Quote:
Originally Posted by classhandicapper
If you will allow me some speculation, I think Medina Spirit was having a minor issue before the Derby and Baffert wanted to keep him in training instead of giving him a break and missing the Derby.
The horse won the Derby, but came back with an unlikely positive.
You can read between the lines.
After the disappointing effort in the Preakness, Baffert took him out of serious training. That was most likely to correct the problem. He was given a 1 month vacation. Baffert worked him once in June, but then took him out of serious training again for around 6 weeks. So there was clearly a problem. Then he started started working again regularly and looked good. The problem was solved.
He then returned to his Derby level form in the Share Belief unaided.
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It wasn't only unlikely if you believe his story. If you think he injected the horse too close to the race, it was actually very likely. That is also the far more likely scenario than anything to do with any cream.