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Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit fails drug test

BAFFERT: “Yesterday I got the biggest gut punch in racing for something that I didn't do.”

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert announced on Sunday that his horse Medina Spirit, the winner of this year's Kentucky Derby, failed a post-race drug test.

Baffert said his team was informed of the bad news by Kentuckyv officials on Saturday.

BAFFERT: “Me​dina Spirit, our Derby horse, had been tested positive for 21 picograms of betamethasone... Me​dina Spirit has never been treated with betamethasone. So I cannot believe that I'm here before you guys. I never thought I'd be here.”

Churchill Downs said it had suspended Baffert from entering horses at its famed racetrack and that if the positive test is upheld, then Medina Spirit's results will be invalidated and Mandaloun will be declared the Kentucky Derby winner.

But Baffert said he felt that he and the horse were the victims.

BAFFERT: “...It's disturbing. It's an injustice to the horse... I don't know what's going on in racing right now, but there's something not right. And I don't feel embarrassed. I feel like I was wronged... This shouldn't have happened. So I don't know...what? There's a problem somewhere? It didn't come from us.”

Last month, Baffert successfully appealed against a 15-day suspension given to him by the Arkansas Racing Commission after two of his horses had tested positive for a banned substance.

Baffert, who won a record-setting seventh Kentucky Derby, said Medina Spirit had not yet been officially disqualified from the Derby and that he would launch his own investigation.