User:GhostRiver/medina

Medina Spirit (April 5, 2018 – December 6, 2021) was a Thoroughbred racehorse whose first-place finish at the 2021 Kentucky Derby was later TKTK. He was bred by Gail Rice's Thoroughbred farm in Ocala, Florida, and was purchased by Amr Zedan in 2020.

Background
Medina Spirit was a dark bay Thoroughbred colt with a faint star on his forehead and no other white markings. His sire Protonico won seven races in his lifetime, including four graded stakes races, while his dam, Mongolian Changa, was mostly unraced. She made six starts before suffering a bowed tendon and retiring as a broodmare. Medina Spirit's grandsire Giant's Causeway finished second in the 2000 Breeders' Cup Classic, and his damsire, Brilliant Speed, was the third-place horse at the 2011 Belmont Stakes and finished seventh at the 2011 Kentucky Derby. Through Giant's Causeway, Medina Spirit was also related to Bricks and Mortar, who won 11 of his 13 races in 2019, and Carpe Diem, the tenth-place finisher in the 2016 Kentucky Derby.

Gail Rice bred and foaled Medina Spirit at her Thoroughbred farm in Ocala, Florida, and he was born at 2 p.m. (EST) on April 5, 2018. Rice was not a major breeder; she had started working in the field in 2009 after being gifted a mare by a friend. Her husband Wayne had purchased Mongolian Changa as a yearling for $9,000 USD. Rice then bred the mare with Protonico, then a stud at Taylor Made Farm, at a $6,500 cost. Mongolian Changa's milk did not develop properly, and so Medina Spirit was bottle-fed colostrum from a frozen bottle of milk produced by Rice's other broodmare, Scribbling Sarah. A few hours after delivery, Mongolian Changa began to produce her own milk. Although he was the last to be born, Medina Spirit was the largest of Rice's foals that season, and he was known to play rough with the others in his paddock.

Gail and Wayne Rice divorced in 2019, and Gail, who was worried about the cost of feeding her horses, put Medina Spirit up for sale at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company 2019 Winter Mixed Sale. Christy Whitman of Whitman Sales purchased Medina Spirit at the Winter Mixed Sale for $1,000 with the intention of re-selling him as a two-year-old. Whitman was the only one to bid on Medina Spirit, who presented well physically at the sale but had difficulty attracting offers due to his weak pedigree. At the Under Tack Show as part of the OBS 2020 June Sale, Medina Spirit ran three furlongs in 33 seconds, impressing Gary Young, who was at the sale on behalf of Amr Zedan. Zedan was a friend of Protonico's owner, Oussama Aboughazale, and had received a call from Aboughazale to inspect his stud's colt. Impressed by what he saw, he paid $35,000 to acquire Medina Spirit from Whitman. Aboughazale named the horse Medina Spirit after Zedan's birthplace, the Saudi Arabian city Medina. Zedan added "Spirit" both because Medina is considered a holy place in Islam and as a reference to one of the horse's forebears, Alpha Spirit.

After purchase, Zedan sent Medina Spirit to Mike Marlow, an assistant trainer to Bob Baffert. Marlow had low expectations for the colt, and was impressed in training that he was able to compete against horses with stronger pedigrees. After some time, Marlow sent Medina Spirit directly to Baffert, who continued to train him with his other crop of racing prospects. Originally Medina Spirit was meant to train for the Saudi Cup, but after watching him at the training grounds, Baffert decided to prepare him for a Kentucky Derby run. Baffert later compared Medina Spirit to Silver Charm, his first Kentucky Derby winner, telling reporters, "His heart is bigger than his body. When he turned for home, something just told me."

2020: Two-year-old season
Medina Spirit made his track debut in a maiden race over five and a half furlongs on the dirt surface at Los Alamitos Race Course on December 11. Ridden by Abel Castillo, he started with 12–5 odds against eight opponents. He took a short lead over Sensemaker at the $3/8$ mark before kicking clear and finishing in first place with a time of 1:02.93, three lengths ahead of second-place finisher First Class Dad.

2021: Three-year-old season
Medina Spirit followed his maiden race with an appearance in the Sham Stakes at Santa Anita Park on January 2, 2021. His 6–1 morning line odds were third among individual entries, behind Parnelli and the heavy favorite Life is Good, another Baffert horse. A Grade III race, it was the graded stakes debut for both Baffert horses. The race took place on an eight-furlong dirt track at 4:09 p.m. (PST) under cloudy skies. Medina Spirit broke from the gate first, but he was overtaken by Life is Good at the $1/4$ mark and could not regain the lead. Trailing by four lengths for the majority of the race, he closed the gap in the final stretch, finishing only $3/4$ of a length behind Life is Good. Ridden once again by Abel Cedillo, Medina Spirit also finished 13 lengths ahead of third-place finisher Parnelli. Medina Spirit gained four points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby for his second-place finishin the Sham Stakes, and despite his loss, his Beyer Speed Figure increased from 76 in his maiden race to 99 in the Sham.

Although less experienced than many of his competitors, Medina Spirit's performance in the Sham Stakes made him the front-runner for the Robert B. Lewis Stakes on January 30, with 5-2 morning line odds in his favor. The race was run on an eight-and-a-half-furlong dirt track under clear skies at 3:38p.m. (PST) on January 30, 2021, at Santa Anita Park. Medina Spirit narrowly maintained a lead throughout the race, with Roman Centurian and Hot Rod Charlie keeping pace with him into a three-way photo finish. He was declared the winner by a neck, with an unusually slow race time of 1:46.26, caused in part by the track, which had suffered under heavy rain the day before. Baffert was impressed by the horse's victory, telling reporters after the race, "He was gutty as could be, showed some grit, and that's what you want to see." He also compared Medina Spirit's performance to that of Silver Charm, who won both the 1997 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. His first-place finish awarded Medina Spirit 10 more Derby points, putting him at 14 total.

Medina Spirit's next race was the San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita Park, his first Grade II race. It was also the first time that Medina Spirit was jockeyed by John R. Velazquez, who was coming off of a Kentucky Derby win on Authentic. He was the second-choice favorite for the Stakes, with 7-2 odds compared to Life is Good's 4-5 morning line. The San Felipe Stakes took place on March 6, 2021, at 2:50p.m. (PST) in clear conditions, on an eight-and-a-half-furlong dirt track. Life is Good had an unbroken lead throughout the race, finishing eight lengths ahead of Medina Spirit, who was briefly passed by Dream Shake on the second turn but retook his position and finished $2 1/4$ lengths ahead of the other horse. The higher-graded stakes awarded Medina Spirit 20 Derby points for his second-place finish, placing him fifth on the leaderboard with 34 overall points. Two weeks after the San Felipe Stakes, Medina Spirit underwent a minor throat surgery to repair an entrapped epiglottis and correct his breathing.

The last race Medina Spirit ran before the Kentucky Derby was the Santa Anita Derby, his first Grade I race. None of the 10 horses in the field had previously started a G1 stakes. The race took place at 4:17p.m. on April 3, 2021, on a nine-furlong dirt track in Santa Anita Park. Medina Spirit was the even money favorite for the race, but was upset by dark horse competitor Rock Your World, who was making his dirt track debut after two turf races. Medina Spirit fell to second by $4 1/4$ lengths, with Dream Shake placing third. Despite the loss, Medina Spirit received 40 Derby points for his second-place finish, clinching a berth in the 2021 Kentucky Derby.

Kentucky Derby
Medina Spirit was the only Baffert-trained horse to race in the 2021 Kentucky Derby, as both Concert Tour and Life is Good had been scratched prior to the race. Life is Good, projected to be Baffert's top Derby contender, withdrew on March 21 after suffering a workout injury, while Baffert announced on April 17 that Concert Tour would wait until the Preakness Stakes, skipping the Derby.

Steroid scandal
One week after winning the Kentucky Derby, Medina Spirit tested positive for betamethasone, an anti-inflammatory corticosteroid. Betamethasone is allowed in horse racing in trace quantities, but the 21 pg/mL concentration found in Medina Spirit's blood sample was more than twice the limit allowed by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.

Preakness Stakes
Following the bethamethasone scandal that had plagued Medina Spirit's Kentucky Derby victory, the horse was allowed to enter in the 2021 Preakness Stakes provided he cleared additional levels of drug testing and monitoring. While the horse awaited the results of this additional testing, Baffert announced that he would not be in attendance at Pimlico Race Course for the Preakness, and that he would be represented instead by assistant Jimmy Barnes. Three days later, the Maryland Jockey Club and Maryland Racing Commission announced that Medina Spirit had passed all three rounds of pre-race drug testing and was cleared to appear in the Preakness.

Belmont Stakes and later career
On May 17, 2021, the New York Racing Association prohibited Baffert from entering any of his horses, including Medina Spirit, into the 2021 Belmont Stakes and all other races in the state of New York until the investigation into Medina Spirit's failed drug test concluded. Baffert filed a lawsuit against the NYRA on June 14, alleging that the suspension occurred without due notice and did not specify duration or other terms, including which New York state laws or regulations he may have violated.


 * Shared Belief Stakes
 * Awesome Again Stakes
 * Breeders' Cup Classic

Death
At 7:45a.m. (PST) on December 6, 2021, Medina Spirit collapsed on the track after completing a five-furlong workout at Santa Anita Park. His rider attempted to revive him, but by the time veterinarians arrived on the scene, the horse was pronounced dead. Early indications suggested that Medina Spirit had suffered a fatal myocardial infarction, but blood, hair, and urine samples were taken at the scene and sent to the California Horse Racing Board and the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine in order to conduct a full necroscopy. Baffert released a statement following Medina Spirit's death, saying that his "entire barn is devastated by this news", and referring to the horse as "a great champion, a member of our family who was loved by all".