Pinhooker who bought Medina Spirit for $1,000 shares memories

Christy Whitman was standing by the back ring at the 2019 Ocala Breeders’ winter mixed sale when she spotted him. The dark Protonico colt with a small white mark on his face caught her eye as he got closer.

Whitman was looking at Medina Spirit, who would go on to finish first in the 2021 Kentucky Derby and second in the Breeders’ Cup Classic before dying suddenly on Monday. Something about his build and conformation drew her to him.

“I really liked him” Whitman said. “He was just really well put together, just had a really great walk and I just really liked him a lot.”

Related: Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit dies at Santa Anita

When it came time for the colt, out of Mongolian Changa, to be sold, Whitman went to place a bid. Nobody else joined her.

She opened the bidding at $1,000. That did the trick, and Whitman left with a future Derby winner.

“I didn’t even know who his sire was, had no idea” Whitman said. “I actually had to look him up and see where he stood. I was like, ‘well he stands in Kentucky, so that’s probably good.’ His pedigree is definitely what threw everybody off of him.”

The low price was a disappointment to breeder Gail Rice, who had been expecting around $10,000 for Medina Spirit. She agreed with Whitman that the pedigree was the main reason.

Rice had also been impressed with his conformation.

Whitman “saw what I saw,” Rice said. “But people looked at his page, they looked at his page before they looked at him.”

Related: Breeder: Medina Spirit was realization of a dream

Whitman intended from the beginning to pinhook Medina Spirit. When she got him on the track, she was impressed.

The colt showed improvement throughout her time owning him.

“He was always really easy to work with,” Whitman said. “He was level-headed, trained well and didn’t cause a lot of problems. He was always just a straightforward kind of horse.”

Her time with the colt came to a close at another OCS sale in July 2020. Ahead of the auction, the colt put in an impressive breeze, and he kept his composure throughout the entire process, which Whitman said can rile up younger horses.

Zedan Racing Stables purchased the colt for $35,000. From there, Medina Spirit would go on to win on debut at Los Alamitos before a win in the Robert B. Lewis (G3) and second-place efforts in the San Felipe (G2) and Santa Anita Derby (G1) got him into the Run for the Roses.

For Whitman, it was a day of celebration after another horse she pinhooked, Wells Bayou, was kept out of the rescheduled 2020 Derby because of injuries. Whitman took her daughters to the World Equestrian Center in Ocala, Fla., to watch the 12-1 long shot try his luck.

“In the back of my mind I was like, no, he’s going to get tired, he’s going to get passed, it’s not going to happen,” Whitman said. “And then he just kept going.”

Medina Spirit had moved to the front of the pack in the early going and held on to win the race.

“As a smaller consigner, a smaller person in this world, you never think you’re going to get to that stage,” Whitman said.

After the Derby, the colt and trainer Bob Baffert quickly became the subject of controversy after Medina Spirit tested positive for betamethasone, a situation that has still not been resolved. He went on to finish third in the Preakness and win the Shared Belief and Awesome Again (G1) before trying the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

In that race, the speed horse was unable to get to the lead out of the gate, but he summoned a late rally to finish second. Medina Spirit was subject, along with all other Baffert horses, to enhanced drug testing before and after the race, and shortly afterward it was announced that his tests were all clear.

“I think that race proved a lot more than some of his other races of the year,” Whitman said. “He’d already beaten older horses, he beat every other 3-year-old (in the Classic), top 3-year-olds in the country and only lost to Knicks Go, who I might add got his dream trip.”

It was announced that Medina Spirit would be returning for his 4-year-old season in 2022. But he never got the chance, collapsing after a work Monday at Santa Anita and dying of a suspected heart attack.

The news was crushing for Whitman, who found out from a friend’s text message.

“I didn’t believe it,” Whitman said. I immediately started looking it up and I was shocked and I was devastated. … We’ll never see just how good he was going to be.”

Medina Spirit is likely to remain a lighting rod in racing circles for some time because of the Kentucky Derby drug test and his sudden death. Blood, hair and urine were collected to send to a lab for a necropsy, according to statements from Santa Anita and the California Horse Racing Board.

[Related: Santa Anita outlines necropsy process after Medina Spirit's death]

Whitman said she wants the colt’s legacy to go beyond the controversies.

“I just hope that people will remember him for the great athlete that he was and truly see how much heart he had,” Whitman said. “Despite the fact that he came from humble beginnings, he was a great horse.”