Bob Baffert

As predicted by Racing Weekly, wealthy American trainer Bob Baffert is unleashing his powerful legal team in an effort to keep the Kentucky Derby.

His horse Medina Spirit was first past the post in last month’s race, the first leg of the famous triple crown, but was found to have a banned steroid in it’s blood. The standard second analysis of the sample has now come back positive. The normal next step is the disqualification of the horse and a ban for the trainer.

Baffert has twice in the recent past successfully challenged disqualifications in the courts.

The drug in question is usually administered by injection. It’s use is considered legitimate providing no trace remains when any horse runs that has received it. A period of 14 days is thought to be sufficient for it to clear the system.

Tests can only establish the presence of the drug, not how or when it was administered.

Baffert is claiming there was no injection and that the substance must have been inadvertently applied when an ointment used to treat external irritation (which contains a trace of the steroid) was rubbed into the horse’s skin.

In a civil suit, Baffert’s team has applied for an injunction, temporarily banning the Kentucky authorities from taking action.

The ointment concerned is Otomax. Baffert claims that if Otomax is also found to have been in Medina Spirit’s blood, it will prove that any application of betamethasone (the steroid) was accidental and non-actionable. He wants the samples re-tested.

Betamethasone is performance enhancing. Overuse will mask injuries, possibly in due course leading to physical breakdown. Medina Spirit is a three-year-old colt.

‘The manner in which the betamethasone found its way into Medina Spirit is critical’, says his legal document... ‘there is a huge difference in a finding due to an interarticular joint injection versus one from a topical ointment’.

Whether anyone will agree with this - the best his lawyers can come up with - is uncertain.

So far, third parties are offering Baffert little comfort. The executive director of the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium, one Dr Mary Scollay, has expressed the view that even if Otomax was found, it wouldn’t necessarily clear the trainer since it wouldn’t prove that no injection took place.

Muddying the waters, so as to make certainty impossible, can work when the accused must be guilty beyond reasonable doubt. The bad news for Baffert is that in tribunals and non-criminal cases the final judgement is made based on the balance of probability.

The New York Racing Authority has banned Baffert for two years and is, naturally, being sued. The trainer was therefore absent for the running of The Belmont Stakes (the third leg of the triple crown); the race was won by the 6/5 favourite, Essential Quality. Trainer Brad Cox will also collect the Kentucky Derby if Medina Spirit has the contest taken off him.