Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit can race in Saturday’s Preakness Stakes after the final two rounds of blood samples from the horse were deemed clear, officials said Friday.
All three of trainer Bob Baffert’s horses scheduled to run at the Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland, passed their drug tests.
Medina Spirit and Concert Tour are set to race on Saturday in the second leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown.
Beautiful Gift ran in Friday’s Black-Eyed Susan Stakes but finished well back of the winner.
The horses underwent three rounds of blood-sample testing between May 6 and May 11 and the tests showed the animals were clear of both prohibited and therapeutic substances, officials said.
Baffert is currently not allowed to race horses at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, after a post-Derby drug test revealed a therapeutic in Medina Spirit’s system that isn’t allowed to be there on race day.
A lab is retesting a portion of that blood sample and results are expected to take at least four weeks.
Baffert, who is not attending the races in Baltimore, agreed with race organizers for the horses to be subject to three rounds of out-of-competition blood sample testing as a prerequisite to racing.
