Judge urges dividing split sample for further testing in Medina Spirit case

FRANKFORT, Ky. – A Kentucky circuit court judge at a hearing on Friday morning urged attorneys for the connections of Medina Spirit and for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission to come to an agreement on how to divide up a split sample of the colt’s Kentucky Derby urine sample by Wednesday, when he said he would issue a ruling in the matter if they had not reached a settlement.

Judge Thomas Wingate of the Franklin Circuit Court told the attorneys that he would likely rule that a split of Medina Spirit’s post-Derby urine sample be divided so that the attorneys for the horse’s connections had ample material for a number of tests that they want performed, with “a minimum of at least three milliliters” reserved for the KHRC.

“You each need to try to work it out if you care anything about horse racing in this state,” said Wingate, who frequently hears racing regulatory cases.

The hearing was called after attorneys for Bob Baffert, the horse’s trainer, and Amr Zedan, the horse’s owner, filed a petition in court seeking to compel the KHRC to release the split urine sample for additional testing. The KHRC had initially agreed to release only two milliliters of the sample, which contains approximately 25 milliliters of urine.

The attorneys for the horse’s connections want the urine to be tested for additional compounds found in the skin ointment Otomax, which Baffert has said was administered to Medina Spirit daily for approximately four weeks prior to the Derby, prior to the horse testing positive for betamethasone, a regulated anti-inflammatory medication.

In addition to betamethasone, Otomax contains a number of other ingredients that can be detected in urine, and the attorneys want to gather scientific evidence supporting the argument that the betamethasone came from the ointment, and not from a joint injection. The attorneys told Wingate that they believe that such evidence could lead to “mitigating circumstances” that could lead to Baffert being “exonerated” in the case, according to his attorney, Craig Robertson.