Baffert: going, going …

Trainer Bob Baffert, whose 2021 Kentucky Derby winner, Medina Spirit, failed a drug test, has been suspended by Churchill Downs after failing a post-race test of his own.

“I was celebrating with friends and family when a track steward pulled me aside, handed me two paper cups and said, ‘Fill ’em up,” Baffert said. “I did, and I thought that was the end of it.”

But track officials, who said they had been suspicious of the speed with which Baffert made it from his box in the stands to the Winner’s Circle, confirmed the presence of Lasix, also known as furosemide, in the urine samples provided by the 68-year-old Hall of Fame trainer.

In thoroughbred racing, Lasix is used by to prevent respiratory bleeding in horses running at high speed. It also works as a diuretic that causes a horse to urinate two or three gallons of fluid before a race, enabling it to run faster.

“It works the same way in humans, only on a smaller scale,” said Tyler Picklesimer, Churchill Downs track steward. “I mean, you load up on a bunch of mint juleps before the (Kentucky) Derby, you’re going to be sloshing all over the place after the race unless you can, y’know, eliminate it in a hurry.

“That’s what caught our eye. Mr. Baffert seemed to be inhaling those sickly sweet bourbon drinks as the day went on and then, wham, he hot-footed his way through the stands and in front of the cameras like he was in the I-75 express lane.”

Picklesimer said the testing of Baffert was in no way related to the testing of Medina Spirit, which revealed the presence of double the allowable amount in Kentucky racing of betamethasone, a corticosteroid injected into joints to reduce pain and swelling.

“For starters, I’ve been into dozens of joints with Mr. Baffert,” Picklesimer said, “and by the time we leave most of them we’re feeling no pain. … Uh, my bad. Poor taste.”

Baffert said he plans to enter Medina Spirit in Saturday’s Preakness Stakes at Pimlico in Baltimore, the second of the Triple Crown races. Baffert’s Kentucky Derby victory, if it stands, was his record seventh and he said he plans to fight the results of Medina Spirit’s failed drug test “tooth and nail,” to which Picklesimer said, “We also plan to test Medina Spirit’s teeth and nails. … Sorry. I just can’t help myself.”