In the wake of an announcement by trainer Bob Baffert that Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit has had a post-race positive test for betamethasone, 1/ST Racing and the Maryland Jockey Club released the following statement regarding the status of the horse's entry in Saturday's Preakness.
Churchill Downs Inc. announced earlier in the day that it was immediately suspending Baffert's ability to enter horses at the Louisville, Ky. facility.
Read more about Baffert's announcement regarding Medina Spirit here.
“Integrity in the sport of Thoroughbred horse racing is the ultimate priority for 1/ST RACING and the Maryland Jockey Club (MJC). 1/ST RACING has been an industry leader instituting processes and protocols that have led to nationwide medication reform and increased accountability. We are committed to achieving the highest level of horse care and safety standards, and we have a proven track record of pushing those standards forward.
“1/ST RACING and MJC intend to review the relevant facts and information relating to the reported medication positive as a result of the post-race blood sample testing completed by Churchill Downs following the 147th Kentucky Derby involving Medina Spirit trained by Bob Baffert. We are consulting with the Maryland Racing Commission and any decision regarding the entry of Medina Spirit in the 146th Preakness Stakes will be made after review of the facts.”
This is the second consecutive year that a Baffert runner has been involved in a post-race drug test controversy. In 2020, eventual female sprint champion Gamine was disqualified from a third-place finish in the Kentucky Oaks after testing positive for the same drug detected in post-race testing of Medina Spirit.
Churchill Downs officials issued the following statement on Sunday:
“It is our understanding that Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit's post-race blood sample indicated a violation of the Commonwealth of Kentucky's equine medication protocols. The connections of Medina Spirit have the right to request a test of a split sample and we understand they intend to do so. To be clear, if the findings are upheld, Medina Spirit's results in the Kentucky Derby will be invalidated and Mandaloun will be declared the winner.
“Failure to comply with the rules and medication protocols jeopardizes the safety of the horses and jockeys, the integrity of our sport and the reputation of the Kentucky Derby and all who participate. Churchill Downs will not tolerate it. Given the seriousness of the alleged offense, Churchill Downs will immediately suspend Bob Baffert, the trainer of Medina Spirit, from entering any horses at Churchill Downs Racetrack. We will await the conclusion of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commissions' investigation before taking further steps.”
Baffert said on Sunday that Medina Spirit and a second horse, Rebel Stakes winner Concert Tour, will be entered in Saturday's Preakness Stakes, second leg of the Triple Crown, at Pimlico race course in Baltimore, Md.
Craig Fravel, CEO of Racing Operations for The Stronach Group, said company officials would not have an immediate statement while they gather information on the situation.
Baffert currently has no horses entered to race at Churchill Downs. He won with two starters on Saturday.
Horse traceability will be key to improving Thoroughbred aftercare and welfare in the coming years, according to global experts on the subject who gathered for a recent panel of the 2021 International Forum for the Aftercare of Racehorses.
Aidan Butler, chief operating officer for 1/ST Racing and owner of four off-track Thoroughbreds (OTTBs) himself, said that inventory control will be a critical part of The Stronach Group's aftercare strategy going forward. Now that horses are microchipped, Butler said it will be easier for track ownership to verify identities when they enter and exit track premises. Previously, not only was it difficult to verify horses' identities, but whatever gate records existed were on paper, and Butler said there was often a delay in that information being transmitted to officials. The Stronach Group is working on a software program called Racehorse 360, now in beta testing, which will give the racing office direct access to data taken at the gate, as well as allow the office to see which stall a particular horse is kept in and provide alerts when a horse leaves the property.
Butler also said that funding mechanisms are critical to the success of aftercare, pointing out that Stronach Group tracks host fundraiser days, work with horsemen to match per-start contributions to aftercare funds, provide mutuel machines that give horseplayers the option of a donation to aftercare, and also keep on-track aftercare liaisons to help trainers place horses that are ready for retirement.
The Stronach Group has also struck partnerships with nearby equine hospitals to help provide surgery or other salvage medical procedures in cases where an owner or trainer can't afford it. The goal in those cases is to help a horse suffering a major injury in racing or training become sound and able to do some kind of second career, even when returning to the track isn't going to be an option.
“There is no need and no point anymore in people not taking all of the offers we have and all of the abilities for aftercare,” said Butler.
Of course, improved traceability for horses would make all of these efforts easier, and the need for better traceability is something racing officials in other countries have also struggled with. Through the years, many American equestrians have pointed to the European equine passport system as a potential solution to better identify horses and inform subsequent owners about the horse's health and history. The passport is meant to contain information about a horse's registration status, identifying markings, vaccination history, catalogue for public sale, and race history. Simon Cooper, director of the Weatherbys General Stud Book, says however that the passport system has not done much to improve Thoroughbred traceability.
“The biggest problem I have is paper,” said Cooper. “Paper disappears. Paper is not on a database. For 250 years, we've been tracing our horses using paper.”
Cooper is often asked about the whereabouts of a particular Thoroughbred; while he can sometimes pull up their information in a few minutes, there are other times when he finds a horse has fallen off the regulatory map. He pointed out one case of a horse whose papers were turned in to his office by a slaughterhouse in another country. Three different sections of the passport were clearly faked, missing embossing, holograms, watermarks, and more. Additionally, the marking information didn't match the horse who'd arrived with the passport, making Cooper question which horse had actually been sent to slaughter, and where the horse was whose identity matched the paper passport.
There is now a push to digitize paper passports to provide regulatory and sport authorities with real time data on horse movement and health information. Cooper points out however that there will still be certain types of information that isn't necessarily recorded digitally under current guidelines. A horse's private sale, transition to a new career, a spell or rest, or time with a pinhooker/breaking farm are all likely to happen without a check-in from a regulatory authority that would appear on a digital passport. Filling in those gaps is crucial to keep a horse from falling off the radar.
Cooper said that the new digital passport will also include GPS location for a smart card to be kept with a horse's identification papers, but the stud book can only require that for Thoroughbreds in active careers as breeding horses.
To harness the power of digital passports for Thoroughbred aftercare, Cooper said racing authorities will need to issue new requirements for owners, mandating notification through the digital passport smartphone app of a horse's retirement, vaccination, movement, ownership changes, and death.
During Thursday's meeting of the Maryland Racing Commission, board members dug in to the issues with the dirt track at Laurel Park, grilling the senior vice president of racing for The Stronach Group (TSG), Steve Koch.
Racing in the state has already been moved to Pimlico on an emergency basis, but a finite timeline for the repairs to the Laurel surface has been hard to nail down, reports the Thoroughbred Daily News.
“I hesitate to put a firm timeline on this for the moment,” Koch said, adding: “I would not anticipate this running past the end of the current Pimlico meet.”
That meet is scheduled to end on May 31, with racing at Laurel booked to resume on June 4.
Initial estimates suggested that replacing the dirt surface's cushion would be the primary focus of the project, but Koch explained that the base of the track has been repaired in piecemeal locations over the past years, and now the Maryland Jockey Club is looking at completing “significant work” on that base to restore consistency.
Currently, experts are comparing three test strips of different base compositions in a location on the backstretch chute, working in concert with the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory to determine which is the best for local conditions.
A large part of the problem, Koch explained, is that the MJC has not been able to source the required materials from local quarries, and is subsequently shipping material from significant distances.
“These are very scarce, very technically specified [base] materials, and in fact they're much more scarce than the cushion materials,” Koch said. “We will continue to subscribe to the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory top-to-bottom quality control program. What we cannot do is control every aspect of winter racing and winter weather, and we cannot control the fact that sourcing stone from quarries all over the eastern half of the United States requires a significant shopping and laboratory exercise.”
