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CHRB Approves Race Date Shifts For Northern California Fairs

The California Horse Racing Board conducted a meeting by teleconference on Wednesday, June 16. The public participated by dialing into the teleconference and/or listening through the audio webcast link on the CHRB website. Chairman Gregory Ferraro chaired the meeting, joined by Vice Chair Oscar Gonzales and Commissioners Dennis Alfieri, Damascus Castellanos, Brenda Washington Davis, Wendy Mitchell, and Alex Solis.

The audio of this entire Board meeting is available on the CHRB Website (www.chrb.ca.gov) under the Webcast link. In brief:

The Board conditionally approved the license application for the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club to operate a race meet that will open on Friday, July 16, and run through Monday (Labor Day), September 6. Unlike last year when the pandemic prevented the public from attending the races, Del Mar will welcome as many as 15,000 patrons to its racing programs, provided they have reserved seats. Racing is scheduled for three days – Friday, Saturday, and Sunday – for the first two weeks, and then Thursday racing will be added for the following four weeks. The meet will close with a five-day week, Thursday through Labor Day.
As there will not be a State Fair again this year, Fair officials decided not to run any racing programs at Cal Expo in what normally would be a summer race meet in the Capital in conjunction with other Fair activities. Accordingly, Cal Expo arranged to move one of its allocated three weeks of racing to Pleasanton. The Board approved the license application for the California Exposition and State Fair to conduct a fair meet in Pleasanton. The three days of racing will be offered on July 16, 17, and 18.
The Board also approved an agreement between Pleasanton and three horsemen's groups – the Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC), Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association, and Arabian Racing Association of California – authorizing their racing secretaries to establish conditions on races limiting the administrations of certain medications. Specifically, no horse shall be permitted to race in a stakes race with any race-day medication, which includes the use of furosemide; every horse within the inclosure and any auxiliary training facility is subject to out-of-competition testing; all parties agree to strict limitations on the use of any analgesic and anti-inflammatory medications during racing and training; there are restrictions on intra-articular injections that include a prohibition of a horse racing within 30 days following an intra-articular injection with a corticosteroid into the metacarpophalangeal or metatarsophalangeal joints; and finally, no horse that has been administered nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medication within the previous 48 hours shall participate in a race or recorded work. This agreement will extend to all fair meets in Northern California.
The Board dealt with the remaining two weeks of racing that originally were allocated to Cal Expo by reallocating those weeks to Golden Gate Fields at the request of both parties. The Board first made that reallocation and then approved the license application for Pacific Racing Association II to conduct a race meet at Golden Gate that will commence July 23 and conclude August 1.
The Board also approved agreements between the TOC and the two thoroughbred meets approved Wednesday (Del Mar and Golden Gate) with the same entry conditions as those contained in the fairs agreement.
The Board denied a request by San Luis Rey Downs auxiliary training facility for more time to install sprinklers in some of its barns.
The Board asked management to provide more information about the delay and for progress reports. The matter will be reconsidered at the July 21 meeting.
Executive Director Scott Chaney reported on a significant reduction in equine fatalities in California horse racing, largely due to a multitude of new regulations to protect horses as well as cooperation from stakeholders. He also announced that Dr. Timothy Grande, longtime Official Veterinarian on the Southern California thoroughbred circuit, has been named to the newly created position of CHRB Chief Official Veterinarian with broad responsibilities of oversight throughout the state.
Dr. Rick Arthur gave his final report as equine medical director before retiring at the end of this month. Dr. Jeff Blea will become EMD on July 1. Chairman Ferraro and several other commissioners took the opportunity to thank Dr. Arthur for his service. “During the last 15 years, Dr. Arthur has brought our medical program and our health and safety program light-years ahead of where it was when he started. We truly appreciate what you've done,” said Chairman Ferraro.
Representatives of Arabian racing gave presentations stressing the significance of Arabian racing and pressing for more racing opportunities in the future.

Public comments made during the meeting can be accessed through the meeting audio archive on the CHRB website.

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Sadler Faces Class 1 Drug Complaint After Flagstaff Tests Positive For Bisphosphonate

The California Horse Racing Board has filed a complaint against trainer John Sadler after graded stakes winner Flagstaff tested positive for clodronic acid, a bisphosphonate sold under the brand name Osphos, following a second-place finish in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship Stakes Sept. 27, 2020, at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. A split sample confirmed the presence of the drug.

Flagstaff, a now 7-year-old gelding by Speightstown, is owned by Lane's End Racing and Hronis Racing LLC. He recently scored his first G1 victory in the Churchill Downs Stakes on Kentucky Derby day at Churchill Downs.

Because clodronic acid is not included on the CHRB's current list of prohibited substances, under the regulatory body's rules it automatically falls under the most severe drug category, Class 1. A medication classification proposal working its way through the CHRB's approval process recommends classifying clodronate (clodronic acid) as Class 3, but in the A penalty category.

Proposed amendments for medication violations require a one-year suspension absent mitigating circumstances along with a minimum fine of $10,000 for Category A penalties. Owners face loss of purse and potential placement of a horse on the vet's list for up to 90 days.

Complicating Sadler's status is the fact he is on probation as part of a settlement agreement issued in June 2020 for three medication violations from April and May 2019. Sadler received a 60-day suspension, but 45 days of the ban were stayed provided he have no Class 1, 2 or 3 violations during a probationary period that ends June 28, 2021.

Bisphosphonates are a class of drug approved by the FDA in 2014 and prescribed to prevent bone loss in people and to treat navicular syndrome in horses, a common cause of forelimb lameness. The drug is not approved for horses less than four years old.

Equine surgeon Dr. Larry Bramlage of Rood & Riddle warned about the use of bisphosphonates Osphos and Tildren in young horses during a client education seminar in 2018, saying the drug can have unintended, detrimental side effects. Many racing states moved to ban the drugs.

The CHRB banned bisphosphonates effective July 1, 2020, saying that any horse administered the drug in the previous six months – effectively a cutoff date of Jan. 1, 2020 – was prohibited from stabling on CHRB regulated grounds.

Sadler referred questions to attorney Darrell Vienna, who said Flagstaff was legally treated with Osphos on an unspecified date “late in 2019” when Flagstaff was 5 years old.

Vienna cited the extended half life of Osphos as an explanation for the positive test, saying it can linger in a horse's system for many months or even longer than a year.

Sadler, whose best horses include 3-year-old filly champion Stellar Wind and Horse of the Year Accelerate, is the trainer of this year's G1 Santa Anita Derby winner Rock Your World, a prospective starter in the G1 Belmont Stakes on June 5.

The complaint against Sadler was ordered on April 28 but not published on the CHRB's website until Wednesday, May 26. No hearing date has been set at this time.

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California Horse Racing Board Will Not Suspend Baffert’s License Without Due Process

The California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) is aware of the situation surrounding Bob Baffert and the alleged positive relative to the Kentucky Derby.

Racetracks in Kentucky and New York have temporarily precluded Mr. Baffert from entering horses and/or using stalls. To date, the regulatory bodies in those two states – the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and the New York State Gaming Commission – have not taken any action against Mr. Baffert's license. They face the same issue the CHRB does in that regulators cannot suspend or revoke occupational licenses without a hearing and due process. Should any regulatory body take action against any licensee, we would reciprocate that action in California.

Further, Noodles, a 2-year-old unraced colt in Mr. Baffert's care, suffered a non-racing or training-related death this weekend at Los Alamitos. That fatality will be posted on the CHRB website today, as is the practice, with the note: “Respiratory – Pneumonia (pending).” A necropsy will be performed and a fatality review conducted pursuant to the law and CHRB regulations.

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CHRB Again Under Fire For Transparency; Gonzales Frustrated By Handling Of CBD Case

Vice Chair of the California Horse Racing Board, Oscar Gonzales expressed frustrations Wednesday with a lack of transparency in the handling of the recently-revealed CBD complaint against trainer Ron McAnally, reports the Thoroughbred Daily News.

Roses and Candy, trained by McAnally, tested positive for CBD after winning the third race at Del Mar on Nov. 22, 2020. A complaint against the trainer was officially filed Monday after a six-month investigation.

Meanwhile, the CHRB has been in the midst of changing the classification of CBD. It is currently not classified in California, meaning a positive test would be treated as the most severe, Class 1/Penalty A. The Association of Racing Commissioners International lists Cannabidiol as a Class 2/Penalty Category B substance.

On Jan. 21, the CHRB pushed back the proposed rule change to make Cannabidiol a Class 3/Penalty Category B drug to the February meeting, at which point it went out for public comment. California's Office of Administrative Law (OAL) will have to approve the drug classification before it becomes official.

However, CHRB spokesman Mike Marten said executive director Scott Chaney and investigators will recommend that stewards treat the alleged infraction as a Class 3 violation.

“Part of what's gotten this board in some real challenging circumstances is when we arbitrarily try to move or shift a drug [classification] before a rule is completed,” Gonzales said at Wednesday's meeting, referring the the handling of Justify's scopolamine positive in the 2018 Santa Anita Derby.

“Given what we know, I believe the board would have handled this if we had the power to do [so],” Gonzales continued. “But what does not sit right with me is that the board was not given a proper heads up that as we went about approving a list of medications… that there very well could be some pending cases. And after that [Jan. 21 meeting] we gave it a full month, and not once did anybody say, 'This list that you're voting on, be aware that there are some cases pending.'”

Read more at the Thoroughbred Daily News.

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