A Grip on Sports: Once again, horse racing slips on a banana peel in full view of the world
A GRIP ON SPORTS • We have fond memories of horse racing. Deep, rich, family oriented ones. So we hate to watch as the sport continually punches itself in the face. As happened again over the weekend.
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• We’ve shared our history in this space before. Dad working part-time at Santa Anita as a paramutual clerk. Sneaking in to watch the ninth race while in high school. Dad’s profitable friendship with hall of fame trainer Charlie Whittingham. Heck, learning to drive in Santa Anita’s then-spacious parking lot.
We were never kings but the Grippis loved royalty’s sport.
Kings, what few of them are left in the world, princes and dukes still invest in horse racing but the results in the public’s eyes are about as positive as someone uttering “let them eat cake.”
Horses die all too often. So do tracks. And even when the sport has a feel-good story bubble to the top, as was the case with this year’s Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit, something or someone pops the bubble with alacrity.
That happened Sunday, just eight days after little Medina Spirit, the speedy longshot that once sold for $1,000, thrilled the nation with a sprint around Churchill Downs. Turns out, according to the Kentucky Racing Commission, the Bob Baffert-trained winner had twice the allowable amount of the steroid betamethasone in its system.
Uh, that’s not good. Not for the horse, who has no choice in the matter and was, if the failed drug test is true, running its heart out with a drug that is only available in pill form for humans by prescription in the United States.
It’s not good for Bob Baffert, the trainer who was lauded last week after winning his one-millionth Derby. (OK, it was just his seventh, but still a record.) The dapper University of Arizona grad was praised for his unequaled ability to get another horse tuned up for the sport’s biggest stage. Now it comes to pass the tuneup may have included some rocket fuel.
And not good for the sport overall.
It’s a black eye, that’s for sure. If the failed drug test holds up, Medina Spirit will become the second horse ever to win the Derby and subsequently be disqualified for a banned substance. But there is a silver lining. The sport is willing to police itself. Has shown that – off and on – in the past. Just the announcement – and Baffert’s suspension by Churchill Downs – is proof that in this day and age horse racing knows it can’t hide, or protect cheaters.
There may not, however, ultimately be any punishment. Medina Spirit may skate. Baffert, who has been dogged by his horses failing five drug tests in the past year, may as well. The rules are jumbled and hard to enforce. Each state is different. What Kentucky allows, and enforces, is different than California and Maryland, site of this Saturday’s Preakness.
The process could take a while.
Which means the Triple Crown, horse racing’s one series that captures the nation’s interest for more than a month, is already scarred. Even if Medina Spirit is allowed to run Saturday, as it seems now is the case, and wins, there is no guarantee the Belmont would crown the sport’s 14 Triple Crown winner.
And if Derby runner-up Mandaloun is declared the winner, there will certainly not be No. 14. The horse is not running this week.
Such is the usual happenstances for horse racing in 2021.
As Baffert said Sunday, “I’m worried about our sport. Our sport, we’ve taken a lot of hits as a sport. These are pretty serious accusations here, but we’re going to get to the bottom of it and find out.”
Though Baffert professed his innocence – “We know we didn’t do it,” he said – it doesn’t really matter either way, at least as far as the sport’s status is concerned.
If it is determined he did cheat, the sport’s most high-profile trainer sees his reputation destroyed beyond repair. If he is telling the truth then something is wrong behind the scenes. Either someone else drugged the horse for some nefarious purpose or the testing procedure, one that is supposed to protect the sport’s integrity, is fatally flawed.
Both options are not just a black eye for the sport but, quite possibly, could be a critical injury. A self-inflicted critical injury.
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WSU: Around the Pac-12 and college sports, as the conference bet on rapid coronavirus testing, the powers that be at Washington discussed it often. … Colorado has picked up an offensive lineman via transfer. … UCLA will benefit from having a senior quarterback next season. … In basketball news, as you might have noticed, the anticipated dropping of penalties for transferring between conference schools has already had an impact. Yesterday, it was reported former Utah starting guard Pelle Larsson will be playing for Tommy Lloyd at Arizona next season.
Gonzaga: Around the WCC, June will be a big month for BYU men’s basketball.
Preps: Golf is a challenging game for most of us. Challenging physically and mentally. But some folks just seem to take to it naturally. Such seems to be the case for Pullman High’s Lauren Greeny. Jim Meehan has more in this column. … Lexie and Lacie Hull are two of the most talented basketball players to ever grace the Spokane-area courts. They are also top students, as their latest collegiate awards illustrate. That news leads off our weekly local briefs.
Indians: The first homestand of the year wasn’t as productive as Spokane would have liked, ending with a 1-5 mark against Eugene. Yesterday was a rout, with the Emeralds winning 15-1. Dave Nichols has the game story while James Snook presents a photo gallery.
Chiefs: The WHL season, truncated and devoid of playoffs, ended Sunday for Spokane. And it ended in the same manner faced by the Chiefs most nights, with a loss. This one, at Seattle, finished 3-0. Kevin Dudley has the particulars in this story.
Mariners: There is not a lot of room for error for this year’s version of the M’s. They made too many of them yesterday and they lost 10-2 to the host Rangers. … Is this the week we see Jarred Kelenic with the Mariners? If it is, we better be ready for some fireworks. The offense sure needs it. … We haven’t seen much in the way of offensive fireworks from Evan White yet in his career.
Seahawks: Watching DK Metcalf barrel down the track yesterday made a couple things perfectly clear. He’s fast, finishing his 100-meter heat in a respectable 10.37 seconds. But the 6-foot-4, 230-pound Metcalf is not sprinter fast, as he finished ninth out of nine participants.
Sounders: We didn’t watch much of Seattle’s rivalry match in Portland (other commitments kept us away), but we did hear all about the weird nature of the contest. The Sounders won 2-1 but that’s hardly the whole story.
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• Mother’s Day is really hard for me. My mom has been gone for almost 40 years and though the last couple were strained between us, there are still vibrant and loving memories from childhood banging around upstairs somehow. But what really makes it hard is getting the perfect gift for the perfect woman I married. This year I think I hit it out of the park. An 18-year-old bottle of single malt scotch. Smoother than a new road, tastier than anything Ben and Jerry’s have ever made. Smoky and subtle. My hope is she keeps a sip or two around until April of next year, when she retires. We can toast the end of our careers, her with the scotch, me with a diet Pepsi. It will be perfect. Like her. Until later …