Jimmy Fallon on Monday night seemed to be having a blast as he mocked the Kentucky Derby scandal. The Tonight Show host had one quip after another following the news that the winner of last week’s race, Medina Spirit, tested positive for a steroid afterward. Trainer Bob Baffert claims he did nothing wrong and inexplicably blamed the positive test on “cancel culture.” The situation is ongoing.
Fallon wasted no time digging in with jokes.
“When he heard that, the horse said, ‘Hey, you said the needle was the third Pfizer vaccine,'” Fallon joked. “I think the real giveaway is when he ran the race on two legs [with] the jockey on his shoulders.”
Fallon continued with a string of one-liners: “Right now, the horse is thinking, ‘As long as I am being put out to stud, this sounds more like a you problem. As if things weren’t bad enough for Medina Spirit, a photo just surfaced of him partying with Jeffrey Epstein. His racing days may be over, but on the bright side, he just joined the Russian gymnastics team.”
The late night host also mocked former President Donald Trump for coming to the defense of the horse and Baffert, with Trump saying the accusation that the horse is a “junky” is another reason the world laughs at America.
“I just can’t stop thinking about Trump sitting at his desk, writing his thoughts about a horse by hand,” Fallon said of the image that accompanied Trump’s statement.
Watch the full monologue below.
THR Newsletters
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day
