Horse Owner Bob Baffert Blames 'Cancel Culture' For Suspension After Kentucky Derby Winner Medina Spirit Fails Drug Test

Cancel Culture has been cited as the bogeyman in some strange controversies recently, from an opinion piece about Disneyland's Snow White ride to Seuss Enterprise announcing they would no longer publish old Dr. Seuss books for racist imagery, but perhaps no cry of "cancel culture" has been as bizarre as Bob Baffert's this morning on Fox News.

Baffert is the owner of Medina Spirit, the horse who won the May 1st Kentucky Derby, but is under investigation by Churchill Downs officials after failing a drug test post-race. Officials found twice the legal limit of betamethasone in the horse's system. If the findings are upheld, then Medina Spirit's victory will be invalidated. Baffert has been suspended from entering horses into Churchill Downs races as a result of the scandal.

Speaking to Fox News, Baffert denied the horse was improperly drugged.

"This did not happen. That horse has never been treated with (betamethasone). Actually, it's a legal therapeutic medicine and the amount that was in it wouldn't have any effect on the horse anyway. That horse was never treated with that. That's the disturbing part of it… I never thought I'd have to be fighting for my reputation and this poor horse's reputation because of the new regulations. They're testing these horses at contaminated levels, and it's been a horrible experience."

The weirdest part of his defense came later, when he described the experience of getting in trouble for potentially drugging his horse as "cancel culture." "I know with Churchill Downs came out with that statement, that was pretty harsh," Baffert said, referring to his suspension. "And I think they had to just – with all the noise going on, we live in a different world now. This America is different and it was like a cancel culture kind of thing so they are reviewing it."

While Baffert was claiming his suspension from Churchill Downs was an example of "cancel culture," most Twitter users interpreted the news as him saying Medina Spirit was a victim of cancel culture, which is admittedly much funnier.

Medina Spirit is the 29th horse owned by Baffert to fail a drug test in his career, and the 5th in 13 months.