LOUISVILLE, Kentucky. – Medina Spirit’s win in the Kentucky Derby is in serious jeopardy due to a failed posttrace medicine test that prompted Churchill Downs to immediately suspend Hall of Fame coach Bob Baffert on Sunday in the recent scandal to hit the sport.

Baffert denied any wrongdoing and promised to be completely transparent with the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission during its investigation. Baffert’s barn learned Saturday that Medina Spirit tested positive for an excessive amount of the steroid betamethasone, which is sometimes used to treat pain and inflammation in horses.

Medina Spirit’s victory over Mandaloun in the derby is valid for the time being.

“To be clear, if the results are confirmed, Medina Spirit’s results in the Kentucky Derby will be invalidated and Mandaloun will be declared the winner,” Churchill Downs officials said in a statement shortly after Baffert organized a hasty morning press conference outside his barn to announce and answer the assertion.

The track said that non-compliance with the rules and medication protocols undermined the safety of horses and jockeys, the integrity of the sport and the reputation of the derby.

“Churchill Downs will not tolerate this,” the statement said. “Given the seriousness of the alleged offence, Churchill Downs will immediately bar Bob Baffert, the trainer of Medina Spirit, from entering all horses at the Churchill Downs racecourse.”

Medina Spirit is expected to run in the preakness on Saturday, unless an abrupt change of plans or a decision by Pimlico officials or the Maryland Racing Commission that would prevent him from getting into the second jewel of the Triple Crown.

“I had the biggest push in the race for something I didn’t do,” Baffert said of the failure of the test. “And this is disturbing. This is an injustice for the horse. … I don’t know what is happening in the race right now, but something is wrong. I don’t feel embarrassed. I feel damaged. We will do our own investigation. We will be transparent with the racing commission, as we always have been.

“It’s a big horse. He doesn’t deserve this. He ran a gallant race,” Baffert added.

The only horse to be disqualified for medication after winning the derby is Dancer’ Image in 1968.

Medina Spirit is Baffert’s fifth horse, known for failing a medicine test in just over a year. Flanked by his lawyer Craig Robertson, Baffert said his barn had been informed that Medina Spirit contained 21 picograms of betamethasone — slightly more than double the amount the coach says is permissible — in a postrace sample.

Betamethasone is the same medicine found in the Gamine system, another Baffert-trained horse that finished third at the Kentucky Oaks last September. Girl was eventually disqualified from this arrival because of this test and Baffert was fined. Betamethasone is lawful under Kentucky racing rules, although it must be allowed 14 days before a horse races.

“I’m not a conspiracy theorist,” Baffert said. “I know that not everyone is here to look for me, but there is certainly something wrong. Why is this happening to me ? There are problems in the race, but it’s not Bob Baffert.”

Mandaloun, who lost the derby by half a length, does not go to the preakness. If Mandaloun is declared the winner of the Kentucky Derby, it would mean that the continuation of the Triple Crown for would end there. It’s unclear how long it will take Kentucky officials to determine whether the results of the derby will stay or change.

Baffert planned to ride Medina Spirit and a concert tour to the Preakness, in search of an eighth record victory in this race. With the exception, where the races were out of order due to the recent times, Baffert is unbeaten with a derby winner in the preakness holding his draw on Monday.

Last month Baffert won an appeal hearing before the Arkansas Racing Commission after being suspended by Oaklawn Park stewards for 15 days for a pair of positive medicine tests involving two of his horses that won on the track on May 2. The horses tested positive for the analgesic lidocaine, to which Baffert said they had been accidentally exposed.

But when Baffert insisted that horse racing can better prevent doping, he also recognized the spotlights.

“I know that I am the most studied coach and that I have millions of eyes on me. But you know what? I have no problem with that,” Baffert said. “The last thing I want to do is do something that would jeopardize the best 2 minutes of the sport.”

The failure of the medicine test is just another in a long series of events that have followed the sport-and the Derby, its most famous and prestigious race — in recent years.

Maximum Safety crossed the line first at the Kentucky Derby before being disqualified by Churchill Downs stewards for interfering in an unprecedented move. Country House, who crossed the second line of this race, is now considered the winner.

In Marc, Jason Servis – the trainer of Maximum Security — was part of an extensive indictment involving trainers, veterinarians and pharmacists in a horse doping network. Baffert has faced doping assertion in Arkansas and Kentucky over the past year, and now, that.

“I’m worried about our sport,” Baffert said. “Our sport, we have taken a lot of success as a sport. These are pretty serious accusations here, but we’ll get to the bottom of things and find out. We know we didn’t do it.”