The New York State Gaming Commission voted unanimously on Monday to upholds Forte's disqualification from the 2022 Hopeful Stakes (G1) over a positive test for meloxicam, reports the Thoroughbred Daily News. The decision sustaining a hearing officer's report also upholds a 10-day suspension and $1,000 fine for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher.
On May 9, 2023, just days after Forte was scratched as the favorite on the morning of the Kentucky Derby, the New York Times broke the news that the colt had a drug positive still pending from his juvenile season. Adjudication of the positive dragged on; a spokesperson for the New York State Gaming Commission told Drape the delays were “sought by the trainer's counsel.”
Meanwhile, after his win in the Hopeful, Forte went on to capture the G1 Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland, followed by the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, earning him the 2022 Eclipse Award for Champion 2-Year-Old Colt.
The NYSGC officially announced the disqualification on May 11, which owner Mike Repole appealed. Pletcher stated during a media conference that the colt had never been prescribed or knowingly treated with meloxicam.
A hearing was held on July 20, and the hearing officer issued his report on Sept. 30, upholding the disqualification and penalties.
Owner Mike Repole told the Thoroughbred Daily News on Monday that he plans to take advantage of his right to appeal the NYSGC decision in the New York court system.
“We plan on taking this further and we knew we were going to get to this point,” Repole told TDN. “Under HISA rules, this isn't even a violation. We are super confident that common sense will prevail and people will realize we put in this governing body in HISA to make sure people are ethical and play by the rules of the sport. Any real process that follows common sense will easily see it the same way and we will prevail.”
Though HISA's Anti-Doping and Medication Control program was not in place at the time of the positive test (it launched on May 22, 2023), Repole's statement appears to fit with a statement from HISA CEO Lisa Lazarus.
In May, Lazarus referenced a report in bloodhorse.com in which Steven Barker, a chemist, LSU professor, and expert witness for Forte's connections, indicated that 500 picograms (or 0.5 nanograms) of meloxicam was found in the colt's system after the running of the 2022 Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes. Lazarus told the TDN that amount would not have triggered a positive under HISA's Anti-Doping and Medication Control Program rules, which launched May 22.
“I'm not going to talk about Forte specifically, but what I will tell you is that HISA's screening limits from meloxicam track the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities' screening limits,” Lazarus told TDN. “Therefore, our screening limit is one nanogram per milliliter in blood and 10 nanograms per milliliter in hydrolyzed urine. If what has been reported – and I haven't verified this — but if that positive was [indeed] 500 picograms, that would be below our screening limit and would not ever be notified as a positive under HISA.”
Meloxicam is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID), according to Medlineplus.gov, which is used in human medicine “to relieve pain, tenderness, swelling, and stiffness caused by osteoarthritis (arthritis caused by a breakdown of the lining of the joints) and rheumatoid arthritis (arthritis caused by swelling of the lining of the joints).”
The Association of Racing Commissioners International classifies Meloxicam as a Class 4, Penalty Class B drug. Class 4 drugs are therapeutic medications that would be expected to have less potential to affect performance than those in Class 3. Drugs in this class includes less potent diuretics; corticosteroids; antihistamines, and skeletal muscle relaxants without prominent central nervous system (CNS) effects; expectorants and mucolytics; hemostatics; cardiac glycosides and anti-arrhythmics; topical anesthetics; antidiarrheals and mild analgesics. This class also includes the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), at concentrations greater than established limits.
Read more at the Thoroughbred Daily News.
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