Kentucky Derby Winner Medina Spirit Fails Drug Test

The Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, whose horses have failed five tests in a little more than a year, denied wrongdoing: “We didn’t do it.”

Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit failed a post-race drug test, once more putting the practices of his Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert under uncomfortable scrutiny. The colt cannot be disqualified until a split sample confirms the result. Baffert will then have an opportunity to appeal. If disqualified, Medina Spirit would be stripped of the Derby title and the winning purse. In a news conference Sunday morning outside of his barn at Churchill Downs, Baffert said neither he nor anyone on his team administered the drug betamethasone to Medina Spirit.