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Medina Spirit, whose victory in the Kentucky Derby had been named into problem by a unsuccessful publish-race drug test, died on Monday after a timed exercise session.
The colt experienced an obvious coronary heart assault immediately after doing the job 5 furlongs at the Santa Anita Park racetrack in Southern California, mentioned Dr. Jeff Blea, the equine healthcare director for the California Horse Racing Board.
“Near the conclude of his breeze this early morning, he did not come to feel right and his rider experimented with to pull him up,” Blea mentioned. “He went down. Our vet on the scene obtained there promptly and he was already expired.”
The colt’s trainer, Bob Baffert, claimed he was devastated by the death.
“Medina Spirit was a excellent winner, a member of our relatives who was loved by all, and we are deeply mourning his loss,” Baffert explained in a statement unveiled by his attorney, W. Craig Robertson III. “I will often cherish the very pleased and private memories of Medina Spirit and his huge spirit.”
Medina Spirit’s owner, Amr Zedan of Saudi Arabia, was not straight away readily available for comment. Zedan’s legal professional, Clark Brewster, explained he had spoken with both equally his shopper and Baffert Monday morning. Both equally mentioned Medina Spirit was teaching very well immediately after an amazing 2nd position end in the Breeders’ Cup Vintage in November and was getting ready for another race in the coming weeks, Brewster explained.
“They are wracked with grief. It is actually tragic,” Brewster said. “He was training terrific and transferring conveniently and then Bob mentioned when he completed up he just collapsed.”
At 12-to-1 odds, Medina Spirit was a surprising winner of the Derby, America’s most well-known race. The colt was marketed as a yearling for only $1,000 and was a bargain for Zedan, who paid out just $35,000 for him. Medina Spirit’s victory was the seventh for Baffert skilled horses in the Derby, a report.
A 7 days following profitable the Derby, nevertheless, Baffert introduced that a put up-race examination identified the drug betamethasone, a corticosteroid injected into joints to reduce agony and inflammation, in Medina Spirit. At the time, Baffert strongly denied that he or anyone else on his staff had administered the drug to Medina Spirit.
He gave a sequence of television and radio interviews in the subsequent times supplying many theories about how the colt experienced analyzed beneficial. He criticized Churchill Downs’s suspension of him as “harsh” and cited “cancel culture” for the controversy.
Baffert, however, soon reversed himself. He said that Medina Spirit experienced a rash on his hind conclude, and that an ointment used daily to take care of the dermatitis contained the substance.
