Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit was treated with an anti-fungal ointment containing betamethasone, the substance detected in his post-Derby blood sample, up until the day prior to the race, trainer Bob Baffert said in a statement released on Tuesday.
The attorney for Bob Baffert is prepared to file a motion for a temporary restraining order that would prohibit Pimlico Race Course from denying Baffert the ability to enter Medina Spirit in Saturday’s Preakness Stakes, the attorney, Craig Robertson, said Monday morning.
As he headed back to his Churchill Downs barn on Monday morning following a workout by Midnight Bourbon for the Preakness Stakes, to be run Saturday at Pimlico, trainer Steve Asmussen said he began to muse to himself over “what a crazy lot we are.”
“We walked over for the Derby thinking we were going to win, it didn’t work out how we expected – ouch – and today we’re, ‘Yay, we’re going to win the Preakness,’ ” he said.
Midnight Bourbon was sixth in the Kentucky Derby after losing valuable early position. “It just wasn’t meant to be,” Asmussen said.
Six years after the 2015 Kentucky Derby victory that kicked off his Triple Crown sweep, an already huge month of May for American Pharoah could get even more significant.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Bob Baffert opened his press conference Sunday at Churchill Downs with perhaps a touch of gallows humor prior to divulging the bombshell news that Medina Spirit has tested positive for a regulated anti-inflammatory out of the Kentucky Derby.
“First let’s talk about the Preakness horses,” Baffert said.
ELMONT, N.Y. - On the morning after he confirmed Risk Taking would join Crowded Trade in the starting gate for next Saturday’s $1 million Preakness Stakes at Pimlico, trainer Chad Brown put the two together Saturday morning at Belmont Park for their final serious workout before the race.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Risk Taking, the 7-5 morning-line favorite for Saturday’s Grade 3 Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont Park, will scratch from that race and instead run in the $1 million Preakness Stakes at Pimlico next Saturday, trainer Chad Brown said Friday.
Risk Taking will be ridden by Jose Ortiz and gives Brown a second runner in the middle jewel of the Triple Crown as he will also run Crowded Trade. Javier Castellano rides Crowded Trade.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Kentucky Derby runner-up Mandaloun won’t run in the Preakness, and neither will his stablemate Caddo River, trainer Brad Cox announced Thursday afternoon on a teleconference call hosted by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association.
The defection of the Cox horses leaves no more than 10 known prospects for the Preakness on May 15 at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, with the Bob Baffert-trained pair of Medina Spirit and Concert Tour the likely favorites. Entries will be drawn Monday.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Medina Spirit returned to the racetrack for the first time since his half-length victory Saturday in the Kentucky Derby when jogging an easy mile Wednesday as dawn was breaking at Churchill Downs.
“He was moving very good,” said Jimmy Barnes, longtime assistant to trainer Bob Baffert. “He’s happy, we’re all happy.”
ELMONT, N.Y. - While trainer Chad Brown is definitely planning to run Crowded Trade in the Preakness Stakes, he hasn’t ruled out also running Risk Taking in the second jewel of the Triple Crown.
Brown said he entered Risk Taking in Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Peter Pan Stakes but he could change his mind before race day and elect to add him to his Preakness lineup. Risk Taking won the Grade 3 Withers in February but was a disappointing seventh as the favorite in the Wood Memorial.
