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Baltas Suspended a Year, Fined $10,000 for Alleged Medication Violations

Trainer Richard Baltas is facing a one-year suspension and a $10,000 fine for the alleged race-day administration of substances to his horses 21 times over roughly a three-week span this past spring at Santa Anita Park, according to a ruling posted Friday on the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) website.

Baltas told Daily Racing Form that he's “terribly disappointed” and plans to appeal.

In a bit of an odd legal twist, timing-wise, Baltas is already engaged in a legal fight with the CHRB over essentially these very same allegations.

Back on Aug. 17, some 3 1/2 months before the Dec. 2 ruling was even issued, Baltas sued the CHRB, its commissioners, and executive director for at least $12 million in damages, claiming that the CHRB “destroyed” his reputation by issuing the 47-count complaint that led to Friday's ruling.

That lawsuit stated the CHRB allegedly violated Baltas's civil rights and kept materials from him that were related to the accusations, “thereby forcing Baltas to proceed with information and documents that are being withheld and concealed from him…”

The CHRB's original June 21 complaint stated that “Between the dates of 4/15/2022 to 5/8/2022, 23 horses trained by RICHARD BALTAS were administered a substance on days they were entered into races. Surveillance video captured all administrations by employees of BALTAS's barn. The substance was analyzed by University of California, Davis, who reported the presence of Higenamine and Paenol.”

The Dec. 2 ruling stated that Baltas's suspension will run from Dec. 9, 2022, to Dec. 8, 2023, for allegedly violating the following CHRB rules: #1887 (Trainer to Insure Condition of Horse), #1902 (Conduct Detrimental to Horse Racing), and #1843.5 (Medication, Drug, and Other Substances Permitted After Entry in a Race).

More specifically, Baltas was cited for “Oral administrations of 'X-Treme Air Boost' and other substances on race day.” (While the original complaint listed “23 horses,” the ruling stated “21 counts”).

Back when the complaint was issued nearly a half-year ago, Baltas's lawsuit stated that, “None of the counts in the CHRB Complaint are valid, and each of them reflect a malicious intent by the Defendants.”

Baltas has not started a horse since July 15, at Lone Star Park.

His lawsuit stated that on May 10, “Aidan Butler, [acting] on behalf of Santa Anita, notified Baltas that he was prevented from entering any horses at Santa Anita.”

On June 22, 2022, the CHRB filed an ex parte application with the stewards at Los Alamitos Race Course to refuse the entry of two horses trained by Baltas, the lawsuit stated.

The stewards at Los Alamitos summarily denied these two entries “without a hearing or any form of due process,” the lawsuit stated. “The denial constituted a de facto summary suspension.”

Ballas then sent stock to compete at Churchill Downs. But, according to his lawsuit, track management there “issued a de facto suspension…a decision made, once again, without any due process.”

In July, in the wake of the CHRB complaint, a Los Angeles Superior Court Judge denied a request by Baltas to order the CHRB to allow him to enter horses in the state.

Baltas's lawsuit gave the following timeline of events regarding the allegations:

“Baltas had a horse called Noble Reflection scheduled to run in the 10th race at Santa Anita Park on May 8, 2022. A few hours before the race, one of Baltas's employees were seen on videotape administering an oral dose syringe into the horse's mouth.

“A syringe was subsequently recovered from a feed bag that was tested and had allegedly traces of Higenamine and Paeonol, which are organic liquids that are found naturally in Chinese herbs. Notably, after Noble Reflection was scratched from the race, it was tested and the test results were 'clean,' and neither Higenamine nor Paeonol were found in the horse,” the lawsuit stated.

“Based on the film footage of Noble Reflection…on May 10, 2022, the Santa Anita and/or the CHRB and its agents went back retroactively to review videotaped footage of Baltas's horses from April 15, 2022, up through May 8, 2022, and allegedly saw 22 horses trained by Baltas receiving an orally administered liquid that they contend was X-Treme Air Boost, which is a product advertised for use in horses in the Santa Anita Condition Book,” the lawsuit stated.

“Unlike the situation with Noble Reflection, there was no syringe found in the other 21 instances to be tested. Instead, the CHRB assumed the substance in the other 22 cases going back to April 15, 2022, was the same that was found in or on the outside of the syringe found on May 8, 2022. None of the 21 horses that raced ever tested positive for a Controlled or Prohibited Substance,” the lawsuit stated.

“The CHRB has never explained its decision for going back in time to find violations in the past, and its conduct demonstrates that they and/or the Defendants herein intended to target Baltas to find as many violations as possible. Such conduct demonstrates malice and oppression on the part of the CHRB and its Agents,” the lawsuit stated.

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Hollendorfer Writs Denied in CHRB Case

The Superior Court of San Diego judge hearing the case between trainer Jerry Hollendorfer and the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) has denied both writs of mandate filed by the trainer.

The two writs constituted a twisty legal knot essentially surrounding which entity–the tracks or the agency regulating California's racing industry–had the ultimate jurisdiction to bar the trainer from licensed premises in the state, a hearing for which was held on Oct. 8.

According to Hollendorfer's attorney, Drew Couto, both decisions are appealable, “and those decisions are under consideration.”

The TDN reached out to the CHRB for comment and will update as necessary.

This whole legal saga began when The Stronach Group (TSG) barred Hollendorfer from its facilities after six of the trainer's horses were catastrophically injured between December 2018 and June 2019 at Golden Gate Fields and Santa Anita, a time when the latter track experienced a well-publicized spike in equine fatalities during an unusually wet spell.

This past July, Hollendorfer reached a settlement with TSG-controlled subsidiary owners of Santa Anita Park and Golden Gate Fields, the details of which have not been publicly disclosed.

Hollendorfer has not raced or trained at TSG-owned facilities since that June 2019 exclusion.

The first of the two writs concerned the race meet agreement (RMA) inked between the tracks and the California Thoroughbred Trainers (CTT).

Hollendorfer had claimed that the CHRB “abused its discretion” by voting to deem the RMA in place when the trainer was initially barred from Santa Anita “expired” and “incapable of repetition” when it came to Hollendorfer's later actions through the CTT–namely, when Del Mar attempted to bar Hollendorfer from its grounds in the summer of 2019, and again later that fall when the trainer tried to enter horses at Santa Anita.

In a minute order dated Nov. 22, judge Ronald Frazier denied this first writ on grounds that Hollendorfer “lacks standing” to bring the petition.

“Any complaint alleging a violation of an RMA may only be filed by one of the contracting entities – that is, the horsemen's organization (here, CTT) or the racing association (here, LATC and PRA),” wrote Frazier.

In the second writ, Hollendorfer argued that the CHRB through its board of stewards wields the ultimate right to refuse a trainer's entries, and not the individual racing association. As such, he sought to “compel” the CHRB “to perform its mandatory ministerial” duties in deciding through a hearing whether the trainer should be able to race at Santa Anita and Golden Gate.

Frazier wrote that the court has “reviewed the lodged records and considered the arguments of counsel, and finds Petitioner has not sufficiently demonstrated a hearing was required pursuant to Business and Professions Code section 19573.”

In pre-hearing briefs, Hollendorfer also questioned the impartiality of the CHRB in adjudicating his case, citing email communications and deposition testimony from former board members that appeared to betray favorable attitudes towards TSG's actions against the trainer.

Frazier pushed back against those claims, writing that “regardless of the existence or non-existence of the alleged biases and conflicts of interest, Petitioner has failed to demonstrate they influenced or impacted Respondent's investigations in any way.”

Hollendorfer's case against the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club is ongoing.

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No Matter Which Way HISA Goes, CHRB Confident on Rules Consistency

Despite a near-term national forecast clouded with uncertainty over last week's United States Court of Appeals order declaring the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) to be unconstitutional, California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) commissioners on Tuesday expressed confidence their state will be able to weather the projected turbulence over HISA's in-limbo legality better than other jurisdictions.

The reason, according to staffers and commissioners who spoke during the Nov. 22 monthly meeting, is that the CHRB has been proactively advancing safety and medication rules for the past few years, and a number of those regulations eventually got adopted as models for HISA rules.

So if or when an expected mandate for HISA to cease operations gets handed down by the Fifth Circuit on that mandate's Jan. 10 due date, the CHRB will essentially just go back to relying on a similar, in-state framework of rules that aren't too different from HISA's.

“We've been participating with HISA. We've been supporting them. We will continue to do so until told otherwise,” said the CHRB's equine medical director, Dr. Jeff Blea.

But, Blea added, “It's nice to know [that] in all actuality, HISA's safety program and medication rules are not that far different from where California is.”

Mindful that a Pandora's box of varying legal and political scenarios could still affect the future of HISA between now and when HISA's Anti-Doping and Medication Control rules go into effect Jan. 1, the CHRB voted 4-0 on Tuesday to opt in to the 2023 voluntary implementation agreement that encompasses national oversight by both the HISA Authority and the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU), which will enforce the new drug rules.

“Just to clarify, HISA medication rules go into effect Jan. 1, and the court [mandate] is Jan. 10. So those 10 days for sure, we're operating under the medication rules of HISA,” said chairman Gregory Ferraro, DVM. “And then, depending on what [a higher-court ruling or a legal stay or Congressional action] is, we go from there.”

Blea described to commissioners how he was in attendance at the annual convention of the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) in San Antonio, Texas, on Nov. 18 when news first broke about the HISA unconstitutionality ruling.

Blea said the convention was “fully staffed” with HISA Authority executives at that time, including HISA chief executive officer Lisa Lazarus and HIWU executive director Ben Mosier.

“Thirty minutes prior to the start of the meeting the announcement came out, so it was just a little bit of everybody [being] on their heels,” Blea said. “Their approach was, 'We're moving forward, we're pressing on, we'll discuss these issues with veterinarians and the veterinary community.'

“So right now it's 'business as usual,'” Blea continued. “Everyone's seen what's in the mainstream press, and it's an attorneys' field day. As it stands now, from a medication standpoint, we'll be under HISA rules for 10 days [in 2023] depending on what the courts rule. Same thing with the safety standards.”

Blea noted that even as the AAEP convention unfolded amid the legal blow to HISA, the CHRB was repeatedly referenced during a keynote address for being ahead of the curve on equine safety and welfare initiatives.

And during the professional meet-and-greet portions of the convention, Blea said he repeatedly had his brain picked by colleagues who wanted advice on how to introduce CHRB-styled reforms in their home states.

Amanda Brown, the CHRB's staff counsel, offered a legal perspective on HISA's possible path forward–or what happens if that entity is forced to shut down. She noted that a separate Court of Appeals case over HISA's constitutionality has arguments pending Dec. 7, this time in the Sixth Circuit.

“So there is a chance that the judge there rules [that HISA is] constitutional [and] we have two competing decisions,” Brown said. “Ultimately, I expect they'll ask the Supreme Court to review it.”

But in the meantime, Brown said, “Everything from HISA says that they're still going to roll out the Anti-Doping and Medication Control program Jan. 1 [and] HISA has indicated that they are going to exhaust every avenue to either get a stay or a reconsideration before that time. So it's kind of up in the air what's going to happen.”

Prior to the unanimous vote on the issue, Ferraro asked Brown is there was any legal downside to opting into the HISA and HIWU agreements in the event that those entities do get shut down. According to the HISA budget, California's financial assessment for 2023 is $7,344,139.

“I can't speak to the [CHRB's] payment portion of that, but no, the agreement would be void and there would be nothing for us to enforce,” Brown said. “We'd go back to our California rules, pre-HISA. Which for us, is probably easier than other states.”

Cynthia Alameda, the CHRB's deputy executive director, picked up on the topic of assessments where Brown left off.

“We're collecting payments currently for the first assessment [that covered the final six months of 2022],” Alameda said. “They're coming in a little bit behind, so I don't think that it would be difficult for us to kind of regroup and ensure that all of our stakeholders didn't pay any fees that were unnecessary.

“So I don't think there is any negative in entering into the agreement,” Alameda continued. “It also gives our stakeholders an opportunity to come back in December to present how they would like to fund the assessments. They did it through market access fees on the first assessment, so I'm sure they would need to present that to us as well, just so we're ready in January if everything goes forward.

“If HISA [being] unconstitutional [was upheld], we would cease collecting funds,” Alameda said. “I don't know what would happen with the ones that have already been paid for the first six months, because it was kind of to handle the setup costs, so I don't think those would be recouped. That's just me guessing, though.”

Blea added at a different point in the meeting that there is one difference in the CHRB and HISA rules that he is actively trying to address before it becomes an on-track issue in 2023.

“The confusion for veterinarians is detection time versus thresholds,” Blea said. “The [HISA] detection times are based on a European model. So I'm going to recommend people push their medication administrations back further, and I'm in the process of doing some calculations and trying to figure it out to give them some information proactively to avoid any problems.”

The four CHRB commissioners voting unanimously for the HISA opt-in were Ferraro, Oscar Gonzales, Damascus Castellano and Brenda Washington Davis.

Commissioners Dennis Alfieri, Wendy Mitchell and Thomas Hudnut were absent from the meeting.

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Trainer Doug O’Neill Suspended 60 Days

Trainer Doug O'Neill has been suspended 60 days, fined $10,000, and put on probation for one year stemming from a medication positive by his starter Worse Read Sanchez (Square Eddie) at Golden Gate Fields May 1, according to a ruling posted on the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) website. The 3-year-old gelding finished third in Golden Gate's Silky Sullivan S., his only start at the Northern California track. Worse Read Sanchez, who is owned by Reddam Racing LLC, has since made five additional starts at Santa Anita and Del Mar, with his best finish a third Oct. 7 in an optional allowance in Arcadia.

The ruling is pursuant to CHRB Rule #1887 for violation of CHRB Rules #1843 (a) & (d) (Medication, Drugs and Other Substances) and #1843.1 (a) (Prohibited Drug Substances). The prohibited substance was reportedly lidocaine, a Class 2 violation.

In addition to a 60-day suspension and $10,000 fine, O'Neill will be placed on a one-year probation, retroactive to May 1, the date of the violation, and ending May 1, 2023. His 60-day suspension is to be stayed 30 days for good cause. The actual days of suspension will begin Nov. 21 and end Dec. 20. If any of the probation is violated, the stayed 30 days will be reinstated in addition to any penalty for any addition rule violation.

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