Kentucky Derby Winner Medina Spirit Fails Drug Test

[ssmjlm]

The Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, whose horses have failed five tests in a little more than a year, denied wrongdoing: “We didn’t do it.”


www.nytimes.com/2021/05/09/sports/horse-racing/bob-baffert-kentucky-derby-medina-spirit-drug-test.html

[ssmjlm]

Time for the trainer to retire. I don’t even get how he’s still being employed by any owner at this point.

There’s already enough problems with horse racing.

[NewOrleans]

May 9, 2021 10:08:09 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

horses have failed five tests in a little more than a year, denied wrongdoing: “We didn’t do it.”


www.nytimes.com/2021/05/09/sports/horse-racing/bob-baffert-kentucky-derby-medina-spirit-drug-test.html

Oh

[loira]

Oh no, and this horse had such a wonderful story, too! ☹️

I wonder if he'd make a nice hunter/jumper... 🤔

[cville]

So, like, the horses are breaking into a pharmacy by themselves? Surest of Jans, my dude.

[BicycleBride]

May 9, 2021 10:09:06 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

Time for the trainer to retire. I don’t even get how he’s still being employed by any owner at this point.

There’s already enough problems with horse racing.

Lol Baffert is a Big Deal. Owners (well, stable managers really) beg the top trainers to take their horses, not the other way around. When evaluating a race horse, sure you might look at what farm owns the horse but the trainer is far more important.

And here’s the thing about this whole situation- Everyone knows the horses for the derby are going to get drug tested. It’s not a secret and it’s not random. And Baffert knows that a horse he trains is going to be under extra scrutiny. So I’m willing to keep an open mind at the moment.
But also, the purse for winning a race even as prestigious as the Kentucky Derby is small potatoes to a horse farm. The real money is in stud fees after he wins. Does the stud fee decrease if a horse wins but then the win gets invalidated with a drug test? I can’t say but it may not. Farms aren’t in horse racing for the money at this point, it’s for the prestige and lifestyle. Many (maybe even most?) of the big horse farms are not owned by people who live there these days. Lots of the historic farms are owned by foreign nationals, specifically a logos number of Saudi prince type people involved.

[brady2012]

We recorded the derby because the kids wanted to see it snd just watched it last night. Baffert seemed pretty surprised the horse won and just kept repeating himself that the “little horse” surprised everyone. I thought it was strange having heard him so many other times, he didn’t seem his usual arrogant self. Maybe I’m reading too much into, it but he seemed distracted - probably because he knew the horse would test positive. But as Bicycle Bride said the horse will still command high stud fees so there is still millions to be made.

[mcppalmbeach]

H and I were wondering when payouts are made to those who made bets. Immediately? Any repercussions on that front? Obviously we know nothing about horse racing.

[wambam]

I read this aloud to my parents (they live in Louisville so it’s a big deal there). My dad proceeded to tell me about his neighbor who won $28,000 betting on this horse.

[underwaterrhymes]

Aside from all of the ethical and animal rights implications, what happens to all the money people won betting on this horse?

[stephm0188]

May 9, 2021 15:28:33 GMT -5 mcppalmbeach said:

H and I were wondering when payouts are made to those who made bets. Immediately? Any repercussions on that front? Obviously we know nothing about horse racing.

Nothing. Anyone who bet on Medina Spirit still wins/keeps their winnings, and anyone who bet on Mandaloun is out of luck. 

[bernsteincat]

May 9, 2021 15:28:33 GMT -5 mcppalmbeach said:

H and I were wondering when payouts are made to those who made bets. Immediately? Any repercussions on that front? Obviously we know nothing about horse racing.

My husband hit the trifecta and got his check in the mail Saturday.

[ssmjlm]

I stand by my previous post.  He's not good for the business.

[Saudade]

OTC cough syrup doesn’t contain betamethasone

Kentucky allows up to 10 picograms and the horse had 21. They were dosing him and knew it.

[lo]

I think he said last time that a groomer had a lidocaine patch on and that rubbed off on the horse. Uh huh. I can’t stand horse racing but I come from a family full of huge fans, so I can’t escape it.

[smock]

Did Bob Baffert eat the cough syrup pee pee hay, too? Because he must be on drugs if he thinks anyone's buying that story.

[NewOrleans]

These explanations of how the horse got drugged are amazing. 🤩 10/10 recommended reading!

[cous0226]

So why isn’t he banned from horse racing totally? Is there not a commission for this or does the industry really need him? This keeps happening to his horses so I’m wondering why he can keep having horses In these races.

[msmerymac]

May 9, 2021 10:09:06 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

Time for the trainer to retire. I don’t even get how he’s still being employed by any owner at this point.

There’s already enough problems with horse racing.

He's the winningest trainer in Kentucky Derby history. That's how he's still employed. 

[msmerymac]

Personally, I was rooting for the horse named Soup and Sandwich.

[basilosaurus]

Drugged pee pee? I know of a criminal former president who's wondering how much he'd have to pay a Russian spy to get some of that.

[mbcdefg]

The horse died following a workout today at Santa Anita: apnews.com/article/sports-business-horse-racing-bob-baffert-43d700743c1a9cfa91d9adb60af46e90

[Pom]

Dec 6, 2021 14:22:02 GMT -5 mbcdefg said:

The horse died following a workout today at Santa Anita: apnews.com/article/sports-business-horse-racing-bob-baffert-43d700743c1a9cfa91d9adb60af46e90

Jesus. 

[waverly]

Dec 6, 2021 14:22:02 GMT -5 mbcdefg said:

The horse died following a workout today at Santa Anita: apnews.com/article/sports-business-horse-racing-bob-baffert-43d700743c1a9cfa91d9adb60af46e90

I couldn't watch horse racing anymore because of all the horses that had broken legs.  Then we went to Kentucky for spring break this year, so I decided to give it another chance to watch the Derby on TV, and then this again.  These people obviously don't care about their horses. 

[mcmel]

Dec 6, 2021 14:22:02 GMT -5 mbcdefg said:

The horse died following a workout today at Santa Anita: apnews.com/article/sports-business-horse-racing-bob-baffert-43d700743c1a9cfa91d9adb60af46e90

So sad that these horses get exploited to death. 

[wawa]

Dec 6, 2021 14:53:03 GMT -5 waverly said:

Dec 6, 2021 14:22:02 GMT -5 mbcdefg said:

The horse died following a workout today at Santa Anita: apnews.com/article/sports-business-horse-racing-bob-baffert-43d700743c1a9cfa91d9adb60af46e90

I couldn't watch horse racing anymore because of all the horses that had broken legs.  Then we went to Kentucky for spring break this year, so I decided to give it another chance to watch the Derby on TV, and then this again.  These people obviously don't care about their horses. 

It goes so far beyond not caring - I think they often do on a personal level, like the people feeding and training these horses daily probably do care quite a bit, both emotionally and rationally, but the direction breeding has taken in thoroughbred racing is fucking barbaric.  Young speed above all else, including general soundness.  Then add in doping and a blind focus on 3 year old races and you end up with horses that run themselves into the ground or who's hearts explode before most other sports would even have them under saddle.  

it's fucking gross.  

And this asshole is just current exhibit #1 of how gross it can be.

[waverly]

wawa, fucking barbaric was the wording I was searching for.

[wawa]

maybe a kind of random side note - but I was trying to find statistics on horse deaths in other sports for comparison's sake and apparently this is not a number easily obtained from a google in many sports. I picked eventing as a fairly strenuous sport for the horses and came up totally empty handed. I kept clicking on things that seemed like what I wanted, but it was all HUMAN death stats. (eventing is scary yall) I was able to find a study on endurance racing (the sport I used to do, members of my family still do - picture horse marathons, often conducted on the same courses as human ultra-marathons) which on the face of it sounds like it should be risky, and it had a death rate of 0.32 per 1,000 starts whereas traditional track racing is around 2.0 per 1000 starts.

thehorse.com/17122/examining-horse-deaths-related-to-endurance-rides/
www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/138956/stats-look-at-fatal-injuries-over-two-years

I don't know that it's fair to compare "starts" in the stats here...endurance riding is very much like human distance running in that there's the front of pack folks who are out there to win it and then lots more people behind them just there for the challenge of finishing. So it's hard to compare to professional track racing. But still...6 times higher is A LOT FUCKING HIGHER.

I will say that the article on deaths in endurance horses was eye opening because those numbers are definitely higher than I would have guessed on a per-start basis. so maybe I do judge track racing a bit more harshly then is warranted, except...i mean, if somebody has a horse die in endurance racing because they overrode them and didn't treat it adequately people JUDGE THE EVER LOVING SHIT OUT OF THEM. Nobody is going to loan that yahoo a horse!! Or maybe that was just my granny....she could judge like nobody I've ever known. I wonder if there are horse lifetime stats out there. Like expected lifetime for a track racing horse vs. an endurance racing horse? Because I've known endurance horses who competed at high levels for a decade. which is 100% not a thing for track racers.