Trainer Justin Evans has been fined $15,000 by the board of stewards at Sunland Park in New Mexico after it was discovered that two horses were tattooed under incorrect names, according to a ruling posted on the Association of Racing Commissioners International website.
Both Aim Happy and Spirita were purchased at the 2018 Barretts 2-year-olds in training sale at Del Mar. Aim Happy, a bay daughter of Astrology, was a $10,000 purchase, while Spirita, a bay daughter of Ghostzapper, was an $18,000 buy.
Facts presented at a hearing on Jan. 11, 2023, include that Evans was present at the sale when both horses were purchased. He assisted in the purchase of the Ghostzapper filly (Spirita) for buyer UKUSA Stables, and was the trainer of record for both fillies at the time they were tattooed.
Spirita was mistakenly tattooed as “Aim Happy,” while Aim Happy was mistakenly tattooed as “Spirita.”
Equibase results have been adjusted: Aim Happy, who raced as “Spirita,” has only run once, finishing sixth in a maiden special weight race at Zia Park on Oct. 1, 2018, while Spirita, who raced as “Aim Happy,” has run 12 times, winning twice to earn $27,605. Her most recent race was in 2020.
Larry Nichols, who races under the name UKUSA Stables, discovered the error, according to Izzy Trejo, executive director of the New Mexico Racing Commission. Nichols bred the mare he thought was Spirita but was told the resulting foal's DNA test did not match with the dam being by Ghostzapper. He investigated further and found out the real Spirita was a riding horse in Washington state and made a deal with the owner to buy her back.
Nichols now owns both Spirita and Aim Happy, Trejo said.
Stewards fined Evans $15,000 under the trainer responsibility rule; the trainer has until Jan. 24 to appeal the decision.
This is the second time Evans has been involved in a case of mistaken identity in New Mexico; in 2021, Evans laid blame in part with the racetrack and the horse identifier for two horses – Extremely Wicked and Square Root – running in each other's saddle towels at the Downs at Albuquerque. The race was won by the horse wearing the number nine saddle towel, which was supposed to be Extremely Wicked, while the number six horse, who was supposed to be Square Root, was third. Back at the test barn however, officials realized that Square Root was actually the winner and wearing the wrong number.
In that instance, which Evans blamed on ineffective equipment used by the paddock horse identifier, the trainer was handed a 15-day suspension and $5,000 fine. That penalty was influenced by the trainer's regulatory history: the public-facing Thoroughbred Rulings database shows 67 items under Evans' name since 2007, but presiding steward David Hooper told the Paulick Report in 2021 that Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) database available to stewards shows 144 violations, including transfer of violations between jurisdictions and originals. In the case of the Thoroughbred Rulings database, not every item is a separate ruling, as they are notices to the licensee and therefore include acknowledgements of a fine being paid. The public-facing database also includes all types of rulings, including minor offenses like forgetting a set of silks, and does not include non-Thoroughbred rulings.
“This is the 61st year I've worked in this business,” Hooper said in 2021. “I've never seen a record like that. It was not in the ruling, but it was a very aggravating factor that someone has that much contempt for rules and regulations, in our consideration.”
Evans has been licensed as a trainer since 1999 and is a multiple stakes-winning conditioner. He was 40th in national trainer rankings by wins in 2022.
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