Kentucky Derby Winner fails drug test

[Fortify]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/horse-racing/57049450

I came across this interesting story added to the BBC today, where the winner of the most recent Kentucky Derby (held on the 1st of May this year) was found to have illegal quantities of a drug in it's system:

Medina Spirit had tested positive for 21 picograms of the anti-inflammatory drug betamethasone, above Kentucky racing's threshold of ten picograms per millilitre.

This is trainer Bob Baffert's 7th Kentucky Derby win and it certainly makes you question his previous wins. His defense also feels a bit too rehearsed, as if he knew that one day the odd damaging news story would get leaked here or there. There is a track record where another of his horses was caught and it was supposedly cross contamination from a patch that the jockey was wearing - it sounds like a terrible cover story. A highly suspicious chain of events and maybe an aging trainer was interested in a winning reputation at all costs.

Last month he was successful in overturning a 15-day ban and disqualification of two of his horses - Gamine and Charlatan - after they returned samples containing the illicit raceday medication lidocaine, which was attributed to cross-contamination from a pain-relief patch worn by the trainer's assistant.

Baffert received a $10,000 fine instead.

I wonder how this affects bookmakers and gamblers who have paid out winners, because these sort of annual competitions can drive many tens of millions of bets? Will people be expected to pay winnings back? Are people who bet on the real non-cheating winner going to be compensated? Are the event organizers going to try and hide this so these difficult questions will not have to be answered?

I hope the people who look after the Kentucky Derby deal with this fairly, openly and honestly - even if it will be an administrative nightmare to rescind the winner. Their reputation might suffer greatly if it is not handled well.

[South Park]

This is such a sad news for me, one of the reasons why I like horse racing has to do with the fact the horse is never going to cheat, the horse just loves running and they are there making the best they can, it is the people that train them that cheat and I find it ironic that one of those horses that was found with some irregularities is called charlatan as this is the case for the trainer of the “winner” of this race, this without a doubt raises big questions about his previous wins, after all how many trainers can say they have won the Kentucky Derby 7 times? So I really hope there is an investigation about all of this, because not only this proves he cheated this time but there could be evidence he cheated every single time he won before.

[Twentyonepaylots]

There will be an uproar amongst the winners and big losers of these matches, that's for sure. It will be up to the race master's coordination with the bookmakers and the authority if they are to refund the losses and reinstate the wins of these people but I think it is very unfair for the winners since most of them could have already spent their earnings on something else. Just ban the perpetrator and move on I guess.

[Obito]

Picograms is so small that I am surprised that they are measuring it to be honest, I don't a lot about horses tolerance in terms of drugs but if it really affects performance then the committee will probably do something about it, also how come does this kind of thing pass under their noses though.

[goinmerry]

I wonder how this affects bookmakers and gamblers who have paid out winners, because these sort of annual competitions can drive many tens of millions of bets? Will people be expected to pay winnings back? Are people who bet on the real non-cheating winner going to be compensated? Are the event organizers going to try and hide this so these difficult questions will not have to be answered?

All bets are settled after the fight so there will be no reversal nor changes to the payout made throughout all the gambling platforms that open a bookmark on that event.

Aftermath, change of results, or any happening after the event has nothing to do with the previously settled bets.

The only thing that affected is the gambler's future betting view on all the parties involved.

[Jackl87]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/horse-racing/57049450

I came across this interesting story added to the BBC today, where the winner of the most recent Kentucky Derby (held on the 1st of May this year) was found to have illegal quantities of a drug in it's system:

I am not really surprised that there is doping going on in horse-racing too i mean if humans can improve their performance by illegal drugs than of course that stuff should have an effect on animals too. I feel sorry for the horses though as they have no choice and don't get asked if they want to get doped.
The kentucky derby is one of the most important and prestigeous horse races in the us and even worldwide so a doping scandal like that is probably the worst thing that can happen in a noble sport like this. I don't really know how strict and advanced the anti doping measure in horse racing are but i really hope they get increased now after this scandal.

[harizen]

I wonder how this affects bookmakers and gamblers who have paid out winners, because these sort of annual competitions can drive many tens of millions of bets? Will people be expected to pay winnings back? Are people who bet on the real non-cheating winner going to be compensated? Are the event organizers going to try and hide this so these difficult questions will not have to be answered?

As far as the common terms of a gambling site are concerned, there will be no compensation for those who bet on the losing side as the bets are already finished and the winnings are distributed properly fair and square.

However, gamblers might hesitate to bet again on the horse involved.

As per the article, the trainer is shocked at what happened so we can judge things right away. Remember that the winning horse in the subject and its trainer already has an established name in the world of Derby.

[Ryker1]

Well, based on my study and research about this bookmaker and horses, I know that these happened since then. It started with a lot of different illegal drugs and there are times that the owners of the racing horses are playing too dirty in a way that they would sometimes sabotage their opponent’s horses and secretly make their horses injected with illegal drugs before drug testings. Some of the owners were found guilty of negotiating with the drug tester's doctors or veterinarians to give false results from the papers to ruin their opponent’s reputation as they could not fix the game because of it.
These are things that possibly happened here. Based on the articles, Baffert never admitted the result of the drug test and keeps on saying that it did not come from them or someone made it to them. But there is a chance that this might be true.

[iTradeChips]

In my opinion, this should be expected at times where performance enhancement drugs have been used not just by humans but also injected to animals and the conspiracy is so well established that almost everybody is involved. Another thing that almost surprised me is that we are talking about this, happening on the Kentucky Derby which is a prestigious horse race. This issue with the performance enhancement drugs will definitely leave a bitter taste to the reputation of the said Derby.

[dothebeats]

I don't think they will nullify the end result of the event, though, especially if the event is already long past. Organizations that handle these races would just impose fines at best, and would set an example for those who are caught using performance enhancement drugs on their horses. See how low the fine is for the previous instance of infraction? They don't care that much even though the evidence already presents itself in front of them.

As for the bets, everything is settled almost immediately, and I don't even think they would even nullify the event on their end as it's a lot of hassle for sure.

[YOSHIE]

To my knowledge, Baffert has stated that the test results received from Kentucky are positive, although, at this time Derby has not disqualified him, it needs further processing, Baffert claims his horse is great and brave in the race, Baffert does not accept any of that against allegations of cheating.

From the Baffert talks he will provide all the paperwork all of that in the day-to-day activities, but for now the Kentucky Derby is still investigating the win against Baffert, but if one day it is found cheating, the Kentucky Derby will immediately cancel the victory and declare Mandaloun the sole winner in this horse race, but it is not certain, if it is found.

And vice versa Baffert will do whatever is necessary to prove that the bet this time is a really fair and positive real official win without any elements of cheating, I think the win for Baffert is the final without any cancellations in the future.

[OgNasty]

What a nightmare. Surely there’s precedent for this sort of thing though. I occasionally hear about fighters being disqualified for positive tests after the event. I never really thought about how gambling houses handle issues like this though considering they can’t take back paid rewards.

[stomachgrowls]

I wonder how this affects bookmakers and gamblers who have paid out winners, because these sort of annual competitions can drive many tens of millions of bets? Will people be expected to pay winnings back? Are people who bet on the real non-cheating winner going to be compensated? Are the event organizers going to try and hide this so these difficult questions will not have to be answered?

I hope the people who look after the Kentucky Derby deal with this fairly, openly and honestly - even if it will be an administrative nightmare to rescind the winner. Their reputation might suffer greatly if it is not handled well.

There wont be such changes and i dont believe that those winners would be giving out back those winnings on bookies which is impossible to happen.I dont know on whats the set-up on this one

yet they had already know that those bets were not really as it should be.Just like mentioned above about nullfying the results which is unlikely.So this is just an another

bad day that did really affect specially on to those losers and winners.

[Timelord2067]

Lance Armstrong's whole career was based on the lie of being a Mr. Good Guy of the cycling profession only to have his wins exposed years later as being on the end of a needle filled with a chemical concoction.

In this instance, Horses are the innocent bystanders who are defenseless to whatever is injected into them.  Armstrong consciously choose to put out his arm and be injected with chemicals; a horse doesn't give consent.

Any trainer/owner/physician/other who knowingly administers banned substances to any animal used in gambling should be banned for life.

[imstillthebest]

This is such a sad news for me, one of the reasons why I like horse racing has to do with the fact the horse is never going to cheat, the horse just loves running and they are there making the best they can, it is the people that train them that cheat and I find it ironic that one of those horses that was found with some irregularities is called charlatan as this is the case for the trainer of the “winner” of this race, this without a doubt raises big questions about his previous wins, after all how many trainers can say they have won the Kentucky Derby 7 times? So I really hope there is an investigation about all of this, because not only this proves he cheated this time but there could be evidence he cheated every single time he won before.

7 times won is not much and a good trainer can achieve this record without the need to cheat but for this trainer that cheat he is not confident with what he can do that's why he ask help for illegal drugs .
it's not the horse fault but I feel sorry for it because it was abused and named charlatan that has a bad meaning but this name could fit better in its trainer .
The Name charlatan is suspicious and the trainer could have been investigated since the beginning but trainer could be good at hiding his illegal activities

[South Park]

Lance Armstrong's whole career was based on the lie of being a Mr. Good Guy of the cycling profession only to have his wins exposed years later as being on the end of a needle filled with a chemical concoction.

In this instance, Horses are the innocent bystanders who are defenseless to whatever is injected into them.  Armstrong consciously choose to put out his arm and be injected with chemicals; a horse doesn't give consent.

Any trainer/owner/physician/other who knowingly administers banned substances to any animal used in gambling should be banned for life.

Agreed, while the Armstrong scandal was huge in the sense that he won so many times before he was discovered and this damaged the reputation of the sport. this case is different in the sense that Armstrong knew he was cheating and did everything he could do to hide it, so at the end of the day that was his decision, in this case the horse was administered enhancing drugs which from that perspective makes this case worse as the horse cannot consciously cheat and was injected a bunch of stuff that most likely will have an effect over its overall health and life expectancy that it never asked for.

[Darker45]

As to the gambling side of this, I think there will be no paying back. There will be no revocation of results because it is futile to do so. Funds have already been released. There is no point demanding the money back because it cannot be expected to be returned by the winners either.

I think there will always be a presumption of regularity among matches, so on the betting site's side they cannot be blamed as well. They have no prior knowledge whatsoever of the real deal. And as soon as winnings and prizes are already released, things are already beyond their control.

[uneng]

Check this site for more informations: What Happens If A Result Changes After A Bet Has Been Settled?

Once the official game result is announced and the gamblers who made the correct predictions are paid there is no turning back. The result may change later due to an issue like cheating, but the prizes won't be paid to the real gamblers winners and the bookmakers won't get the money back from the previously paid gamblers.

In horse racing there is a particularity though, because if the horse you bet is the winner, but for some reason the official result declares another horse as the winner you will still get paid by bookmakers. But the point here is that the official result comes after the results change. With cheating it's the opposite, the results change after the official result is released, after so much time of the race, so it isn't included on the particularity I mentioned and nobody else is going to be paid in this case anyway.

[kotajikikox]

This is a proof that every sports either Human is in act or animal will is always prone to cheating and being rigged.

this really ends the games losing fans and trust.

I may choose separate game now, because i al a fan of Horse racing in my college time but since then there are rumors about having not fair in the system.

[michellee]

This is a proof that every sports either Human is in act or animal will is always prone to cheating and being rigged.

this really ends the games losing fans and trust.

I may choose separate game now, because i al a fan of Horse racing in my college time but since then there are rumors about having not fair in the system.

Yes, but even if the sports getting cheat and being rigged, the audience and the bettor seem not to care because as long as they can enjoy the sports and make money from the betting, they will not complain. They will not stop betting and if they see that the sports are rigged so hard, they will search for the other sports and continue to bet. That will happen to the audience and they will not have a problem finding out the other sports and enjoy the game.