#Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit fails post-race drug test

Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit has tested positive for betamethasone, a corticosteroid, the horse’s trainer Bob Baffert revealed Sunday morning.

Baffert called the failed post-race drug test for 21 picograms of the substance “shocking” because he says Medina Spirit has “never been treated with betamethasone.”

“Yesterday I got the biggest gut-punch in racing for something I didn’t do,” Baffert told reporters at Churchill Downs in Louisville. “It’s disturbing. It’s an injustice to the horse.”

Medina Spirit has not yet been disqualified, Baffert said, as another sample will be tested. Baffert still plans on running Medina Spirit in next Saturday’s Preakness, the second leg of the triple crown.

Another Baffert horse, Gamine, tested positive for betamethasone after last year’s Kentucky Oaks.

“I’m not a conspiracy theorist, I know everybody’s not out to get me, but there’s definitely something wrong,” Baffert said. “Why is it happening to me? There’s problems in racing, but it’s not Bob Baffert.”

The Derby win by Medina Spirit, jockeyed by John Velasquez, gave Baffert a record seventh Kentucky Derby win as a trainer.