Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert says that his barn has been told Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit failed a postrace drug test, the latest doping scandal for horse racing, and arguably the sport's premier trainer.
Flanked by his attorney Craig Robertson in a morning news conference at Churchill Downs on Sunday, Baffert said Medina Spirit was found to have 21 picograms of betamethasone, double the legal threshold in Kentucky racing, in a postrace sample.
Betamethasone was also found in the system of Gamine, a horse trained by Baffert who finished third in last year's Kentucky Oaks.
According to Baffert, Medina Spirit has not been disqualified from the Kentucky Derby but he said it could happen, pending other tests. The horse is expected to run in the second leg of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes, on Saturday, May 15.