Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit failed a postrace drug test, once again raising questions about horse doping in the sport when the colt’s blood sample was found to be in violation of the state’s medication protocols for racehorses.
Trainer Bob Baffert said Medina Spirit tested positive for the steroid betamethasone. Baffert said the test showed 21 picograms of betamethasone. While a picogram is a trillionth of a gram, the test is for picograms per milliliter, and a horse can have 50,000 milliliters of blood.
Rules in the state of Kentucky limits the use of the steroid to 14 days or more before a race.