Hall of fame horse trainer Bob Baffert blamed cancel culture for the review of Medina Spirit’s failed drug test on Monday.
“Churchill Downs came out with that statement – that was pretty harsh,” Baffert said on “The Dan Patrick Show,” the New York Post noted. “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. We’re prepared to run.”
Baffert has been suspended from Churchill Downs after Medina Spirit failed a post-race drug test. The drug test found the steroid betamethasone, an anti-inflammatory drug which has been banned from the sport. (RELATED: ‘The Biggest Gut Punch In Racing’: Kentucky Derby Winner Tests Positive For Banned Drug)
Baffert denied the horse had been treated with betamethasone during an appearance Monday on “America’s Newsroom.”
“That horse has never been treated with [betamethasone],” Baffert told the outlet. “Actually, it’s a legal therapeutic medicine and the amount that was in it wouldn’t have any effect on the horse anyway. But we don’t … That horse was never treated with that and so that’s the disturbing part of it.”
“I never thought I’d have to be fighting for my reputation and the poor horse’s reputation,” Baffert continued. “Because of the new regulations the regulators have put, they’re testing these horses at contaminated levels and it’s been a horrible experience.”
Baffert claimed that the horse had eaten hay that a groom taking cough medicine had urinated on during his appearance on “The Dan Patrick Show.”
The sample is being retested.