Tag: urine sample

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.

Read more at bloodhorse.com.

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In Baffert Case, Sides Haggle Over Urine Sample

Lawyers representing the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) and Bob Baffert squared off before Franklin Circuit County Judge Thomas Wingate Friday morning in a dispute over whether or not additional urine samples from Medina Spirit (Protonico) from the GI Kentucky Derby should be made available to the defendants' lawyers and, if so, in what quantity?

The Baffert team has asked for an additional urine sample because it believes further testing can prove that the drug in question, Betamethasone, found its way into Medina Spirit through an ointment used to clear up a skin condition and not through an injection. The KHRC argued that it needs to retain what's left of Medina Spirit's urine sample in case there is a need for further testing on its part or some sort of unforeseen problem related to testing.

Wingate asked the two sides to negotiate and come to a compromise. He said that if the sides could not agree, he would issue a ruling Wednesday. Wingate made it clear that he wants at least some of the urine to be handed over to the Baffert team.

“You sort of see where I am going and I think that if you come up with something more palatable and are afraid of how I am going to rule then do it. Fair enough?” Wingate said.

The hearing was held over Zoom and, at times, only Wingate could be heard clearly. For the most part, the statements made by KHRC attorney Jennifer Wolsing were inaudible.

The lawyers representing Baffert and Medina Spirit's owner, Amr Zedan, are building a case that the drug got into the colt's system through the ointment. They have said that would be the sort of mitigating circumstances needed to conclude that there was no attempt to improve the horse's performance, reason enough for Baffert to be exonerated and the original order of the Kentucky Derby to be upheld.

Also at issue is whether or not it matters where the Betamethasone came from. The courts and the KHRC might ultimately decide that is irrelevant, that the very presence of the drug is enough to warrant a disqualification, no matter the source of the drug.

“The rules of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission are clear,” said Baffert's lawyer Craig Robertson. “Some 63 times in their rules it states that a trainer is allowed to present mitigating circumstances in consideration of a penalty. Proving that this was an ointment and it did not come from an injection is, at the bare minimum, a mitigating circumstance. We should be allowed and should be entitled to present that evidence and obtain that evidence to scientifically prove these facts.”

Robertson also touched upon public perceptions involving this case and the potential damage that could be done to Baffert's reputation.

“From a public perception perspective, my client has been excoriated unfairly and publicly about this and he's been accused of injecting this horse to cheat to win the Kentucky Derby,” Robertson said. “That this is a banned substance. That this is doping. None of which is true. We have an opportunity to get scientific evidence to prove that it's not true and they're trying to keep us from doing that. That's not fair.”

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