The New York Racing Association's hearing process regarding embattled trainer Marcus Vitali has been delayed. A hearing was originally slated to begin March 1 before a hearing officer, but will now be pushed back.
“The administrative hearing to consider the NYRA statement of charges against Marcus Vitali that was scheduled to begin on Tuesday, March 1 has been rescheduled to begin on Monday, April 4 at 10 a.m.,” said Patrick McKenna, vice president of communications for NYRA. “Former New York State Court of Appeals Judge Robert Smith is serving as hearing officer in this matter.”
NYRA had announced it would seek to suspend Vitali from its facilities around the same time it announced it would begin an administrative hearing process for Bob Baffert. Baffert's hearing took place in late January, and NYRA has not yet announced the results of that administrative hearing.
NYRA initially chose to refuse entries and stalls to Baffert in the wake of his announcement that Medina Spirit tested positive for betamethasone following the 2021 Kentucky Derby. Baffert challenged the move in federal court, and a judge agreed with the trainer that the racetrack could not exclude him without some form of due process. NYRA subsequently created a series of guidelines for a process to present a statement of charges, hold an administrative hearing, and eventually submit a hearing officer's report to a panel for final decision.
Vitali made headlines most recently for getting a one-year suspension and $10,000 fine in Pennsylvania after one of his runners there tested positive for d-methamphetamine. He has appealed that ruling.
Vitali has a lengthy history of run-ins with regulators over drug and other issues. He relinquished his training license in Florida in 2016 after racking up seven drug violations in a four-month span, temporarily evading suspension. He left for the Mid-Atlantic, where he accumulated another positive, and eventually went back to Florida in an attempt to reacquire his license. Before he was relicensed, a Paulick Report investigation revealed he was regularly entering the Gulfstream Park backstretch on a visitor's pass and appeared to be training horses, although his attorney denied that he was training without a license. Vitali was later barred from properties owned by The Stronach Group and from Tampa Bay Downs for alleged paper training. In 2019, he was given a one-year suspension in Delaware after officials said he interfered with a search of an employee's dorm room and absconded with a vial of an unknown substance which was never recovered. In 2020, Vitali was implicated by officials at the Maryland Jockey Club in a scheme to have fellow trainer Wayne Potts serve as paper trainer for Vitali-trained horses entered at Stronach-owned Laurel Park.
The post NYRA Administrative Hearing To Suspend Vitali Delayed Until April appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
