Sullivan: Medina Spirit's defeat at Preakness moves racing's drama out of sight

Thoroughbred racing has caught a break it might have been better-served missing.

Rombauer’s surprise win in Saturday’s Preakness Stakes changes the subject that has dominated and embarrassed the sport for the past week, but it also eliminates the chance of a Triple Crown and of Bob Baffert spontaneously combusting on live television.

The heat is off, at least for the moment, but so is the light.

More: 'I am truly sorry': Baffert issues apology for handling of Medina Spirit announcement

Seeking a second straight wire-to-wire win in the second leg of racing’s Triple Crown, Medina Spirit followed his Kentucky Derby victory by fading over the final furlongs at Pimlico against a smaller, less formidable field, and over a shorter distance. With his Derby victory already at risk because of the presence of betamethasone in his blood sample, Medina Spirit finished third in the Preakness, 5 ½ lengths behind the longshot winner and probably too far back to sustain mainstream interest through the Belmont Stakes.

“I knew he was going to be pressed today and I was hoping he wasn’t going to overdo it, but he did,” jockey John Velazquez said afterward. “By the quarter pole, the other horse (runner-up Midnight Bourbon) put his head in front, but he kept fighting. He didn’t stop. He just got beat.”  

Once Rombauer surged past Midnight Bourbon and Medina Spirit, racing’s most compelling drama moved mostly out of view, into testing laboratories and law offices. The split sample that could confirm Medina Spirit’s blood test and cause his disqualification has yet to depart Churchill Downs. The class-action lawsuits of aggrieved bettors are still in their embryonic stages. The road to resolving Derby 147, its many financial ripples and racing’s ongoing medication debate is sure to be complex, contentious and slow.

Echoing Baffert’s stated concerns about ever-more sophisticated testing technology and ever-less forgiving picogram thresholds, the executive director of the North American Association of Racetrack Veterinarians issued a statement almost sure to resurface down that road in litigation.

More: Rombauer rallies to win Preakness; Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit fades to third

“It is time for the racing industry to follow the science and adopt rational thresholds,” Erica Minks said. “By focusing on insignificant levels of therapeutic medications, the regulators of our sport are depriving the industry of appropriate veterinary decision making, alarming the public and fans of horse racing, and creating an erroneous impression of dishonesty and exploitation. This must stop before it collapses the industry. It must stop for the sake of the horse.”

Meanwhile, Marty Irby of Animal Wellness Action, used the Preakness to lobby for the stricter standards anticipated with passage of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act.

“The status quo remains, and it’s business as usual in Baltimore,” Irby said. “American horse racing continues to be marred by scandal after scandal and the decision to allow Medina Spirit to run in the 146th Preakness Stakes today is no exception.”

With Medina Spirit’s defeat, racing now returns to the narrower niche it normally occupies between one Derby and the next. Until Baffert ends his self-imposed exile and starts answering some of the questions he has ducked since his “cancel culture” media blitz of last Monday, there’s not all that much to keep casual fans engaged (Saturday Night Live notwithstanding).

SEE THIS: Watch the Preakness replay of Rombauer roaring past Medina Spirit for the win at Pimlico

Some of this is inherent in the unscripted world of competitive sports. Baffert chasing his third Triple Crown beneath the harsh spotlight of suspicion was a spectacular story line. Horses, however, have no sense of theatre.  

Medina Spirit might have kept racing on the front pages for at least another three weeks by winning the Preakness, but he was unlikely to run much faster on Saturday without producing another positive drug test. 

Tim Sullivan: 502-582-4650, tsullivan@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @TimSullivan714