Owner Scott Haney and trainer Dorothy Worton expressed their frustration in The Racing Biz after the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority's national voided claim rule cost them a horse they would have preferred to keep. They successfully claimed Koko Star from a $10,000 race at Colonial Downs on Aug. 1, but later had that claim voided when post-race testing revealed that Koko Star had returned a positive test for methocarbamol, a muscle relaxant.
Rule 2262 of the HISA Racetrack Safety Rules states that claimed horses will go to the test barn. Claims will be voided if the horse dies, is euthanized, or is vanned off the track, if the regulatory veterinarian determines the horse to have bled, be “physically distressed, medically compromised, unsound, or lame” within one hour of the race, or if the horse tests positive for a prohibited substance.
However, owners dropping a claim will be able to select an option on the claim form if they want the horse regardless of whether the horse is placed on the veterinarian's list, if the horse bleeds, or if the horse has a positive test post-race.
Those aforementioned options are listed as a single “check mark” box on the claim slip.
“I feel like we got screwed because we didn't do anything wrong,” Worton told The Racing Biz. “We claimed the horse; we didn't mark the box because we're thinking, if the horse ends up three-legged lame, we don't want him.”
Koko Star had been in his new connections' stable for 11 days when Worton got a call from Virginia stewards on Aug. 12, explaining that there was a potential issue with the post-race test. By that time, the trainer had entered Koko Star in a race on Aug. 15, but stewards scratched the horse pending resolution of the test.
On Aug. 19, stewards told Worton that a positive had been confirmed for methocarbamol, a class 4 drug, and on Aug. 22, stewards issued a ruling disqualifying Koko Star, fining original trainer Doug Fout $1,000, and voided Worton's claim.
Worton and Haney didn't want to have the claim voided over a class 4 positive; prior to HISA, some states allowed owners discretion as to whether or not to void a claim in the instance of a positive test. This is one of those instances in which such discretion would have been useful, Haney said.
“They were going in the right direction [with void-claim rules], giving us a safety net, a little bit,” Haney told The Racing Biz. “They should have not taken all discretion away from the owners. We should have some say.”
This isn't the first instance in which owners and trainers have been unsatisfied with the new HISA voided claim rules: HISA: First Claim Voided Due To Medication Positive Met With Confusion, Resistance
The post ‘I Feel Like We Got Screwed’: HISA Rules Void Claim Over Class 4 Medication Positive appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
