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Bob Baffert’s Medina Spirit could be stripped of the Kentucky Derby title after the horse’s failed drug test was confirmed by a second sample, according to the New York Times.
After initially blaming “cancel culture” and urine-tainted hay for the positive test, Baffert’s legal counsel has admitted the horse was using an ointment containing the banned substance betamethasone.
The substance was in the anti-fungal ointment Otomax.
Baffert had requested a second test.
“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,” Churchill Downs officials said in a statement back on May 9.
Whether the Derby officials follow through with their original stance remains to be seen.
