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 effectively. Many had seen him solely on tv.
They lifted plastic shot glasses full of Kentucky bourbon to the gloomy heavens and murmured melancholy toasts to the departed, Medina Spirit.
The epitaph largely saved to the info — the names of his mother and father, his document and earnings as a racehorse, the names of a few of the individuals he left behind. None of them had been on the service. The colt’s coach, Bob Baffert, nonetheless, despatched roses.
Loving phrases had been etched within the stone. So had been thornier ones which have been litigated within the courts and on the muddy backstretches of social media.
Noble & Cherished Champion
2021 Kentucky Derby
Nobody on the Outdated Associates thoroughbred retirement farm was right here to debate the drug check Medina Spirit failed after the Kentucky Derby a yr in the past or the disqualification that erased his victory. Any speak of the ills of horse racing — doping scandals, the frequent and mysterious deaths of its athletes, waning curiosity within the sport — may look ahead to a much less solemn day.
As a substitute, animal rights activists who need to ban thoroughbred racing stood shoulder to shoulder with horse lovers who’ve devoted their lives to the game. Medina Spirit represented every little 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 needed to pay my respects as a result of he was a phenomenal athlete who did what he was programmed to do very effectively,” mentioned Pamela Gentry, a Kentuckian now retired in Costa Rica. She mourns Medina Spirit, she mentioned, however she desires the game to go away.
“I really feel dangerous as a result of the people round them let him down,” she mentioned. “It makes me unhappy.”
Medina Spirit’s story has an nearly Shakespearean arc, however it additionally befits the up to date drama of the game. He was fortune’s idiot: born in obscurity within the paddock of a small-time breeder, auctioned off as a yearling for $1,000, bought once more on a budget, then entrusted to a snowy-haired coach who led him to surprising greatness however in the end to infamy.
Simply as abruptly as he had reached the highest of the game, the feisty colt collapsed throughout a exercise at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. A thoroughbred usually lives 25 years. Medina Spirit was lifeless earlier than he turned 4.
At first, it had appeared the little colt with the large coronary heart wouldn’t final even that lengthy.
A Faltering Begin
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 dwelling.” After working with horses for many years, she had discovered to take heed 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 additional workers. She makes her residing urging horses by their child steps on their solution to public sale and ultimately the racetrack.
She lived in a trailer on her son’s 10-acre farm in Anthony, Fla., a short lived refuge as she wound down her marriage. Rice had two mares on the property. One had just lately dropped her foal, however the different, Mongolian Changa, was three weeks late.
As she become the driveway, Rice noticed Mongolian Changa writhing within the grime. Most mares drop their infants at night time, for privateness, however this mare was straining to ship within the early afternoon.
Rice hollered for assist and Emily Rice, her daughter-in-law, got here operating.
“Emily, this child goes to punch by the highest for those who don’t stretch this gap out so I can get the ft the place they should 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 fingers 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 3 hours, Rice hand-nursed the darkish brown colt with the white star between his eyes. Inside days, he was retreating within the pasture.
Medina Spirit — on 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 strong racehorse, profitable 4 stakes races and almost $1 million in purses. As a result of 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 appreciate 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 easy like he was operating on clouds, however he additionally had this bounce that confirmed he had energy,” Rice mentioned. “You appeared in his eye, and also you simply 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 may now not deal with him by herself, and cash was tight.
“I hoped to get $10,000 on his seems to be alone,” she mentioned. “I’d have beloved to get $25,000. However nobody needed a Protonico.”
‘He Was All Enterprise’
The horse bearing sticker No. 448 on his hip entered the again ring of the Ocala Breeders’ Gross sales Firm and caught the attention of Christy Whitman.
Whitman, 38, is a pinhooker, in racing parlance, that 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 like what I do,” mentioned Whitman, who grew up in Florida horse nation and rode ponies as quickly as she may stroll. “It’s demanding. However horses are my present, and if I wasn’t doing this, I’d be making a gift of my present.”
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 among Whitman’s train riders had requested her to purchase an affordable weanling for him in lieu of what she owed him. She was shocked when she bid $1,000 on No. 448 and nobody countered. Rice thanked Whitman for purchasing him.
“He’ll be again within the gross sales ring quickly,” Whitman advised her.
Coaching younger horses requires lengthy days and persistence. Whitman has 50 in her care, largely for different purchasers. She teaches the horses easy methods to settle for a saddle, easy methods to bear the burden of a rider, easy methods to gallop.
The Protonico colt took to his classes shortly.
“He was simple to work with and had an incredible thoughts and exquisite stride,” Whitman mentioned. “Horses are like youngsters, and every have their very own character. Some can’t deal with the stress. The colt wasn’t nervous or silly. He was all enterprise.”
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 bought for the worth of a mattress. She needed to look ahead 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 bought to indicate his stuff.
Whitman advised Jose Gallego, the train rider for whom she had purchased the colt, that he had three-eighths of a mile to promote his horse. Each horse and rider responded, slingshotting around the racetrack in 33 seconds — among the many quickest occasions turned in.
At the very least one horseman was paying consideration: Amr Zedan, chairman of the Zedan Group, a Saudi Engineering conglomerate.
He knew Protonico was a very good racehorse. He was additionally a buddy of Protonico’s proprietor, Oussama Aboughazale, who has a breeding operation in Kentucky. Zedan advised his advisers to take a very good have a look at the colt.
As soon as 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 May Be a Good One’
Baffert is the perfect recognized, most embellished and most controversial horseman of his technology.
Among the richest individuals on this planet ship him their horses in hopes he’ll make them champions and premier stud horses. The workers of 80 at his three Southern California barns makes positive these animals are handled just like the elite athletes they’re.
The feed is high grade, the veterinary care in depth and the coaching routine demanding. Baffert’s horses have gained the Kentucky Derby six occasions and the Triple Crown twice. However horses in his secure have failed 30 drug checks over 4 a long time, tainting his legacy within the sport.
Nobody 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.
Starting that August, Medina Spirit had a timed exercise each six or seven days — 9 in all — and each 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 actually take note of what we gave for him or something like that,” Baffert would say of Marlow on Kentucky Derby day. “He’ll be frank with me, say, ‘I don’t find out about this one.’ So when he tells me he could possibly be a very good one, he made the record.”
In December, Medina Spirit gained his debut race at Los Alamitos by three lengths. The following month, the colt almost beat Baffert’s greatest 3-year-old, Life Is Good, at Santa Anita Park, however got here up three-quarters of a size brief.
Medina Spirit put all of it collectively within the Robert B. Lewis Stakes a month later, main each step of the race and holding off late prices by extremely regarded Scorching Rod Charlie and Roman Centurion to win by a neck.
In Florida, Gail Rice and Christy Whitman had been keeping track of the colt they introduced up, monitoring his exercises on-line and watching his races for proof that he was pretty much as good as they believed.
“He blew their doorways off,” Rice recalled telling her daughter. “Do you assume we’re going to the Derby?”
By the primary Saturday in Could, Medina Spirit was the star of the Baffert barn by default. Life Is Good was injured. Baffert’s different high horse, Live performance Tour, was left in California after he ran poorly within the Arkansas Derby. Nonetheless, nobody noticed Medina Spirit as a critical risk. He had been overwhelmed badly in his earlier two races, dropping to Life Is Good by eight lengths within the San Felipe Stakes and to Rock Your World by 4 and 1 / 4 within the Santa Anita Derby.
Baffert was subdued in regards to the colt’s possibilities within the Derby. “Perhaps he’ll get a chunk of it,” he mentioned.
4-Legged Ballet Dancers
Rice, who had been to the Derby solely as soon as, wasn’t going to overlook this one. Because the horses began loading into the beginning gate, she climbed atop her seat and aimed her telephone on the large display screen to movie the race.
In Florida, Whitman watched at a celebration along with her daughters, Erica, 14, and Ashley, 13. It had been a troublesome yr — 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 across 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 entrance,” a breathless Rice mentioned as Velazquez and Medina Spirit rolled into the backstretch.
“He’s nonetheless in entrance,” she screamed because the colt hit the mile marker.
However 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, fantastically — 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 carry on. He’s going to carry on.” When he did, she pulled her daughters right into a hug.
After wrapping her arms round anybody she may at Churchill Downs, Rice made her solution to the winner’s circle. Nobody knew the girl within the pink sweater who was kissing Medina Spirit on the face. Rice had by no means met Zedan or Baffert.
“I used to be going to hug my horse within the winner’s circle of the Kentucky Derby,” she mentioned.
The following morning, she met Baffert at his barn. She was thrilled when she referred to as out to Medina Spirit and he poked his head out of his stall as if he acknowledged the voice of an outdated buddy.
A Constructive Drug Take a look at
This story ought to finish right here. However in horse racing, few tales finish so neatly.
Per week after the Derby, Baffert referred to as a information convention to announce that Medina Spirit had examined constructive for betamethasone, a corticosteroid injected into joints to cut back ache and swelling. He denied doping the horse.
“There’s issues in racing,” he mentioned. “Nevertheless it’s not Bob Baffert.”
Nevertheless it was the fifth constructive check 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 evaded the state’s high tracks for 2 years. Baffert is not going to have horses in Triple Crown races this yr.
Rice was at dwelling in Florida when the information of the constructive check 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 on the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore.
“I didn’t consider it then, and I don’t now,” Rice mentioned. “He gained the Kentucky Derby as a result of he was the perfect horse that day.”
For Whitman, the constructive drug check confirmed her worry that Medina Spirit’s Derby victory was too good to be true.
“It was my actuality test,” she mentioned. “There goes my fairy story out the window. As a lot as I’d wish to say that it’s going to occur once more, realistically that was a once-in-a-lifetime horse. It’s not assured I’ll have one other Derby horse, not to mention one which wins it.”
Medina Spirit competed within the Preakness below a cloud, present process additional drug testing whereas Baffert remained in California. The colt completed third, then had a three-month trip earlier than profitable stakes races at Del Mar and Santa Anita and ending second within the Breeders’ Cup Basic.
“He was maturing and beginning 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 glorious form, and his morning turns across 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 3-quarters of it, Medina Spirit appeared just like the blossoming older horse he was changing into.
However as they had been ending, Medina Spirit was straining. When Ochoa pulled him up, the colt’s legs bought inflexible. He took a number of strides and collapsed.
Whitman was in her barn along with her horse when she acquired a textual content: “medina spirit simply died in a exercise.”
Whitman scrolled her telephone 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.
“However the saddest half is that he was simply beginning to actually mature,” Whitman mentioned. “We’ll by no means know simply how good he was going to be.”
This yr, after a necropsy, veterinarians and forensic specialists on the College 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. These circumstances are “suitable with, however not particular for, a cardiac reason for dying,” the specialists mentioned.
Hair, blood and urine samples confirmed no proof of doping.
A ‘Dwelling Historical past Museum’
Neither Rice nor Whitman attended the memorial for Medina Spirit on the Outdated Associates retirement farm. They selected to remain dwelling with the gorgeous athletes which have introduced them a lot pleasure.
“I get to see their faces after their first breeze,” Rice mentioned, “and you’ll see it of their eyes: ‘What did I simply do? It was so enjoyable.’ That’s the perfect.”
At Outdated Associates, greater than 100 horses, lots of them champions, live out their remaining days on 236 acres. Departed champions are right here too. Medina Spirit is interred alongside two different Derby winners, Warfare Emblem and Charismatic.
The farm, which payments itself as “horse racing’s residing historical past museum,” was based and is run by Michael Blowen. It’s 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 beloved thoroughbreds. He understands higher than most the conflicts in horse racing. He’s 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 Outdated Associates, as a buddy and supporter. Baffert’s first Derby winner, Silver Allure, 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 game.
Like many horse individuals, he struggles to make sense of this entire unhappy story.
“If Medina Spirit has one nice legacy, he confirmed everyone in racing that they’ll’t probably repair it,” Blowen mentioned. “Look, all I’ve bought to say is that horse racing have to be the best sport that was ever invented, as a result of it survives itself.”
