On September 22, 2019. July 30, 2020, and November 6, 2020, the Barometer posted Bob Baffert stories. All of them involved horses Mr. Baffert was training. All of the horses had tested positive for some banned substance. All of them found Baffert excused with a slap on the hand. All of them involved the same type of explanation: The banned drug was in the feed. The banned drug came from the groomer’s hands because he was using the ointment to treat his back pain.
Now comes a positive drug test for Medina Spirit, the horse with 12-1 odds who won the Kentucky Derby a a nose. The initial story from Mr. Baffert was that he would never give his horses betamethasone. The story changed today and now goes back to the original formula: Medina Spirit had dermatitis on his bottom and the vet recommended Otomax, a cream that contains betamethasone, as the treatment. Mr. Baffert says that he did not know, but the vet informed him. And it remains to be seen whether the cream treatment could produce the drug test result of 21 picograms in Medina Spirit’s drug test. The follow-up second test will reveal more information.
However, the follow-up test will take weeks. So, we are into the same pattern that we had with Justify. The horse keeps running while the tests are done. The Preakness at Pimlico is this Saturday. The Maryland Racing Commission has a decision to make. There is due process. There is also a Baffert pattern. Perhaps he just did not know or perhaps he just pushes the envelope. In his book be prayed for help when he neglected to vet a horse before buying him for an owner. The horse turned out to be fine. It is not his first rodeo before a racing commission. Always an accident. He did not know. Who does know? Perhaps no one, but a pattern of positive drug tests and lame, as it were, excuses does add up.
