Like others on this string and the related postings on this board, I also have no idea whether Baffert was using and am not smart enough to climb inside his head regarding the risk reward. I do seek to challenge some of the assertions I have read here. First, when it is written that the drug in question “ does not move a horse up†I don’t know what that means.The fact that it is not EPO does not mean it cannot help a horse run better than if it wasn’t on the drug. The drug in question is a type of steroid/ anti inflammatory - think super advil. If any of us was running in a 5k and had an ouchy ankle, I assume we can stipulate that if we took advil before the race it would assist our ability to navigate the 5k. Assuming arguendo, Medina a did receive a shot of the drug before the derby in his ankle I assume it was given for a similar reason- to help Medina deal with an ouchy ankle. It may not assist in helping the horse with its oxygen content, i.e. EPO, but it would, arguably, make it a tad easier for the horse to run 1 1/4 miles for the first time. In terms of the dose ( and this comes from one of the zillion articles written over the past 24 hours), if the drug is administered directly into a specific area, the fact that a horse has a zillion milligrams or pints of blood is irrelevant- it is primarily absorbed in the area of the injection. Finally, and this comes from the TDN- Baffert, Maker, Casse, Brown and Assmussen ran in the most graded races in 2020-2021( and we know our suspicions about some of the other names)- other than Baffert none of the others had a positive test. Baffert - in 449 graded races had 5. As a bonus, I ask the following by way of pure paranoia- what are the odds of the same trainer having a $17000 purchase with a crooked knee that he ran in New Mexico win the Derby ( see Real Quiet) and 25 years later do the same thing with a horse from a stallion with a $1000 stud fee as bought on the cheap. Which will be worse for racing- the split sample confirming the first finding or the opposite- calling the regulation of this issue and the competence of those who are in charge even more in doubt
