The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) announced that Medina Spirit’s 2021 Kentucky Derby victory has been thrown out after the horse tested positive for betamethasone.
The KHRC also announced a 90-day suspension for Bob Baffert, the Hall of Fame horse trainer of Medina Spirit. Baffert must also return the winner’s purse of $1.86 million and has also received a $7,500 fine.
Baffert plans to appeal the decision, according to a statement given to CNN by Baffert’s spokesperson. “I am very disappointed in the ruling,” Baffert said. “It runs contrary to the scientifically proven facts in this case and the rules of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.”
The win would have been Baffert’s seventh at the Kentucky Derby, a world record.
Medina Spirit is not the first horse trained by Baffert to fail a drug test. In 2018, Justify, also trained by Baffert, failed a drug test weeks before its winning race at the Kentucky Derby. Justify would go on to win the Triple Crown, a title earned by coming in first at the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes in the same year. The failed test was not disclosed in time to affect the ruling of the three wins.
Two more horses trained by Baffert failed drug tests with the Arkansas Racing Commission in May 2020, then another in Oct. 2021.
Medina Spirit’s nullified win makes the runner-up, Mandaloun, the official victor of the Kentucky Derby’s 147th running. “Today Churchill Downs recognizes Mandaloun as the winner of the 147th running of the Kentucky Derby and extends our congratulations to owner/breeder Juddmonte, trainer Brad Cox and jockey Florent Geroux,” Churchill Downs said in a statement released Feb. 21.
Medina Spirit died on Dec. 6, 2021 after collapsing during training at Santa Anita Park. The horse is speculated to have died of a heart attack, according to the results of a Feb. 11, 2022 necropsy, though a definitive cause of death has yet to be determined.
