delaware thoroughbred racing commission

Delaware Park Increases Dates, Alters Schedule: Plans To Run 88 Days In 2022

The Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission Jan. 18 approved a new-look racing schedule in 2022 for Delaware Park, which will race 88 programs from May 25-Nov. 5.

Kevin DeLucia, senior vice president and chief financial officer for Delaware Park, said the racing association has an agreement with the Delaware Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association on the number of days and the revised calendar. The track will race mostly four days a week on a Wednesday-through-Saturday schedule, with select Fridays dark when the track races three days a week.

Delaware Park in recent years has raced Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

In 2021, Delaware Park raced 77 days and concluded the meet Oct. 30. According to the DTRC annual report for last year, purses paid totaled $17.57 million. Total pari-mutuel handle on the live product was roughly $118 million, and export handle of $114 million was the highest in at least four years.

A 2022 business plan for the track, which late last year was sold to Clairvest Group Inc. and Rubico Gaming LLC, includes an investment of $60,000 in a new inner rail for the turf course and a commitment to help fund at the very least a renovation of the DTRC licensing office located just outside the stable gate adjacent the DTHA office.

In other business, DTHA Executive Director Bessie Gruwell said the number of applications for the Delaware Certified Thoroughbred Program at the conclusion of 2021 was 366, a number expected to grow to perhaps 375 pending outstanding applications. The number is up 35-40 from the final 2020 number, she said.

“The program is still going strong,” Gruwell said.

The DCTP awards purse bonuses in overnight races as well as some Certified-restricted or “waiver” maiden events. Last year four new Certified-restricted stakes were added for a total of eight during the racing season.

Tom LaMarra is managing editor of THA Racing

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Delaware Commission Upholds Disqualification Of Dream Marie Over Amicar Positive

The disqualification of Dream Marie from the Obeah Stakes was upheld by a 3-2 vote of the Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission during its Nov. 17 meeting, reports The Racing Biz. The Matthew Williams trainee was disqualified from her June 9 victory after testing positive for Aminocaproic acid, or Amicar, which is not allowed in any amount on race day.

Aminocaproic acid is a “Class 4” drug that calls for a “Class C” penalty on the Association of Racing Commissioners International's Uniform Classification Guideline of Foreign Substances and Recommended Penalties.

Williams' legal team contended that the trainer administered Amicar a week out from the race for a workout, and that the amount remaining on race day was too small to have a pharmacological effect. There is no recommended withdrawal time for Amicar.

In addition, the team suggested that the recent dismissal of multiple Amicar rulings in Maryland should play into the Delaware Commission's decision.

Commissioner Henry Decker proposed a “hybrid solution” that would allow Dream Marie to retain her win but redistribute part of the purse money to the other finishers. Chairman Duncan Patterson argued that the “a positive is a positive is a positive,” and that the stewards had been fair.

The Delaware Commission narrowly voted (3-2) to uphold the stewards' decision to disqualify Dream Marie and not to fine Williams.

Cobb License Revoked After Stewards Discover Evidence She Violated Suspension

Amber Cobb, who was the center of a controversial ruling by the Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission earlier this year, has had her owner and trainer licenses revoked by the Delaware stewards. The licenses had been scheduled to expire Dec. 31, 2022 and the revocation covers the remaining term for which they would have been active.

According to an Oct. 28 ruling, Cobb did not appear at a scheduled hearing before stewards on Oct. 22 to answer complaints about “past abuse and neglect of horses in her care that did not involve her recent suspension by the Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission in stewards' ruling 19B-2021.”

Ruling 19B-2021 refers to a two-year suspension Cobb had been given by Delaware stewards in May of this year after they were given a video showing Cobb hitting a 2-year-old unraced filly with a rake while the horse was tied to a stall wall. Cobb was shown shouting at the horse, who scrambled to get away from her and reared, falling to the ground with her head still tied to the wall. Cobb appealed that ruling to the full commission in July, and the regulatory body agreed to shorten the suspension from two years to 60 days.

Learn more about the original case and appeal process in our previous reporting here.

The ruling on Oct. 28 appears to have been in reference to separate incidents from the one at the heart of the case from May.

As her 60 days began winding down, the stewards issued a summary suspension on Sept. 10, citing a new list of alleged rule violations by Cobb, including possession of hypodermic needles and cruelty to horses. Summary suspensions are typically issued when stewards want to limit a licensee's access to sanctioned grounds or the entry box as they await a date for a hearing to consider evidence of a potential rule violation.

According to the Oct. 28 ruling, Cobb did not attend an anger management program as required by the stewards and the commission after the incident with the filly and the rake. Additionally, the stewards wrote that they discovered she had failed to get stewards' approval for bills of sale and horse transfers for horses that had been in her care prior to her suspensions.

“Horses that were in her care remained on the grounds of another trainer during the term of her suspension,” the stewards wrote. “Miss Cobb solicited the services of another licensed Delaware trainer that brought horses on the grounds that were not approved by the stewards. Stewards retained documents that Amber Cobb was involved and was still participating in horse racing while under suspension.

“Pursuant to D.T.R.C. Rule 7.5 Horses Suspended: All horses in the charge of a Trainer whose registration has been revoked or suspended shall not be permitted to race during the period of such Trainer's suspension. Upon application by the Owners of such suspended horses, the Stewards may approve the bona fide transfer of such horses to the care of another registered Trainer and, upon such approved transfer, such horses may be entered to race.”

In the Oct. 28 ruling, stewards cited a number of rules they say Cobb violated, including the state's regulation against cruelty to horses.

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Delaware Cruelty Case Results In 30-Day Suspensions After Owner Tries To Hide Bowed Tendon

Three licensees have been given suspensions and fines in a horse cruelty case in Delaware, according to stewards' rulings published this week. The rulings detailed a rough summer for allowance gelding Food and Wine. On June 2, the horse won the seventh race at Delaware Park by four lengths but walked out of the winner's circle lame. Regulatory veterinarians placed the horse on the vet's list, which would require him to complete a timed workout and pass a subsequent blood test before he'd be allowed to compete again.

Food and Wine, who was owned by Jose Luis Rosales and apparently trained by Linda Lee Manchio, was examined by a private veterinarian 12 days later. Ultrasounds revealed a bowed tendon with a 50 percent tear in one of the horse's legs. The practitioner suggested the horse needed eight to twelve months' rest to recover from the injury.

In early August, Manchio was notified that a post-race drug test from that June 2 race had come back positive for methocarbamol, which is a Class 4 substance and commonly used as a muscle relaxant to treat or prevent tying up. Manchio did not request to have the split sample tested. The horse was disqualified from his June win and Manchio was fined $1,000.

In the meantime, Food and Wine was still in training, posting a three-furlong workout on Sept. 25. Rosales contacted Delaware's regulatory veterinarian to schedule a time for a breeze to get the horse off the vet's list.

The stewards say Rosales ordered his horse be treated with Naquasone on Sept. 27. Naquasone contains a combination of trichlormethiazide (a diuretic) and dexamethasone acetate (a corticosteroid). On Sept. 27 and 28, Rosales also directed injections of dexamethasone to the horse, possibly to prepare for the workout scheduled for Oct. 3 before the state veterinarian.

The stewards' ruling also indicates the horse was given oral prednisolone and Naquasone in August.

The workout was not a success, as Food and Wine pulled up lame after going a half mile in :50.60. The horse remained on the veterinarian's list.

From there, Beverly Strauss, executive director of the MidAtlantic Horse Rescue, said she got a call from the horse's owner requesting she rehome the horse. Strauss listed him on CANTER, an online listing service designed to help source horses from the track straight to second careers. There were no takers, so Strauss pulled the listing and sent Food and Wine to MidAtlantic's lay-up facility. She said the gelding is doing well, but her organization will shoulder his costs for quite some time.

“The tendon is ugly but he is working fairly well on it,” she said. “We will give him a year off and then find him an appropriate home. He is very sweet and quite handsome.”

Glen Hill Farm's Craig Bernick, who bred Food and Wine, said he has been in touch with MidAtlantic and will be sending a donation to help cover the cost of the gelding's rehabilitation.

Delaware stewards cited several rule violations in the case against owner Rosales and listed trainer Linda Manchio, including the state's regulation against cruelty to horses. Rosales and Manchio were suspended 30 days and fined $2,500 for their roles in the incident, which stemmed from a complaint by an unidentified practicing veterinarian. Additionally, testimony at a stewards' hearing revealed Linda Manchio had not been at Delaware Park at all in 2021 and had left her barn in the care of her daughter, assistant trainer Belinda Manchio, who was also suspended 30 days and fined $1,000.

Linda Manchio has 18 starts this year, all but one of which were at the Delaware Park summer meet. Her first entry as a trainer came in 1976 according to Equibase, though riding and training records prior to that year have not been digitized. Manchio has saddled horses sporadically since 2000, taking a gap between 2003 and 2020.

Rosales, who became a licensed owner in 2019, has had 15 starts this year, coming entirely from three horses, including Food and Wine. One had already been claimed away from him at the time of the October ruling, and the other had changed hands sometime over the summer, going from the barn of Monica McGooey for Rosales to Manchio's barn for new owner Pink Ribbon Stable.

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