What is betamethasone?
Katherine Terrell, staff writer: Betamethasone is a Class C drug in Kentucky that is legal to use in training but is supposed to be administered no later than 14 days prior to a race. It’s a therapeutic drug often administered for joint pain in horses. Medina Spirit’s stablemate Gamine tested positive for the drug after the Kentucky Oaks last fall, although Baffert said it had been given to her 18 days prior to the race. Baffert said Medina Spirit has never been treated with the drug.
What the appeal and further testing processes will look like
Dana O’Neil, senior writer: The most important thing about the appeal process: It won’t be quick, and Medina Spirit will run in the Preakness without any real answers. To use a Baffert experience as an example, two of his horses — Charlatan and Gamine — tested positive last year at the Arkansas Derby on May 2, 2020. The split samples confirming the positive results weren’t returned until July 6. Even if the split samples confirm the initial test results, Baffert sounds primed to dig in his heels on a fight and an appeal. The trainer said during his press conference he’s already asked the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission to pull hairs from Medina Spirit to confirm the presence of the drug, and he also will conduct a DNA sample.
History of DQs at Kentucky Derby
Terrell: Only two horses have been disqualified from the Derby in the race’s 147 runnings. Dancer’s Image was DQed in 1968 after testing positive for phenylbutazone (Bute), a then-banned pain reliever now commonly used on racehorses. Forward Pass was upheld as the new winner after years of appeals. Maximum Security was DQed from 1st to 17th in 2019 after stewards concluded he had interfered with other horses in the stretch. Country House, a 65-1 longshot, was made the winner.
History of Baffert-trained horses testing positive
O’Neil: In his four-decade career, Baffert now has had 30 horses test positive for various substances, but the most troubling have come in the last 18 months. In 2019, Triple Crown winner Justify tested positive after the Santa Anita Derby — and before the Triple Crown began — for scopolamine. Gamine, the Kentucky Oaks winner, and Charlatan, the undefeated Arkansas Derby winner, both tested positive last year for lidocaine. All three of those results, however, were overturned, and Baffert was merely fined. Baffert blamed Justify’s positive test on Jimson weed, often found in hay, and said the lidocaine in Charlatan and Gamine came from a patch worn by a member of his training staff, who was being treated for back pain. Gamine also tested positive for betamethasone post-Oaks, the same drug now associated with Medina Spirit. That, however, often is used therapeutically and not as a performance enhancer, and is legal in small doses. Baffert admitted to treating Gamine with the substance, believing it would have cleared her system prior to racing and testing. The difference with Medina Spirit — he insists he did not give the horse the drug.
(Photo: Brian Spurlock / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
