BALTIMORE - Trainer Bob Baffert didn’t come to Baltimore this week because he didn’t want Preakness 146 to be about him. Of course, the lead-up to the race was all about him and the failed medication test of his Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit. For the first six furlongs of Saturday’s $1 million Preakness, Medina Spirit was doing his best to continue the drama. But early pace pressure from Midnight Bourbon had softened up Medina Spirit by the top of the stretch. Though Medina Spirit tried to fight on, neither he nor Midnight Bourbon could resist the strong stretch run of Rombauer, a newcomer to the Triple Crown trail who rallied past both inside the eighth pole to win the Preakness by 3 1/2 lengths at Pimlico. Midnight Bourbon, who ran sixth in the Kentucky Derby after a poor break, settled for second in the Preakness, two lengths clear of Medina Spirit. It was four lengths back to Keepmeinmind, who was followed, in order, by Crowded Trade, Unbridled Honor, France Go de Ina, Risk Taking, Concert Tour, and Ram. The victory by Rombauer, trained by Michael McCarthy, assured there would be no chance for a Triple Crown at the Belmont Stakes on June 5. There likely wouldn’t have been a chance for that to happen anyway as Medina Spirit’s Kentucky Derby is in jeopardy following a positive test for betamethasone, a corticosteroid that is legal to use in training but is not permitted to be in a horse’s system on race day. A post-race test of Medina Spirit revealed the presence of that drug in his system. That detail came to light from Baffert himself last Sunday at Churchill Downs. It set off a surreal week in which Baffert first denied administering the drug to the horse - going on a media tour to repeatedly make that claim - before acknowledging on Tuesday that an ointment given to his horse to treat a skin condition contained betamethasone. :: Bet the races with confidence on DRF Bets. You're one click away from the only top-rated betting platform fully integrated with exclusive data, analysis, and expert picks. This week, Medina Spirit, and his stablemate, Concert Tour, had to pass three sets of pre-race tests just in order to run in the race, a fact that wasn’t confirmed until late Friday afternoon. All the while, Baffert remained in California and basically stopped speaking, commenting only in prepared statements that he didn’t want to be a distraction. Saturday afternoon, he released a six-paragraph statement to NBC, which broadcast the race, basically repeating all the claims he made during the week, adding “today is not about Bob Baffert. Instead it is about Medina Spirit and all of the other equine athletes in our tremendous sport.” Medina Spirit finished first in the Derby because he was able to get a relatively easy lead under John Velazquez. He turned aside a challenge from Mandaloun to win by a neck. In the Preakness, Medina Sprit again made the lead, but he was pressed by Midnight Bourbon through a half-mile in 46.93 seconds. Midway up the backstretch, the Japanese horse France Go de Ina tried to press Medina Spirt from the inside but he quickly retreated. Midnight Bourbon, under Irad Ortiz Jr., kept the pressure on Medina Spirit through six furlongs in 1:10.97 and it was clear by the five-sixteenths pole that he was vulnerable. “I knew he was going to be pressed today, I was hoping we don’t overdo it and we did,” Velazquez said. “I already knew by the quarter pole, the other horse put a head in front of me. He didn’t give it up but he didn’t continue going on with the other horse. You got to give it to the little horse, he fought the whole way around. At least he held for third.” Meanwhile, Flavien Prat, who had Rombauer in sixth position early in the third flight, maneuvered him into third by the five-sixteenths pole. Prat swung Rombauer into the four path for the stretch run and he easily rallied by Midnight Bourbon and Medina Spirit to get the victory. “I was pretty confident going to the three-eighths pole,” Prat said. “I was behind the two favorites in the race and I was traveling well. I thought if he switched leads and give me a good kick, I might be able to run them down.” Rombauer, a son of Twirling Candy, covered the 1 3/16 miles in 1:53.62 and returned $25.60 to win. He earned a 102 Beyer Speed Figure, by far a career best. Rombauer gave McCarthy his first win in a Triple Crown race. He trains Rombauer for the owner/breeder husband and wife team of John and Diane Fradkin. The Fradkins typically sell the horses they breed at auction and had Rombauer earmarked for the Ocala Breeders Sales in April 2020. That sale was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic so they kept him to race. Coming into the Preakness, Rombauer had won a maiden race on turf at Del Mar and the El Camino Real Derby on Golden Gate’s synthetic surface from six starts. Following a respectable third in the Blue Grass Stakes on April 3, McCarthy wanted to run the horse in the Kentucky Derby, John Fradkin did not. “I believe in running him in the easier spots if possible,” Fradkin said. “I didn’t think the Kentucky Derby really suited him. I thought there was a pretty good chance we would not hit the board just because of his running style. So yeah, we did this against lesser competition and got lucky today.” McCarthy acknowledged that he and the Fradkins “have had a difference of opinion from time to time. Put those opinions aside, put those differences aside, just very happy for the horse, very happy for them. It worked out.” :: Get Daily Racing Form Past Performances - the exclusive home of Beyer Speed Figures It was the first Triple Crown race starter for McCarthy, who worked for a several years under trainer Todd Pletcher, who was among the first to congratulate him. “Everything we do sort of channels what we did when I worked there,” McCarthy said. Trainer Steve Asmussen said Irad Ortiz Jr. gave Midnight Bourbon the trip he was looking for and he just wasn’t good enough on the day. “I thought he put enough pressure on Medina Spirit to make it a horse race and then he ended up second,” Asmussen said. “He showed up, he’s improving and he’s not there yet all at the same time. The winner ran a great race.” It remains to be seen if Rombauer goes on to the Belmont Stakes. McCarthy indicated he’d like to run, John Fradkin said it’s only a possibility. Meanwhile, the Medina Spirit saga will continue off the track as his connections likely will pass the Belmont Stakes and wait to see if a split sample from the Kentucky Derby confirms the presence of betamethasone and, if so, will they attempt to fight it. About the only thing for certain is the Belmont Stakes won’t be about Bob Baffert.