It's Mandaloun Declared Winner Of 2021 Kentucky Derby

It's been 1,032 days since Amr Racing Stable's Medina Spirit crossed the finish line a half-length ahead of Mandaloun in the 2021 Kentucky Derby. 

So much has happened since then. Medina Spirit failed a drug test, coming up positive for the corticosteroid betamethasone. The colt's trainer, Bob Baffert, was summarily banished from Churchill Downs Inc. racetrack properties – up to and including 2024 – and his horses have been deemed ineligible for the Kentucky Derby by company management, citing private property rights. The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission issued a regulatory sanction against Baffert, suspending him for 90 days, and disqualifying Medina Spirit from the Derby victory. Baffert served the suspension in 2022.

But after the original ruling came lawsuits and court battles that went on and on and on, only ending one month ago when Baffert issued a "no mas" statement saying his team was going to drop the appeals and accept the ruling that disqualified Medina Spirit from his victory.

Sadly, Medina Spirit, died on the racetrack seven months after the Derby, suffering a sudden death while breezing one morning at Santa Anita.

Equibase – the Thoroughbred industry's official database – on Feb. 26 declared Mandaloun as the official winner of the 2021 Kentucky Derby. 

"We have just received the official ruling for the 2021 Kentucky Derby chart from the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission," Equibase stated in a social media post on X, formerly Twitter. "The Derby chart has been updated and all related statistics have been adjusted."

Credit for the 2021 Kentucky Derby win now goes to owner-breeder Juddmonte Farms, trainer Brad Cox, jockey Florent Geroux, and sire Into Mischief. First-place purse money of $1,860,000 goes to Mandaloun's owner, with Hot Rod Charlie the new runner-up, earning $600,000, Essential Quality is now third, earning $300,000; O Besos is fourth, earning $150,000, and Midnight Bourbonn will get a fifth-place check with $90,000.

Medina Spirit has been placed last.

Unlike the purse money, pari-mutuel wagering dollars will not be redistributed. Horseplayers cashed a variety of winning tickets on Medina Spirit, a 12-1 longshot, ridden to victory by John Velazquez. A $2 exacta from Medina Spirit to 26-1 longshot Mandaloun was worth $503.60, A $0.50 trifecta paid $848,45, and the $1 superfecta paid $9,456.40. The $1 super high five was worth a whopping $296,769.60.

The only previous drug disqualification of a Kentucky Derby winner came in 1968, when original first-place finisher Dancer's Image was disqualified after testing positive for phenylbutazone, with Forward Pass being elevated to first place. That case ended up being litigated, too, and wasn't resolved until a Court of Appeals ruling declared Forward Pass the official winner. That ruling came one week before the 1972 Kentucky Derby, meaning that case took nearly four years – one year longer than the Medina Spirit saga.