to the track prior to the renovation break. The bigger influx of stakes contenders appeared when the track re-opened at about 7:45, led the Wayne Lukas-trained Ram (American Pharoah).

“Coming here, you hope to see a good level of energy,” said Lukas. “I'm watching how focused he is and how much energy he has. When you make a nine-hour van ride [from Louisville, Kentucky], you want to see if he is adjusting and to make sure he's eating and that he's showing that on the racetrack. That's my primary concern. I want to make sure he has a good energy level Saturday and I see it increasing every day. Today was better than yesterday, and yesterday was better than the first day. We're in good shape.”

Asked whether his charge's come-from-behind running style was a good fit for Saturday's race, Lukas, a six-time Preakness winner, said, “They often say this race is speed favoring, but I haven't really found it to be that way except for Oxbow [2013 Preakness winner], who took off and they let him have the lead. But overall, I think it's a fair race. The track plays really fair. If you have a good closer or a mid-pack type of horse, I think it's fair for everybody. I don't think you have to have a certain type of horse to win this race.”

Coming out shortly after the morning line longshot, GIII Lecomte S. winner Midnight Bourbon (Tiznow) looked a picture of health (hello dapples!) shortly after departing the Stakes Barn, drawing plenty of praise from the small group of onlookers.

“Hey Steve, your horse is my favorite,” yelled a spectator as the colt's trainer, Steve Asmussen, made his way to the track.

“He's my favorite too!,” shouted back the Hall of Famer. “Add my name to the list!”

Most of the morning's attention swirled around the Baffert-trained pair of Medina Spirit, who was the first of the two Bafferts to hit the track, followed by Concert Tour (Street Sense).

Accompanied by Jimmy Barnes astride the barn's pony, the striking Medina Spirit appeared to get over the track very well while held under an easy gallop. About 30 minutes later, barnmate Concert Tour, winner of the GII Rebel S. and GII San Vincente S., was led out to the track by Barnes for some easy maintenance work. Baffert, who has been under fire the past week, is not expected to attend this weekend's race.

Other Preakness contenders sent to the track after the renovation break, GII Wood Memorial S. third Crowded Trade (More Than Ready), GIII Withers S. scorer Risk Taking (Medaglia d'Oro) and Unbridled Humor (Honor Code), runner-up in the GIII Stonestreet Lexington S. Both Chad Brown and Todd Pletcher are expected to be on-hand in Baltimore Friday.

Always a big draw in the mornings, bath time for Medina Sprint and Midnight Bourbon, who both appeared in top form, drew a gaggle of media looking for a photo opp. Both colts made a striking impression, not only for their glowing health, but also for their cool and relaxed demeanor in the face of the photo-hungry press.

Noticeably absent from Thursday's a.m. trackwork, France Go de Ina (Will Take Charge) was relegated to walking around the shedrow yesterday following his solo sojourn after losing his rider Wednesday morning. The Japanese-based colt will return to the track Friday morning and is also expected to school at the gate.

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