Racing Still Mourns the Ill-Fated Kentucky Derby Winner, Medina Spirit

GEORGETOWN, Ky. — The rain pelted the gravestone, leaving streaks on the black marble and mirroring the misty eyes of the 100 or so admirers who had come to say goodbye. None of them knew the deceased properly. Many had seen him solely on tv.

They lifted plastic shot glasses stuffed with Kentucky bourbon to the gloomy heavens and murmured melancholy toasts to the departed, Medina Spirit.

The epitaph principally stored to the details — the names of his dad and mom, his document and earnings as a racehorse, the names of a few of the individuals he left behind. None of them had been at the service. The colt’s coach, Bob Baffert, nonetheless, despatched roses.

Loving phrases had been etched in the stone. So had been thornier ones which were litigated in the courts and on the muddy backstretches of social media.

Noble & Cherished Champion

2021 Kentucky Derby

No one at the Old Friends thoroughbred retirement farm was right here to debate the drug take a look at Medina Spirit failed after the Kentucky Derby a 12 months in the past or the disqualification that erased his victory. Any discuss of the ills of horse racing — doping scandals, the frequent and mysterious deaths of its athletes, waning curiosity in the sport — might look forward to a much less solemn day.

Instead, animal rights activists who wish to ban thoroughbred racing stood shoulder to shoulder with horse lovers who’ve devoted their lives to the sport. Medina Spirit represented every thing they admire about thoroughbreds — their magnificence, energy and single-minded dedication.

All he did was what he was imagined to do: run quick.

“I wanted to pay my respects because he was a beautiful athlete who did what he was programmed to do very well,” mentioned Pamela Gentry, a Kentuckian now retired in Costa Rica. She mourns Medina Spirit, she mentioned, however she needs the sport to go away.

“I feel bad because the humans around them let him down,” she mentioned. “It makes me sad.”

Medina Spirit’s story has an nearly Shakespearean arc, nevertheless it additionally befits the modern drama of the sport. He was fortune’s idiot: born in obscurity in the paddock of a small-time breeder, auctioned off as a yearling for $1,000, offered once more on the low-cost, then entrusted to a snowy-haired coach who led him to surprising greatness however finally to infamy.

Just as abruptly as he had reached the prime of the sport, the feisty colt collapsed throughout a exercise at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. A thoroughbred usually lives 25 years. Medina Spirit was useless earlier than he turned 4.

At first, it had appeared the little colt with the massive coronary heart wouldn’t final even that lengthy.

A Faltering Start

On April 5, 2018, 4 years to the day earlier than Medina Spirit’s farewell toast, Gail Rice was operating errands when she heard a voice in her head: “Gail, go home.” After working with horses for many years, she had realized to hearken to her instincts.

Rice, 60, is a yard breeder, a title worn proudly by those that make racehorses with out deep pockets, a manicured pasture or further employees. She makes her dwelling urging horses by their child steps on their option to public sale and ultimately the racetrack.

She lived in a trailer on her son’s 10-acre farm in Anthony, Fla., a brief refuge as she wound down her marriage. Rice had two mares on the property. One had lately dropped her foal, however the different, Mongolian Changa, was three weeks late.

As she changed into the driveway, Rice noticed Mongolian Changa writhing in the grime. Most mares drop their infants at evening, for privateness, however this mare was straining to ship in the early afternoon.

Rice hollered for assist and Emily Rice, her daughter-in-law, got here operating.

“Emily, this baby is going to punch through the top if you don’t stretch this hole out so I can get the feet where they need to be,” Rice mentioned.

Rice pulled and pushed on the foal’s forelegs like a crane operator working her gears till the legs had been aimed for the exit. Her son Kevin heard the commotion, and shortly there have been 4 arms dragging this child into the Florida sunshine.

The foal, who would turn into Medina Spirit, was all legs and as slippery as a seal.

For three hours, Rice hand-nursed the darkish brown colt with the white star between his eyes. Within days, he was withdrawing in the pasture.

Medina Spirit — at the time, he answered to Turbo or Changa Boy — didn’t have a very spectacular pedigree. His dam, Mongolian Changa, had gained a race and completed third in two others earlier than she was retired at 2 due to an harm. His sire, Protonico, had been a stable racehorse, successful 4 stakes races and almost $1 million in purses. Because Protonico was a first-time sire with modest bloodlines, it had price Rice and her ex-husband, Wayne, solely $10,000 to breed him to Mongolian Changa and one different mare.

It didn’t take lengthy for Gail Rice to understand the offspring of those two horses was one thing particular. The yearling colt wore out her pasture, sprinting from level to level as if he had been being chased. At relaxation, he was laid-back, although he typically took playful nips at her.

“He was smooth like he was running on clouds, but he also had this bounce that showed he had power,” Rice mentioned. “You looked in his eye, and you just knew you had a freaking racehorse.”

In January 2019, when Mongolian Changa’s son was 9 months, Rice took him to the public sale ring. She might not deal with him by herself, and cash was tight.

“I was hoping to get $10,000 on his looks alone,” she mentioned. “I would have loved to get $25,000. But no one wanted a Protonico.”

‘He Was All Business’

The horse bearing sticker No. 448 on his hip entered the again ring of the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company and caught the eye of Christy Whitman.

Whitman, 38, is a pinhooker, in racing parlance, which means she buys cheap horses as yearlings, then trains them for resale at 2-year-old gross sales to house owners who will race them.

“I love what I do,” mentioned Whitman, who grew up in Florida horse nation and rode ponies as quickly as she might stroll. “It is demanding. But horses are my gift, and if I wasn’t doing this, I’d be giving away my gift.”

Whitman had by no means heard of Protonico, the sire of the little horse with the star between his eyes. She appeared up his race document and noticed promise.

One of Whitman’s train riders had requested her to purchase an affordable weanling for him in lieu of what she owed him. She was stunned when she bid $1,000 on No. 448 and nobody countered. Rice thanked Whitman for getting him.

“He’ll be back in the sales ring soon,” Whitman instructed her.

Training younger horses requires lengthy days and endurance. Whitman has 50 in her care, principally for different shoppers. She teaches the horses the way to settle for a saddle, the way to bear the weight of a rider, the way to gallop.

The Protonico colt took to his classes shortly.

“He was easy to work with and had a great mind and beautiful stride,” Whitman mentioned. “Horses are like kids, and each have their own personality. Some can’t handle the stress. The colt wasn’t nervous or stupid. He was all business.”

She tried to get him into the spring gross sales, however the catalogs didn’t have room for the son of an unheralded first-time stallion who had been offered for the value of a mattress. She needed to look forward to the much less prestigious summer season auctions.

On July 16, 2020, on the ultimate day of the 2-year-old sale in Ocala, the Protonico colt lastly obtained to point out his stuff.

Whitman instructed Jose Gallego, the train rider for whom she had purchased the colt, that he had three-eighths of a mile to promote his horse. Both horse and rider responded, slingshotting round the racetrack in 33 seconds — amongst the quickest instances turned in.

At least one horseman was paying consideration: Amr Zedan, chairman of the Zedan Group, a Saudi Engineering conglomerate.

He knew Protonico was a great racehorse. He was additionally a buddy of Protonico’s proprietor, Oussama Aboughazale, who has a breeding operation in Kentucky. Zedan instructed his advisers to take a great have a look at the colt.

Once once more, the bidding was tepid. Zedan purchased the horse for $35,000 and named him Medina Spirit, after his hometown in Saudi Arabia. Then he despatched him to Bob Baffert.

‘He Could Be a Good One’

Baffert is the finest identified, most adorned and most controversial horseman of his technology.

Some of the richest individuals in the world ship him their horses in hopes he’ll make them champions and premier stud horses. The employees of 80 at his three Southern California barns makes certain these animals are handled like the elite athletes they’re.

The feed is prime grade, the veterinary care intensive and the coaching routine demanding. Baffert’s horses have gained the Kentucky Derby six instances and the Triple Crown twice. But horses in his secure have failed 30 drug assessments over 4 many years, tainting his legacy in the sport.

No one anticipated Medina Spirit to turn into a champion. He landed in Baffert’s second-string barn, at Los Alamitos Race Course in Orange County, Calif.

Beginning that August, Medina Spirit had a timed exercise each six or seven days — 9 in all — and every one was higher than the final. Mike Marlow, who runs Baffert’s Los Alamitos barn, let the boss know he had a possible Derby horse.

Baffert trusted his judgment.

“He doesn’t really pay attention to what we gave for him or anything like that,” Baffert would say of Marlow on Kentucky Derby day. “He’ll be frank with me, say, ‘I don’t know about this one.’ So when he tells me he could be a good one, he made the list.”

In December, Medina Spirit gained his debut race at Los Alamitos by three lengths. The subsequent month, the colt almost beat Baffert’s finest 3-year-old, Life Is Good, at Santa Anita Park, however got here up three-quarters of a size quick.

Medina Spirit put all of it collectively in the Robert B. Lewis Stakes a month later, main each step of the race and holding off late expenses by extremely regarded Hot Rod Charlie and Roman Centurion to win by a neck.

In Florida, Gail Rice and Christy Whitman had been maintaining a tally of the colt they introduced up, monitoring his exercises on-line and watching his races for proof that he was nearly as good as they believed.

“He blew their doors off,” Rice recalled telling her daughter. “Do you think we are going to the Derby?”

By the first Saturday in May, Medina Spirit was the star of the Baffert barn by default. Life Is Good was injured. Baffert’s different prime horse, Concert Tour, was left in California after he ran poorly in the Arkansas Derby. Still, nobody noticed Medina Spirit as a critical risk. He had been crushed badly in his earlier two races, shedding to Life Is Good by eight lengths in the San Felipe Stakes and to Rock Your World by 4 and 1 / 4 in the Santa Anita Derby.

Baffert was subdued about the colt’s possibilities in the Derby. “Maybe he’ll get a piece of it,” he mentioned.

Four-Legged Ballet Dancers

Rice, who had been to the Derby solely as soon as, wasn’t going to overlook this one. As the horses began loading into the beginning gate, she climbed atop her seat and aimed her cellphone at the massive display screen to movie the race.

In Florida, Whitman watched at a celebration together with her daughters, Erica, 14, and Ashley, 13. It had been a troublesome 12 months — she had separated from her husband — and Whitman believed all of them wanted an outing.

When the gates opened at Churchill Downs, Medina Spirit went off like a rocket, main 18 different horses round the first flip. John Velazquez, the colt’s rider, knew Medina Spirit most well-liked operating in entrance and was a fighter. His technique was to take the lead and see how lengthy they may maintain it.

“He’s in front,” a breathless Rice mentioned as Velazquez and Medina Spirit rolled into the backstretch.

“He’s still in front,” she screamed as the colt hit the mile marker.

But quickly a colt named Mandaloun was on Medina Spirit’s hip, then at his neck, and at last, eye to eye with him. They moved in tandem like four-legged ballet dancers — effortlessly, superbly — down the stretch.

Medina Spirit didn’t fold. He separated himself from Mandaloun by a foot, then one other, and one other. He crossed the end line a half-length forward of his rival.

In Florida, Whitman was out of breath. For the whole stretch, she muttered the mantra: “He’s going to hold on. He’s going to hold on.” When he did, she pulled her daughters right into a hug.

After wrapping her arms round anybody she might at Churchill Downs, Rice made her option to the winner’s circle. No one knew the lady in the pink sweater who was kissing Medina Spirit on the face. Rice had by no means met Zedan or Baffert.

“I was going to hug my horse in the winner’s circle of the Kentucky Derby,” she mentioned.

The subsequent morning, she met Baffert at his barn. She was thrilled when she known as out to Medina Spirit and he poked his head out of his stall as if he acknowledged the voice of an previous buddy.

A Positive Drug Test

This story ought to finish right here. But in horse racing, few tales finish so neatly.

Per week after the Derby, Baffert known as a information convention to announce that Medina Spirit had examined optimistic for betamethasone, a corticosteroid injected into joints to cut back ache and swelling. He denied doping the horse.

“There’s problems in racing,” he mentioned. “But it’s not Bob Baffert.”

But it was the fifth optimistic take a look at in a Baffert horse in 14 months. Churchill Downs has now barred him. A listening to officer in New York has really useful that he be refrained from the state’s prime tracks for 2 years. Baffert won’t have horses in Triple Crown races this 12 months.

Rice was at dwelling in Florida when the information of the optimistic take a look at broke. A digicam crew was there to do a narrative on the yard breeder who had gained the Derby and would quickly attempt to seize the second leg of the Triple Crown at the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore.

“I didn’t believe it then, and I don’t now,” Rice mentioned. “He won the Kentucky Derby because he was the best horse that day.”

For Whitman, the optimistic drug take a look at confirmed her concern that Medina Spirit’s Derby victory was too good to be true.

“It was my reality check,” she mentioned. “There goes my fairy tale out the window. As much as I’d like to say that it will happen again, realistically that was a once-in-a-lifetime horse. It’s not guaranteed I’ll have another Derby horse, let alone one that wins it.”

Medina Spirit competed in the Preakness underneath a cloud, present process further drug testing whereas Baffert remained in California. The colt completed third, then had a three-month trip earlier than successful stakes races at Del Mar and Santa Anita and ending second in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

“He was maturing and starting to hit his peak,” Whitman mentioned.

On the morning of Dec. 6, Medina Spirit stepped onto the racetrack at Santa Anita together with his common train rider, Juan Ochoa, aboard. The colt had come out of the Breeders’ Cup in wonderful form, and his morning turns round the observe had been eye-catching. Baffert was prepping Medina Spirit for the $20 million Saudi Cup in February.

Ochoa broke him off for a five-furlong breeze. For three-quarters of it, Medina Spirit appeared like the blossoming older horse he was changing into.

But as they had been ending, Medina Spirit was straining. When Ochoa pulled him up, the colt’s legs obtained inflexible. He took just a few strides and collapsed.

Whitman was in her barn together with her horse when she obtained a textual content: “medina spirit just died in a workout.”

Whitman scrolled her cellphone to see if it was true. It was. She was numb and wanted to regular herself. It was one other blow to Medina Spirit’s legacy, and to her fairy story.

“But the saddest part is that he was just starting to really mature,” Whitman mentioned. “We’ll never know just how good he was going to be.”

This 12 months, after a necropsy, veterinarians and forensic consultants at the University of California, Davis, mentioned the colt might need died of a coronary heart assault. Medina Spirit had swollen lungs, foam in his windpipe and an enlarged spleen. Those circumstances are “compatible with, but not specific for, a cardiac cause of death,” the consultants mentioned.

Hair, blood and urine samples confirmed no proof of doping.

A ‘Living History Museum’

Neither Rice nor Whitman attended the memorial for Medina Spirit at the Old Friends retirement farm. They selected to remain dwelling with the lovely athletes which have introduced them a lot pleasure.

“I get to see their faces after their first breeze,” Rice mentioned, “and you can see it in their eyes: ‘What did I just do? It was so fun.’ That’s the best.”

At Old Friends, greater than 100 horses, lots of them champions, live out their ultimate days on 236 acres. Departed champions are right here too. Medina Spirit is interred alongside two different Derby winners, War Emblem and Charismatic.

The farm, which payments itself as “horse racing’s living history museum,” was based and is run by Michael Blowen. It is staffed by a military of volunteers, horse lovers all. Blowen organized for the burial of Medina Spirit’s ashes and gave his eulogy.

A former Boston Globe movie critic, Blowen has lengthy cherished thoroughbreds. He understands higher than most the conflicts in horse racing. He is enthralled with thoroughbreds in movement, however he has had to assist rescue too lots of them from abuse or kill pens.

Blowen counts Baffert, a frequent customer to Old Friends, as a buddy and supporter. Baffert’s first Derby winner, Silver Charm, calls this dwelling. Blowen additionally is aware of that guidelines are guidelines and that medication, therapeutic and in any other case, are dragging down the sport.

Like many horse individuals, he struggles to make sense of this entire unhappy story.

“If Medina Spirit has one great legacy, he showed everybody in racing that they can’t possibly fix it,” Blowen mentioned. “Look, all I’ve got to say is that horse racing must be the greatest sport that was ever invented, because it survives itself.”