Perfect Sting, named 3-year-old male pacing champion of 2021 by the U.S. Harness Writers Association when Dan Patch Award winners were announced on Dec. 20, was subsequently found to have failed a drug test from the $148,332 Pennsylvania Sire Stakes at The Meadows that took place six months earlier.
The ruling, published at the United States Trotting Association website on Dec. 31 and reported at HarnessLink.com, stated that Perfect Sting tested positive for testosterone at a level of 3,765 pg/ml. A split sample subsequently confirmed the finding at a level of 3,635/pg/ml.
Trainer Joseph Holloway has been suspended 15 days from Jan. 17, 2022, through Jan. 31, 2022, and fined $500. Perfect Sting, who was elevated to first place in the Pennsylania Sire Stakes via disqualification of the original first-place finisher, has been disqualified from his win, with $74,166 in purse money ordered returned and redistributed.
Perfect Sting, also the champion 2-year-old pacer in 2020, was harness racing's richest performer in 2021 (prior to this ruling). Holloway, a member of the Harness Racing Museum Hall of Fame, was recipient of the Dan Patch Good Guy Award in 2021.
Holloway, who has appealed the ruling, contends Perfect Sting was never given testosterone, according to a report in HarnessLink.com. Instead, he suggests, the testosterone level of Perfect Sting – an intact horse – may have spiked naturally through proximity to an in-heat mare or other reason. Levels for testosterone for females and gelded males are more predictable than full colts and stallions.
“Stallions can have seasonal highs and lows for testosterone levels,” said Dr. Mary Scollay, executive director and chief operating officer of the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium. “That's why RMTC does not recommend a threshold level for testosterone.”
Pennsylvania may be the only racing state that has a threshold level for testosterone for intact male horses, apparently set at 3,000 pg/ml.
Holloway told HarnessLink.com he has sent hair samples from Perfect Sting to a laboratory in the United Kingdom that he said “can tell whether the testosterone at that time was given to him, or it is just natural in his system at such a high level.”
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