Trainer Wayne Potts is among six individuals the New York Racing Association has denied stalls to at the upcoming Aqueduct and Belmont Park race meets, according to the Daily Racing Form. The others are: Juan Vazquez, Marvin Richards, John McAllen, Luis Miranda, and Michael Simmonds.
The above-named trainers must have their horses off NYRA properties or transferred to other trainers by Wednesday, March 30.
NYRA spokesman Pat McKenna denied to name a specific reason for the decision, stating that NYRA “retains the exclusive right and discretion to grant, deny, revoke, or reduce stall space for licensed trainers at its properties.”
The denial of stalls will not preclude these individuals from shipping horses in to race at either NYRA facility.
None of the above-named trainers have been issued a statement of charges, the preliminary step NYRA took toward banning trainers Bob Baffert and Marcus Vitali from racing at its tracks.
“No matter the point of origin, all horses shipping in to race at NYRA tracks are subject to the same level of health and safety scrutiny as horses stabled on NYRA property,” McKenna told DRF. “These protocols are effective in mitigating risk, enhancing equine safety, and protecting the integrity of the sport in New York.”
Potts was suspended 20 days by the New York State Gaming Commission for a claiming violation at Saratoga last summer, which he served from Sept. 30 through Oct. 19.
In August of 2020, The Maryland Jockey Club (MJC) told Potts to vacate his barn at Laurel Park, where he kept 30 horses, after track officials discovered Potts was program training for embattled colleague Marcus Vitali. Further, according to MJC president and general manager Sal Sinatra, Potts's name is on a list at Charles Town, Parx, and Delaware Park and he is not permitted to run horses at those facilities, either.
Potts had denied those allegations, and is also currently appealing a 15-day suspension for a medication violation in New Jersey as well as a 30-day suspension for not allowing a horse to be vanned off at Monmouth Park in August of 2021.
In 2019, Potts was suspended in Delaware for non-payment of invoices from a veterinary firm. Three years before that, Potts was fined in Maryland for operating his racing stable without workers' compensation insurance for nearly seven months. It was only after an exercise rider was injured that it was discovered that the workers' comp policy had been cancelled.
“Medication violations, I don't have a laundry list,” Potts told DRF after learning he would not be allowed stalls at Belmont Park. “I may have done some other stupid things. All of my [owners] are staying with me. I still plan to run here.”
Potts currently has 47 horses stabled at Belmont, and told DRF he plans to move them to a training facility in Westhampton, N.J.
Vazquez, the fifth-leading trainer at the Aqueduct winter meet, is appealing suspensions handed down by the Pennsylvania Gaming Commission for medication positives last fall.
Richards is appealing a medication positive at Monmouth Park that could see him facing a suspension of up to one year. The penalty stems from Richards' trainee Awesomenewyear, winner of the sixth race at Monmouth Park on Sept. 3, 2021. The post-race sample was positive for oxazepam (a sedative designed to treat anxiety, anxiety with depression, and symptoms of alcohol withdrawal) and ibuprofen (a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory).
Read more at the Daily Racing Form.
The post Wayne Potts Among Six Trainers Denied Stalls At Upcoming NYRA Meets appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
