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WHAT HORSE FINISHED SECOND TO JUSTIFY IN THE 2018 SANTA ANITA DERBY?

WHAT HORSE FINISHED SECOND TO JUSTIFY IN THE 2018 SANTA ANITA DERBY?
1/1/2021

 The 2018 Santa Anita Derby will have an asterisk next to its results chart. One of the last qualifying races for the Kentucky Derby offers to the winner 100 points and a ticket to the Kentucky Derby. Two horses entered the race as co-favorites; one at 3-to-5 and the other at 6-to-5. The handicappers were right the two finished first and second. The back-story adds much to the thrill of the race. The winners and claimer of a share of the purse and a ticket to the Derby was Justify. Entering the race with zero qualifying points the race’s 100 points put him in the Derby and on his path to a Triple Crown. When the mandatory blood and urine test came back Justify had an illegal substance in his system ---Scopolamine. The California regulations at the time suggested grounds for disqualification.  However, the California Horseracing Board ruled that the drug in the horse’s system was caused by the environment. Scopolamine in its natural form can comingle with the feed used for horses. As a result, Justify was not disqualified. Legal action by the owner and trainer of the second-place horse continues. Administrative adjudication supported the Board’s decision. Nonetheless, legal challenges continue. The litigious goal focuses on the purse money missed by the runner-up, Bolt d’Oro. Bolt d’Oro did not run in that year’s Kentucky Derby and is currently retired.