Medina Spirit tragedy

Zedan Racing's Medina Spirit (Protonico), first across the wire in the 2021 GI Kentucky Derby but officially disqualified this week, will be laid to rest at Old Friends, the Thoroughbred retirement farm near Georgetown, Kentucky. Old Friends made the announcement Friday morning. An open house, which will be open to the public, will be held Tuesday, Apr. 5, from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Medina Spirit died Dec. 6 after a workout at Santa Anita. His ashes will be interred in Old Friends's Nikki Bacharach Memorial Garden. "The Zedan Racing...

In the formal hearing Friday morning of the Veterinary Medical Board's petition for an interim suspension of California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) equine medical director Jeff Blea's medical license, both sides laid out their arguments. In short, the deputy attorney general Elaine Yan representing the veterinary board took a procedural defense of the petition, arguing that the allegations against Blea amount to violations of standards of practice within the veterinary community as codified in the veterinary medicine practice act. "These guidelines emphasize the importance of examinations and diagnosis," said Yan,...

Ever get the feeling that somebody up there doesn't like us very much? Of all of the horses, in all of the world... But really it doesn't make any difference, however you interpret the tragedy of Medina Spirit (Protonico). The net result, for our community, is the same--whether you think the whole melodrama unfolded, entirely and lucklessly, at random; or was somehow determined by our own culpable behaviors. Whoever is writing these scripts, we have been cast in the same role. We are being tested. And if we don't get...