NEWS
Drug positives at Canterbury Park spike this summer
Posted: Thursday, August 26, 2010 11:32 AM
by Frank Angst
In reading the long list of recent penalties handed to trainers who violated medication rules this summer at Canterbury Park, some might wonder if there is a single honest horsemen remaining at the Shakopee, Minnesota, track, but those horsemen believe changes in testing that were not communicated to them created the problem.
Just since July 23, Minnesota Racing Commission stewards have announced 48 drug positives, 45 in Thoroughbreds and three in Quarter Horses. Horsemen and the track suspect testing procedure or equipment changes have necessitated changes in withdrawal times that they say have not been forwarded to them.
After the Canterbury meeting started on May 14, there were three drug positives in June, a rather average month. But track officials and horsemen say that number spiked to at least 57 in July and could go as high as 60.
Because the results are many times above normal, representatives from the track and horsemen met with the racing commission on Tuesday. Canterbury Chief Executive Randall Sampson represented the track while Cort Holten delivered a presentation for the Minnesota Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association.
They both asked if the commission’s official laboratory had made changes in procedure or equipment. The commission stood by the results of its official laboratory, Industrial Laboratories, but more meetings are planned for early September as the commission considers reducing penalties or forgiving the positives.
Two of the July positives are against horses who placed in stakes races during the Claiming Crown, the track’s signature event put on in conjunction with the National HBPA. Trainer Jamie Ness saddled both of those horses, $70,500 Glass Slipper Stakes winner My Irish Girl and $70,500 Rapid Transit Stakes third-place finisher Max Ahead.
Ness faces a total fine of $1,000 for the two violations, which included a positive for triamcinolone acetonide in My Irish Girl and triamcinolone acetonide and methylprednisolone in Max Ahead. Both drugs are Class 4, meaning they have therapeutic uses and a low level potential to affect performance. Methylprednisolone, commonly sold as Medrol, is an anti-inflammatory steroid and triamcinolone acetonide, typically sold as Vetalog, also is an anti-inflammatory.
Mike Maker, the trainer of Headache, who won a starter allowance race on the Claiming Crown card, faces a $500 fine for a methylprednisolone positive.
While Ness and Maker shipped in for the Claiming Crown card, nearly every top trainer based at the track has had at least one positive. Just since July 23, current leading trainer McLean Robertson, as well as Michael Biehler and Gary Scherer who ranked third and fourth in wins, respectively, through August 25, have all had positives.
The majority of the positives reported since July 23 have been for methylprednisolone and triamcinolone acetonide, but there also have been positives for naproxen, clenbuterol, and flunixin. Most of the penalties are fines ranging from $500 to $1,000.
The bronchodilator Clenbuterol is a Class 3 drug, because of its greater potential to affect performance than Class 4 drugs, and at least one trainer, Wade Rarick, faces a 15-day suspension for a positive. Naproxen and flunixin are both Class 4 medications. Naproxen, commonly sold as Equiproxen, and flunixin, commonly sold as Banamine, are both used as painkillers and anti-inflammatories.
Holten does not believe the track has seen an outbreak in cheating. He believes most of the positives have been caused by changes in testing procedures or equipment that are picking up therapeutic medications at levels that would not affect performance. Such medications are allowed to be used as long as the drug is out of the horse’s system on race day. Veterinarians typically use withdrawal times to help them stay within allowable thresholds.
Sampson also believes this is what happened.
“These are drugs that were administered by veterinarians and put on the veterinary record following what had been the withdrawal time guidelines that we had been given,” Sampson said. “It resulted in many, many positives involving many, many trainers. In fact 16 of the top 20 trainers had positives. We believe a change was made that made the testing more sensitive and made the withdrawal times people were using incorrect.”
Tom Metzen Sr., president of the Minnesota HBPA, said he does not believe that these trainers were even pushing the envelope.
“We’re talking about thresholds that were 48 hours and we had trainers come back with positives who had administered the medication 12 days before the race,” Metzen said.
Metzen said the commission has been listening to the horsemen’s side of the story and he is hopeful many of the positives will be forgiven.
“It’s more about protecting their reputations than the money,” Metzen said.
While Sampson does not believe there has been an outbreak of cheating at Canterbury, he acknowledges the situation is problematic on a public relations level.
“We’ve taken a lot of our most successful trainers and made them appear to be cheaters or not following instructions and obviously that’s not good in terms of our relationship with our horsemen and in terms of the public’s perception of racing if you have excessive numbers of positive tests,” Sampson said. “The average person doesn’t understand withdrawal times and therapeutic medications. The average person only hears that Canterbury Park had a bunch of drug violations so they think we must have a bunch of guys using illegal drugs.”
Sampson would like to see the commission continue to work with the lab and horsemen to make any needed changes to withdrawal guidelines.
Frank Angst is a senior staff writer at Thoroughbred Times
READER COMMENTS
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Posted by: Ginny, Anthony, FL on August 28, 2010 at 07:35 AM
I'm in agreement with many of your readers who posted comments. These "trainers" may have a license but they sure are not horsemen/women. Race horses are developed and conditioned not trained off a needle. But because these "trainers" have good statisitcs (gee do you wonder why) they get the clients, horses, etc. This isn't Mr. Ness's first go round either...if I recall correctly he had many positives at Tampa 2-3 years ago which were not brought to light until several weeks after the meet ended (it's a six month meet). Possible solutions besides ruling off the continuous perpetrators would be that each state has a racing commission with actual power and a national commission with power to regulate and UNIFORM DRUG Rules that are the same in every state that has parimutuel racing. Clean it up and get rid of the cheaters.
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Posted by: tommy, lOUISVILLE, KY on August 27, 2010 at 04:43 PM
What in gods name has happened to the sport of kings. It has turned to the sport of narcotics. They all have round table meetings wanting to know what happened to the iron horse. Here is the answer . When the damn vets started to run the farms AND MANAGE RACING. What has got to happen is that if pletcher or zito or assmussen get caught they need to be dealt with just like everyone else. There are no more horsemen , they are chemist. They have all learned how to beat the system. They are all, the trainers thumbing there noses at these rules. What a joke, if i go to the track and bet my ten bucks and my horse gets nosed out by a souped up chemical laced horse, wheres the justice. These people are stealing and abusing these poor horses. Please someone step up and protect these poor horses for gods sake. Please try and put the integrity back in the game. Maybe the govenor can look at this larceny and try to eradicate it from horseracing.. When you go to the backside the vets are flying around with there trunks open and there hands loaded with syringes. I would love to go to the track and bet on a field of horses when i knew for a fact that not one of them had been jabbed by a syringe full of chemicals. Please put a lock on the box of syringes the vets carry around on the backside.
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Posted by: Gary, St. Louis, MO on August 27, 2010 at 10:10 AM
These so called "Horsemen" cant train without vets and drugs. They are not Horsemen at all and would go out of business without them. Its a farse and the poor equine is just a commodity for exploitation so they can make money. Throw these excuse for trainers out of the game, along with there drugs. Otherwise American racing will be a joke in the rest of the world. We need ONE independant governing body for racing run by experienced professional horsepeople. Racing needs gambling but it should NOT be run by gambling which is a lot of the problem
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Posted by: Jennifer, New Manchester, WV on August 26, 2010 at 09:17 PM
What the betting public doesn't always understand is the veternarian tells the trainer what he can do. The trainer decides what to do. All of this is suppose to be legal and within the horses best interest. BUT money does get in the way. And if the vet said NO then the trainer would be out on a limb. So he will likely change his attitude about pushing the envelope. Vets are like Doctors, we are suppose to respect their knowledge and obey it. Unfortunatly the one cannot speak is stuck in the middle.
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Posted by: Gus, Arlington Heights, IL on August 26, 2010 at 07:19 PM
If there are concerns with the lab, were the splits sent to different labs? If so, did they concur? Since this is still going on why wouldn't they change the timing by now? And there still is the trainer responsibility. Would there be this much of an uproar if the leading trainers weren't involved?
Seems to me if Minnesota would chose to overturn these positives that would leave a bad taste in the mouths of the betting public.
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