RACING in US suffered another blow on Monday when this year’s Grade 1 Kentucky Derby winner and Breeders’ Cup Classic runner-up Medina Spirit collapsed and died on the track at Santa Anita of an apparent heart attack after finishing a workout.

The cheaply bought son of Protonico was among the best three-year-olds of his generation this year. He had hit the headlines for the wrong reasons after his Kentucky success when subsequent drug tests revealed the presence of the banned steroid betamethasone in the horse’s system.

The Derby win is still unconfirmed as the drug failure is being contested by Medina Spirit’s trainer Bob Baffert who claims the betamethasone may have come from an ointment used on the thoroughbred, and the case is still ongoing.

Last week, Baffert’s lawyer Craig Robertson released a statement that testing of the split urine sample of Medina Spirit has been completed and the results had confirmed that the betamethasone present in Medina Spirit’s system following the Derby came from the topical ointment Otomax and not an injection.

The California Horse Racing Board have taken samples of blood, hair, urine, tissue to be sent to the lab at the University of California-Davis for testing. A statement from Santa Anita Park said that the samples were immediately taken by the track’s veterinary team.

A comprehensive necropsy, as is protocol in California, also will be performed in an effort to determine the cause of death.

Ortiz wins but loses

LEADING jockey Irad Ortiz hit the headlines for the wrong reasons last weekend when he incurred a month-long suspension for dangerous riding at Aqueduct.

In Friday’s eighth race at Aqueduct, a six-and-a-half-furlong claiming race, his mount Gran Casique was said to have “angled in with reckless abandon” and bumped Ragtime Blues at the furlong pole, according to the race report.

The bumping caused Ragtime Blues to lose his rider, apprentice jockey Omar Hernandez Moreno. After a stewards’ inquiry, Gran Casique was disqualified from second and placed last.

On Saturday, Ortiz’s riding was again in the spotlight after the Grade 2 Remsen Stakes when Mo Donegal drifted inward from the centre of the track under right-handed urging from Ortiz. He appeared to make contact with Zandon or that one’s rider, John Velazquez. The two horses also bumped just before the wire.

Mo Donegal won by a nose after a stewards’ inquiry into the stretch run was conducted but the result stood.

In addition to the Remsen, he won the Grade 2 Demoiselle Stakes on Nest and the Grade 3 Go For Wand Handicap on Lady Rocket on Saturday.

Cigar Mile (Grade 1)

MATTERS off the racetrack overshadowed the action last weekend but the final Grade 1 in New York went to the favourite Americanrevolution trained by Todd Pletcher.

Pletcher registered a graded hat-trick in the day with wins in the Grade 2 juvenile races the Remsen Stakes, Demoiselle Stakes.

The China Horse Club and WinStar Farm’s New York-bred Americanrevolution crossed the wire first for Pletcher by a half-length but had to survive an inquiry with an objection coming from third-place finisher Plainsman. Pletcher also trained the runner-up Following Sea.

“We felt good coming into today. We felt like the horses were training the way you would want them to in a big spot like this,” Pletcher said.

Americanrevolution, a son of Constitution became a Grade 1 winner at 3 and notched a top-level win at a mile.

Off a wide-margin win against older rivals in the $300,000 Empire Classic Handicap at Belmont, Americanrevolution was sent off as favourite, over Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile runner-up Ginobili, Grade 1 winner Code Of Honor, Independence Hall and Following Sea in the field of eight.

Rallying from sixth under Luis Saez, was winning for the fifth time in seven starts and pushing his earnings to $944,535. Pletcher-trained horses have won over $21 million this season.

“We weren’t 100% positive about the mile, but a lot of times good horses do multiple things really well and I think he’s a great example of that. Constitution puts so much determination into his offspring and they’re just like he was: very tough horses and versatile. It’s great to see him get that Grade 1 win,” Pletcher said.

Both the unplaced Independence Hall and Code Of Honor have been retired to stud.