Pat McDonogh/Courier Journal/USA TODAY Sports Network
The positive drug tests keep piling up for Bob Baffert’s top horses. So do the explanations for them. The dog keeps eating the homework—an entire semester’s worth by now, with permanent damage to the digestive tract.
When it came out that eventual Triple Crown winner Justify tested positive for scopolamine after the 2018 Santa Anita Derby, the result was attributed to naturally occurring jimson weed in the horse’s feed or bedding that was dropped off at Baffert’s barn.
When Charlatan and Gamine tested positive last spring for lidocaine after races on Arkansas Derby day in 2020, the initial rationale was that the substance came from a salon pas patch worn by assistant trainer Jimmy Barnes.