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Parx Trainer Vega Handed 730-Day Suspension By Pennsylvania Stewards, Plans Appeal

Trainer/owner Ricardo Vega, who operates Richard Vega Racing Stable, was hit with a 730-day suspension on June 29 for possession of 21 loaded syringes, 18 needles, one filled IV bag and an IV catheter. Vega was summarily suspended by emergency order in late May after a large-scale raid at Parx turned up prohibited items, though previous rulings had not included many details about what was found.

The ruling, which was issued by the Pennsylvania board of stewards, stated the contraband was found in a locked tack room belonging to Vega, though Vega's attorney, Alan Pincus, has said previously the tack room was utilized by multiple trainers and was not kept locked.

The ruling did not specify what substances were in the equipment found in the raid. Pincus said he has not been provided with test results on the substances but pointed to comments made by Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission executive director Tom Chuckas at a June 29 commission meeting saying the May raids turned up “nothing of substance.”

The suspension is scheduled to run from June 29, 2021 to June 28, 2023. Pincus told the Paulick Report he filed an appeal of the June 29 stewards' ruling with the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania.

Vega has not saddled a horse since May 19 due to the summary suspension that was put in place ahead of the stewards' hearing on the matter. Pincus has also filed a request for a stay of the summary suspension, and said July 6 the courts have not yet decided whether Vega will be permitted to train while the appeals process is worked out.

Vega is a member of the Parx Hall of Fame and has trained winners of over 1,100 races to earnings of more than $19.5 million. He took out his trainer's license in 1992 after starting in the business as a hotwalker in Florida in the 1980s and working as an assistant to Al Hinson. He is a graded stakes-placed trainer and is the conditioner of Dulce Realidad, Philadelphia Park's Horse of the Year and Champion Three-Year-Old Filly in 2008 and 1999 Philadelphia Park Claiming Horse of the Year Open Ice Hit. Among other clients, Vega has trained horses for Dun Roamin Farm, the nom de course for Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association president Sal DeBunda, who represents the THA as a member of the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission.

According to a report presented at a regular meeting of the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission May 25, state investigators searched six barns, six tack rooms, five grooms' quarters and five external tack rooms. They also completed 66 out-of-competition tests. Although he could not reveal specifics, commission executive director Tom Chuckas said at that meeting the raid revealed “a significant amount of contraband … dealing with medications, either unlabeled, compounded, or expired.

“I regret to say that there were contraband that have no business on the backside, like needles and syringes and some other things that we discovered,” Chuckas said.

Pennsylvania state code prohibits anyone other than licensed veterinarians from possessing syringes, needles, or injectable medications on the backstretch.

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Guess Who’s Back: Preciado Granted Stable Employee License At Parx

Five years after his owner and trainer licenses were revoked in Pennsylvania, Ramon Preciado is back on the backstretch at Parx. Preciado was granted a stable employee's license in December 2020 and has been working as a groom for trainer Penny Pearce ever since, according to his attorney, Alan Pincus.

State stewards ordered Preciado's licenses revoked in December 2016 after one of his runners was positive in a post-race test for clenbuterol. The racing commission apparently felt the positive, which came following a race in July, was the last straw. The test results came in as Preciado was appealing a 270-day suspension for eight medication violations that occurred earlier in the year. Parx banned Preciado from its grounds in April 2016, a move which Preciado contested in court.

A former Preciado employee would later be arrested on one count of rigging a publicly exhibited contest after she said she illegally administered clenbuterol to Preciado horses to seek revenge against the trainer. That employee, Marian Vega, was deferred to Pennsylvania's Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition Program and bypassed a trial.

At the end of 2016, Pincus said his client decided to accept the decisions of the track and the commission, and made plans to reapply for a license at a future date, should he show he had “rehabilitated.” In 2018, Preciado's application for a stable employee license was denied due to “his background and numerous medication violations.” At the end of last year however, Pincus said Preciado's application was granted. He still does not hold an owner's license.

Pearce, meanwhile, is having her best year yet. While her win percentage in 2020 was 8 percent, it jumped to 25 percent thus far in 2021. She has sent out 36 runners, which have picked up nine wins, six seconds and two thirds, meaning she finishes in the money 47 percent of the time now.

“I imagine that, he's a top-flight horseman, that, you know, he would function as a groom and she could benefit from his expertise with the horses,” said Pincus of Preciado's role in Pearce's shedrow.

One of Pearce's runners, Beto's Girl, moved to the barn earlier this year after a second-place effort at Tampa Bay Downs and is now owned by the partnership of JAG Racing and Jettany Thoroughbred Corp, which ran horses with Preciado prior to his license revocation.

When asked about the distinction between a trainer's role and Preciado's function as a groom, Pincus said, “A trainer is in charge, enters the horses, supervises everything. He, like any other employee, assists in whatever way he can, but he's not the trainer.”

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Attorney: Vega To Appeal Summary Suspension In Pennsylvania

Parx Hall of Fame owner/trainer Ricardo Vega, who runs under the banner of Richard Vega Racing Stable, will be appealing the summary suspension dealt to him last week by the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission. Attorney Alan Pincus said he had filed paperwork in court Thursday to request a stay of suspension while the appeals process is completed.

According to the racing commission's ruling from May 27, multiple loaded syringes and needles were found in Vega's barn during a large-scale raid at Parx in late May. Pincus said his client shares the tack room where the items were found with three other trainers and that it is not kept locked.

Pincus said Vega was not permitted in the barn while investigators searched and was shown one loaded syringe, which he did not recognize. It remains unclear what was in the loaded syringes, since Pincus said testing has not yet been completed on the contents.

“They showed him one syringe and he doesn't know anything about it,” said Pincus. “They claim they found a whole bunch of other stuff but we've not seen it.

“They're not going to hold a hearing until the results of that testing comes back, and who knows how many weeks or months that could be. So without a stay [of suspension], he's going to go out of business waiting for a hearing.”

Pincus also said there was no representative of the horsemen present during the search, as he said is required.

According to a report presented at a regular meeting of the commission May 25, investigators searched six barns, six tack rooms, five grooms' quarters and five external tack rooms. They also completed 66 out-of-competition tests. Although he could not reveal specifics, commission executive director Tom Chuckas said at that meeting the raid revealed “a significant amount of contraband … dealing with medications, either unlabeled, compounded, or expired.

“I regret to say that there were contraband that have no business on the backside, like needles and syringes and some other things that we discovered,” Chuckas said.

Pennsylvania state code prohibits anyone other than licensed veterinarians from possessing syringes, needles, or injectable medications on the backstretch.

No hearing has been set yet for the appeal.

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Parx Hall Of Fame Trainer Vega Summarily Suspended After Loaded Syringes Found In Barn

Owner/trainer Ricardo Vega, who trains as Richard Vega Racing Stable, has been summarily suspended after multiple loaded needles and syringes were found in his tack room at Parx. The items were discovered as part of a large-scale raid at the facility last week.

The Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission issued the summary suspension on May 24, following the raid. The next day, three of Vega's horses were stewards' scratches from the May 25 race card at Parx. A board of stewards hearing was held on May 27, where officials voted to uphold the summary suspension issued earlier in the week.

The summary suspension cited two violations of state code — one that prohibits the possession of hypodermic needles, syringes, or injectable substances by non-veterinarians, and another that states “a licensee shall not, alone or in concert with another person, engage in inappropriate, illegal or unethical conduct which violates the Commission's rules and regulations of racing, is inconsistent with the best interests and integrity of racing or otherwise undermines the general public's faith public perception and confidence in the racing industry.”

Vega is denied access to the grounds of Pennsylvania commission-sanctioned tracks in both his capacity as an owner and as a trainer. The May 27 decision to uphold the summary suspension is subject to appeal. Attorney Alan Pincus, who represents Vega, did not respond to calls for comment.

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