Trainer Bob Baffert: Kentucky Derby winner faces disqualification due to 'cancel culture'

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Trainer: Kentucky Derby winner faces disqualification due to ‘cancel culture’

• Bob Baffert says urine-tainted hay may have led to positive test
• Medina Spirit failed drug test after winning Kentucky Derby

Tom Lutz
@tom_lutz
Mon 10 May 2021 18.00 BST

Bob Baffert, whose horse faces disqualification from the Kentucky Derby after a failed drugs test, has blamed the situation on “cancel culture”.

Medina Spirit won this month’s Derby by half a length at Churchill Downs but on Sunday it emerged the horse had tested positive for double the legal amount of the steroid betamethasone after the race. Churchill Downs has suspended Baffert from entering horses at the track, and indicated it would invalidate Medina Spirit’s victory if the results of the drug test are upheld.

During an appearance on Fox News on Monday, Baffert appeared to suggest he was a victim of larger forces. “Churchill Downs came out with that statement – that was pretty harsh,” said Baffert during an appearance on Fox News on Monday. “With all the noise … We live in a different world now. This America is different. It was like a cancel culture kind of a thing so they’re reviewing it. I haven’t been told anything.”

Link to tweet

Baffert insists he will run Medina Spirit on Saturday in the next leg of US racing’s Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes. The draw for the race has been moved back to Tuesday as the controversy around Medina Spirit unfolds, although Baffert believes the investigation will take “months” to complete.

Baffert has had at least 30 positive doping tests for his horses, but insisted to Fox that he runs a clean operation.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/may/10/bob-baffert-medina-spirit-kentucky-derby-horse-racing-cancel-culture-disqualification

[DURHAM D]

1. This is getting interesting. nt

[empedocles]

2. Will super insider, oft winner, baffert be able to float by this one also?

[Thomas Hurt]

3. a rival thoroughbred out to make Medina look bad, sneaked into the stall and pissed hot on the hay..

or the rival jockey or rival owner poured "hot" horse pee in Medina's stall?

It's a conspiracy!

A false positive defense doesn't work here?

[happybird]

4. Urine tainted hay? Really??

Gimme a fuckin break.

[AnnaLee]

5. Why bother to run a race.

Just go on FAUX and declare that you won. The audience will agree with you.

[Diamond_Dog]

6. I don't think any horse

Would eat hay that another horse peed on. How stupid does he think people are.

[twogunsid]

7. SI just published a good article...

...they were tough on Baffert but very fair.

https://www.si.com/horse-racing/2021/05/10/bob-baffert-medina-spirit-steroid-controversy-circus

[DinahMoeHum]

11. Baffert is on his way to becoming the Lance Armstrong. . .

. . .of horse racing.

From the article:

What has continued to elude Baffert in the aftermath of Sunday morning's bombshell about Medina Spirit’s positive test is that he does not present the most compelling case for victimhood. The list of drug-related controversies hovering over his barn is getting longer, and the explanations for them are getting weaker.

(snip)

Baffert doesn’t seem to understand the cumulative credibility hit he’s taken. This isn’t “cancel culture"; it’s recurring cases of his horses testing positive and the public growing weary of it.

Here is why the cynicism cannot be canceled: Much the way Lance Armstrong dominated cycling when it was known to be fueled by doping, Baffert has dominated horse racing in an era of rampant drug use. Are we really supposed to believe that when positive tests are linked to the most successful guy in a drug-riddled sport, he’s actually the innocent victim of circumstance and/or sabotage? Occam’s razor—which stipulates that the simplest of competing theories be preferred to the more complex—seems to apply here.

[TheRealNorth]

8. lol Probably the only people that give a shit about this story....

Are all the Republicans that bet on horse racing.

[tulipsandroses]

9. So for every bad behavior that gets called out, its cancel culture now?

Dear baby Beyonce!

[BootinUp]

10. Clown. Nt

[twogunsid]

12. Spendthrift Farms just severed their relationship with Baffert...

...Horses belonging to them will head to other trainers.

And Phipps Family weighs-in on the issue.

Link to tweet

?s=20

[CountAllVotes]

13. All of these big name places should sever their relationship w/Baffert

This creep needs to hang-it up!

I heard him yelling, "Go Boy!" in the Derby.

God he makes me sick!