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CHRB Denies Stay of Justify Decision, Will Entertain Appeal

In the latest detour in the exhaustive legal saga stemming from Justify's 2018 GI Santa Anita Derby win, the connections of the horse during his racing career filed a notice last week with the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) requesting that the agency entertain an appeal of a recent board of stewards decision disqualifying the horse from the race and to stay the purse distribution.

In response, the CHRB have denied a stay of the stewards' decision but stated that it will “assign a Hearing Officer in this matter where the issue of timeliness of the appeal and appeal itself will be heard and a proposed decision submitted to the Board for consideration,” according to an order issued by the CHRB Tuesday.

The plaintiffs in the appeal are owners China Horse Club International Limited, Head of Plains Partners, Starlight Racing, WinStar Farm, jockey Mike Smith and trainer Bob Baffert.

After the New York Times first reported that Justify had tested positive post-race for scopolamine, Mick Ruis, owner-trainer of the runner-up that day, Bolt d'Oro, sought to have the result of the race overturned with Bolt d'Oro declared the winner.

Ruis alleged that the CHRB failed to follow its own rules when it decided not to pursue penalties after Justify's positive test. The CHRB argued that Justify should not be disqualified because the positive test was the result of contamination linked to jimson weed.

At the end of last year, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ordered the CHRB to set aside the stewards' 2020 decision and issue a new ruling disqualifying winner Justify from the Santa Anita Derby.

Early in March, the CHRB reached a separate settlement that called for the agency to pay Ruis $300,000, and to order a redistribution of the $1-million purse.

In last week's notice, Amanda Groves, who represents Justify's connections, argued that grounds for an appeal included how the plaintiffs were not a party to the lawsuit between Ruis and the CHRB, leading to “Procedural irregularities and denial of due process and/or a fair and impartial hearing.”

Groves also reiterated the CHRB's original claim, writing that “it is undisputed that the positive scopolamine test was a result of environmental contamination due to inadvertent exposure to jimsonweed in hay/straw.”

BloodHorse reported that Ruis's attorneys had filed a response arguing that none of the grounds raised in the appeal are relevant.

When asked about the contents of the letter, Darrell Vienna, who represents Ruis, told the TDN that the CHRB issued the disqualification order “because they were ordered to do so by the court.”

The court did not demand that the CHRB hold another hearing on the matter, Vienna added. “It just issued an order to disqualify the horse, Justify, and to redistribute the purse,” he said.

“If the Justify parties have issue with that, that issue should be addressed at the Superior Court, in my opinion,” said Vienna. “If the court orders a subordinate agency to do something, they must do it.”

According to last week's notice of appeal, Justify's first-place finish in the Santa Anita Derby accrued the owners a combined $585,000, while Smith and Baffert each received $58,450.

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Joint Care: Provide Support After Wounds, Infection

Viscous and transparent, synovial fluid acts as a biological lubricant within musculoskeletal mechanisms. Penetrating wounds to joints and tendon sheaths cause most infections, though pathogens carried in the bloodstream, as with foals diagnosed with joint ill, have been implicated, as has contamination at the time of intraarticular injection or surgery. Veterinarians refer to infection that sets up in any structure containing synovial fluid, namely joints, tendons, and bursas, as synovial sepsis.

Prompt diagnosis and aggressive treatment minimize damage to septic structures and often prevent career- and life-threatening consequences. To determine if infection is present, bacterial isolation through culture is the best diagnostic tool, yet low sensitivity and long laboratory turnaround time often preclude a definite diagnosis in the face of emergency situations and treatment decisions, which may include joint irrigation and surgery. Because of these limitations, researchers have sought alternative ways to quickly identify the presence of infection.

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Austrian researchers recently evaluated the presence of specific biomarkers, called antimicrobial proteins, in synovial fluid as a way to confirm infection.^* These proteins are activated by the immune system in response to a pathogenic challenge, so their existence in the fluid indicates sepsis. According to the researchers, “using enzyme activity as a biomarker of synovial sepsis enables the development of a point-of-care diagnostic test, which would allow veterinarians to perform, analyze, and act on test results stall-side, in a matter of minutes.”

In the study, researchers collected synovial fluid samples from three groups of horses: healthy controls, horses with aseptic synovitis (inflammation without infection), and horses with septic synovitis. Enzyme activity assays were compared with standard synovial fluid parameters and broad-range bacterial DNA extraction.

The researchers found enzyme activities were significantly different between septic synovial samples and aseptic and control samples, leading them to believe that measurement of enzyme activities would allow for reliable, rapid diagnosis of synovial sepsis and immediate therapeutic interventions.

Joint health depends largely on conscientious management of exercise, including frequency and intensity of athletic bouts, and the provision of high-quality nutritional supplements formulated specifically for joint support. While synovial sepsis typically develops from injuries that compromise the joint capsule, it can occur following routine intraarticular injection of hyaluronic acid and corticosteroids, though the incidence of infection is uncommon.^° The prophylactic use of joint supplements in high-performance horses and prospects can delay the need for joint injections, thus postponing any risk associated with invasive procedures.

^*Haralambus, R., A. Florczyk, E. Sigl, S. Gultekin, C. Vogl, S. Brandt, M. Schierer, C. Gamerith, and F. Jenner. 2021. Detection of synovial sepsis in horses using enzymes as biomarker. Equine Veterinary Journal. In press.

^°Steel, C.M., R.R. Pannirselvam, and G.A. Anderson. 2013. Risk of septic arthritis after intra-articular medication: A study of 16,624 injections in Thoroughbred racehorses. Australian Veterinary Journal 91(7):268-273.