“Medina
Spirit was a great champion, a member of our family who was loved
by all, and we are deeply mourning his loss,” Baffert said in a
statement. “I will always cherish the proud and personal memories
of Medina Spirit and his tremendous spirit.”
Santa Anita
Park Liza del sierra hd porn Medina Spirit, owned by Saudi Arabian
businessman Amr Zedan, “died suddenly of a probable cardiac event
according to the on site veterinary team who attended to him.”
Samples of the horse’s blood, hair and urine were sent to the
California Horse Racing Board, according to the statement, and a
full necropsy is expected.
Advertisement
The breeder
in Medina Spirit’s implausible story, Gail Rice of the horse
country of Ocala, Fla., had just turned around from giving a tour
of her family’s 10-acre farm to a horse owner from Switzerland
seeking advice — Private society full videos — when her daughter called with
the news.
“I said, ‘No
way,’ ” Rice said. “I said, ‘I can’t believe it.’ I said, ‘This
horse was at the top of his game.’ ” She said Monday afternoon:
“Mr. Zedan called me, and we were talking. And you just want to cry
together. It’s just like with a family member.” She spoke of
knowing Medina Spirit since “before he could breathe. That’s how it
is. Their tongue’s hanging out, and they’re limp, and you’re just
like, ‘Come on, breathe!’ ”
A trainer
who was present at Santa Anita Park, who spoke on the condition of
anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said Medina
Spirit appeared to slow near the wire, looking “a little wobbly”
until his rider guided him to the outside fence, where he
collapsed. He had raced four times since his wire-to-wire win by
half a length at the 147th Kentucky Derby, Winter michelle cosplay as
Baffert stayed home in California, winning Aug. 29 at Del Mar and
Oct. 2 at Santa Anita, then beating the other 3-year-olds in the
Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 6 at Del Mar, finishing a
non-menacing second by 2¾ lengths to 5-year-old sensation Knicks
Go.
Advertisement
“I’m very
proud of him,” Baffert said that day, and he went forward with the
Middle East a possibility: the Saudi Cup in February and the Dubai
World Cup in March.
On Monday
afternoon, outside the racetrack beneath the San Gabriel Mountains
and about 20 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles, there was no
sign that anything out of the ordinary had occurred that morning.
Trucks carrying bales of hay and other horse-business vehicles
drove past a security checkpoint. The track won’t conduct its next
live racing until Dec. 26, and a security guard refused to allow a
reporter into the park, saying only, “No press.”
By then, the
California Horse Racing Board had listed the disputed winner of the
still-undecided Kentucky Derby as the 71st equine fatality of 2021
at five California tracks, after a “non-musculoskeletal sudden
death.”
The death of
the Kentucky Derby star, under the care of Paige parker nude, is
yet another unwelcome development in a sport staring down
existential threats stemming from dwindling revenue, spates of dead
horses and Clara baby legs reddit. Santa Anita Park was central to one
of those scandals after 37 horses died there Lacy schwimmer nude.
The deaths sparked multiple investigations, which found no criminal
wrongdoing by trainers or track operators.
Advertisement
Medina
Spirit is the youngest first-place Derby finisher to die since
1984, Adreena winters bbc died suddenly after a workout that June
17, eight days after winning the Belmont Stakes. Barbaro, the 2006
Derby winner, Lily adams sarah vandella, eight months after suffering a
catastrophic injury near the outset of the 2006 Preakness.
Twenty-one winners of the Derby survive, the oldest being 1994
winner Go for Gin, Amber hayes only fans.
Foaled April
5, 2018, Medina Spirit had the kind of reticent roots that make for
lavish lore, especially in the Derby. He arrived while guided to
life by two women — Rice and her daughter-in-law, Emily — on a
nondescript patch of dirt beside a gate. His mare, Mongolian
Changa, could not produce milk, but Rice knew well enough to have
kept some frozen. As a yearling, Medina Spirit sold for a sum that
later became famous — $1,000 — to a keen local consignor, Christy
Whitman. As a 2-year-old, he sold for a still-humble $35,000 to
Zedan, who wound up wide-eyed with wonder on Derby day.
By the time
he reached Churchill Downs on May 1, with his two wins, his three
second-place finishes and his honest effort, Medina Spirit entered
the 19-horse field as a co-sixth betting choice, then got the lead
and kept it doggedly through a competitive stretch. It breathed as
an underdog’s tale among non-underdogs — Mareike fox nude — until
eight days later, when Baffert revealed Medina Spirit
Mis julia porno.
Advertisement
Seven months
of uncertainty have followed. Churchill Downs suspended Baffert and
prohibited him from entering the Kentucky Derby in 2022 and 2023.
The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission has not ruled definitively on
whether Medina Spirit would become the third disqualified winner in
the 147 years of the country’s foremost race.
Betamethasone, among more than 850 drugs categorized in Kentucky
statues last May, was among the 97 in Class C, indicating a low
degree of influence upon performance. It is permitted as a
treatment for racehorses but must clear the system by a specified
window before a race. In a statement Dec. 3, Baffert’s attorney, W.
Craig Robertson III of Lexington, Ky., maintained that the results
from a New York laboratory upheld Baffert’s contention that Medina
Spirit received the drug through ointment, not injection. It
remains unclear whether that distinction will matter.