by Pete Denk

Kentucky stewards have suspended trainer Patrick Biancone for 15 days after L’Aziza, winner of a maiden special weight race at Churchill Downs on May 3, tested positive for theophylline and caffeine.

L’Aziza, a two-year-old filly by Zavata, out of Glimmer Ice, by Pine Bluff, is owned by Fab Oak Stable and Lewis Lakin. She was making her second career start, and will be disqualified and placed last.

Purse money from the race will be redistributed.

Biancone and veterinarian Rod Stewart are under investigation by the KHRA following a search of Biancone’s three barns at Keeneland Race Course on June 22. KHRA officials have said they confiscated “materials” during the search, which also included Stewart’s vehicle, but they have not elaborated any further, and they did not say if the May 3 positive was related to their investigation.

Caffeine and theophylline, a bronchodilator, are class B drugs under the KHRA’s Uniform Drug and Medication Classification Schedule.

Biancone will serve the 15-day suspension from September 5 to 19. He said he will not appeal.

“I think everything has been extremely fairly done, and I prefer to take the suspension right away because I’ve been judged fairly and I had a chance to find out what happened,” Biancone said Thursday evening. “The Kentucky racing board was very cooperative and I was cooperative with them. When something happens to you like this, I think the quicker you serve the penalty the better.”

Biancone said the filly was treated with aminophylline six days before her race, and he did not expect it to still be in her system on race day. Biancone said caffeine and theophylline are residuals of aminophylline.

“It should have been no more in the system after six days, but it was still in her system in small amounts,” Biancone said. “It happens, but it’s no foul play. The sanction is the same for me as anybody in Kentucky who has this kind of positive.”

The positives were discovered by the Iowa State University laboratory and confirmed by the lab at Louisiana State University, according to John Veitch, chief steward for the KHRA.

The KHRA’s  investigation of Biancone and Stewart is ongoing, according to the press release. The KHRA suspended Stewart on August 16 after he declined to turn over his veterinary records, drug purchase orders, and computer files.

Stewart has appealed the suspension, and the matter will be heard by a hearing officer. KHRA Executive Director Lisa Underwood declined all further comment.

Stewart’s New York-based attorney Karen Murphy could not be immediately reached for comment.

Biancone said he could not comment on the June 22 barn search, on advice from his attorney.

Pete Denk is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer