by Jeff Lowe

A hearing officer has recommended that the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission overturn trainer Richard Dutrow’s 15-day suspension for an alleged clenbuterol violation on May 2 at Churchill Downs.

Hearing officer James Robke said the violation should be overturned because the concentration of clenbuterol in Salute the Count after a second-place finish in the Aegon Turf Sprint Stakes (G3) was measured in picogams per milliliter of plasma, not picograms per milliliter of serum, as specified in commission regulations.

Lisa Underwood, the commission’s executive director, indicated that her staff would challenge Robke’s recommendation. The commission will address the matter on October 27, spokesman Jim Carroll said.

“The commission has the option of accepting the hearing officer’s recommendation, deciding not to accept the recommendation, or altering the recommendation,” Carroll said.

The commission’s specified threshold for clenbuterol is 25 picograms per millimeter of serum.

Iowa State University, the commission’s testing laboratory, found clenbuterol in Salute the Count’s blood sample at 41 picograms per millimeter of plasma. Louisiana State University tested the split sample at Dutrow’s request and detected clenbuterol at 40 picograms per millimeter of plasma.

“Under the regulations, a ‘positive finding’ only exists where the substance was present in the sample ‘in excess of the established level,” Robke writes in his recommendation. “The results from [Iowa State and Louisiana State] only state that the concentration was for plasma. There is nothing in the record which addresses the issue as to the difference between serum and plasma.”

Robke was addressing Dutrow’s appeal of the stewards’s rulings, which also disqualified Salute the Count and placed him last.

For documentation of Robke's full recommendation, click here.

Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer