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Facing A Two-Year Suspension For Clenbuterol, Trainer Jeffrey Englehart Says They’ve Got The Wrong Guy

On the surface, the case against trainer Jeffrey Englehart seems pretty cut and dried. He had a horse test positive for Clenbuterol, the bronchodilator that is on the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit's (HIWU) list of banned substances. Trainers found using banned substances can be suspended for up to two years. But Englehart, who races at the NYRA tracks and at Finger Lakes, is adamant that he never gave the drug to the horse in question.

“We don't use Clenbuterol. Period,” Englehart said.

So is there more to this story? Dig a little deeper and you might conclude that there is. To Englehart, it's not about the fact that the horse tested positive. He doesn't dispute that finding. But when was the horse given Clenbuterol and by whom? He hopes the answers to those questions will clear his name and lead to HIWU dropping the case against him.

The horse that tested positive for Clenbuterol was an unnamed 2-year-old by Classic Empire out of Fast Heart. Englehart bought the horse on behalf of owner Marcello Rosa for $14,000 at the OBS auction June 15. The horse broke down while training and had to be euthanized at Finger Lakes Nov. 21.

Englehart's problems were just beginning.

HIWU performed a battery of tests on the deceased horse, including blood, urine and hair. The blood and urine tests were negative. According to Rick Arthur, former equine medical director for the California Horse Racing Board, a standard dose of Clenbuterol will typically be detectable in the blood for about three to four days after administration. For urine, the detection window would typically be between 10 to 17 days after administration.

But HIWU also performed a hair test, which revealed the presence of Clenbuterol. Englehart claims that hair tests can show the presence of the substance for up to a year after it was given to a horse. According to Arthur, Clenbuterol can be found in hair samples for at least six months after the drug was administered.

Dr. Rick Arthur | Horsephotos

“We've certainly seen Clenbuterol in hair up to six months,” said Arthur. “It could probably stay longer, we just haven't tried to look at it. We did a lot of hair testing for Clenbuterol in Quarter Horses at Los Alamitos. Trainers have contended that horses past six months have tested positive.”

After learning about how long after administration Clenbuterol can be found in a hair sample, Englehart started to do the math. The horse broke down exactly five months and six days after the purchase at OBS. That means, Englehart contends, that it is entirely possible that someone gave the horse the drug before he purchased it and that he could be suspended for something someone else did.

“(HIWU) say it's in the horse's system, so you are guilty,” said Englehart, who is still training while awaiting he results of the split sample test done on the Classic Empire colt. “It doesn't matter to them that it can stay in the system for up to a year and I only had the horse for less than six months. That's completely unfair. They are trying to upend my life.”

The unraced colt was sold for $4,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearling Sale Oct. 26, 2022. The consignor was Vinery Sales and the purchaser was Juan Centeno. The latter, who sells under the name of All Dreams Equine, turned around and put the horse in OBS June. It was one of five horses who successfully went through the ring, including a horse named She She's Shadow (Bucchero), who was also purchased by Englehart.

When asked if She She's Shadow was tested and what the results were, Alexa Ravit, the director of communications & outreach for HIWU, said in an email response to the TDN: “HIWU cannot comment on what horses have been sampled or their subsequent test results beyond what is published on our website in accordance with the ADMC Program's public disclosure requirements.”

Englehart's theory is that Centeno gave the Clenbuterol to the horse in hopes that it would help the colt have a fast pre-sale workout. The horse put in a two-furlong breeze in :22.

“I don't know the gentleman from All Dreams Equine,” Englehart said. “I just know it had to be him because I know it wasn't me.”

Centeno did not respond to emails, text messages and phone calls from the TDN requesting a comment.

Englehart alleged that Clenbuterol use is “rampant” at the 2-year-old sales.

“This horse was probably training on (Clenbuterol) right up to day he sold,” Englehart said. “It's very well known that Clenbuterol use is rampant at sales. Every trainer knows that. I think if they did a hair test on every horse 70 to 80 percent would be positive for Clenbuterol.”

Under OBS's conditions of sale, no medication may be administered within 24 hours of a horse's under-tack performance. Several specific medications may not be administered on the sales grounds or present in a test sample, including Clenbuterol. OBS tests around 10-15% of the horses who are going to sell, but does not do hair-sample tests, just blood and urine. This colt was not one of those randomly tested in June, the sales company said.

Tom Ventura | Patty Wolfe

When asked to elaborate on the sales company's rules regarding Clenbuterol, OBS President Tom Ventura said every step possible is taken to make sure that no horse in the sale has been given that particular drug.

“With our policy for bronchodilators, including Clenbuterol, we were ahead of the racing curve, because the sales companies have the ability within the conditions of sale to put policies in place maybe a little quicker than jumping through the regulatory hoops that are required at the racetracks,” Ventura said. “OBS, in October of 2019, prohibited bronchodilators. Period. In any animal at any level, in any type of sale.

“Since the very beginning of the tests, I think we had two early on who tested positive and didn't go through the ring, so two positives that we have had for Clenbuterol in four years. I know there weren't any in the last year. We test them as they're coming off the racetrack, and then the buyers have the right to test when they sign the sales ticket. We haven't had any returns for Clenbuterol from those tests.”

In limbo while awaiting the results of the split sample, Englehart has continued his own investigation. He believes the answer to his problems may lie in what is called a segmented drug test, which can provide a time line so far as when a drug was used.

According to the website cellmark.co.uk, by segmenting head hair samples into monthly one-centimeter sections, a month-by-month historic profile of drug use can be obtained. That goes for humans and horses.

If the segmented test shows that the Clenbuterol was administered prior to the day when Englehart bought the horse, it would seem to prove his point that someone else must have given the drug to the horse and lead, he believes, to him being exonerated.

Englehart has sent a hair sample off to the lab at Texas A&M and asked it to do a segmented test.

“I'm just hoping they look at the science and I don't have to do the suspension,” he said.

The problem is that he doesn't know if HIWU will also do a segmented test. Will they? Have they? HIWU won't say.

“HIWU cannot publicly comment on the specific facts of pending cases, including whether segmented analysis was conducted on samples taken from specific horses,” Ravit said in another email.

Finger Lakes | Sarah Andrew

That's not reassuring to Englehart, who points out that the problem extends beyond sales. Horses often change hands, whether being bought at auction, being claimed or being privately purchased, and if they test positive for Clenbuterol through hair tests it would be unfair to automatically penalize the person who had the horse at the time it tested positive.

“The average horseman who bought a horse or has a horse in their possession for only a short period of time, they can't be dropping the hammer on them when something can still show up in these tests after a year,” Englehart said. “You have to know when the horse was given the Clenbuterol.”

We posed this question to HIWU: “Could a horse be given Clenbuterol by someone prior to being transferred to a new trainer and test positive? That would mean the current trainer would be getting penalized for something someone else did. Is this a plausible scenario?”

Ravit's response did not answer that question.

“HIWU cannot comment on the specific questions regarding Englehart's pending case, including the samples collected and type of testing conducted on Fast Heart 2021, the expected timeline to receive the B Sample results, and the plausibility of his defense,” she wrote. “Additionally, HIWU cannot speculate on the adjudication of the hypothetical case you described, for the outcome would depend on the specific facts of the case.”

Englehart is worried that he is running short on time. Once the results of split sample are in and as long as it also shows the presence of Clenbuterol, he will be facing what could be an immediate suspension that can last as long as two years.

“I'm just hoping that the tests comes back and vindicates me,” he said. “I will fight this as hard as you can and take this as far as necessary. I'm ready to take it to the courts. Meanwhile, this has been a nightmare for me.”

Dan Ross contributed to this story.

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Sudden Equine Deaths: “This is so frustrating for us”

News out of Churchill Downs last week that two of trainer Saffie Joseph Jr's horses had collapsed and died within days of each other has reignited talk around one of the most confounding–and by extension, frustrating–issues in racing: sudden equine death.

More than four years ago in response to the death of GI-placed Bobby Abu Dhabi (Macho Uno)–what was initially suspected a sudden cardiac-related event–the TDN took a lengthy dive into the issue.

In a nutshell, sudden cardiac deaths oftentimes leave no discernable physical sign for pathologists to piece together a clear diagnostic picture–no major lesions, faulty valves, ruptured arteries or damaged heart tissue for them to point to with authority and say this or that caused the heart to stop.

In a well-considered study published in 2011 looking at post-mortem findings from 268 Thoroughbred racehorses that suffered exercise-related sudden deaths, pathologists made a definite diagnosis in only 53% of cases, a presumptive diagnosis in 25% cases, while 22% of cases were left unexplained. In humans, coincidentally, about one-third of sudden deaths are presumed to be cardiovascular-related but don't actually have any concrete diagnosis.

Veterinary experts remain after all these years largely circumspect when pressed as to exactly what causes these events in racehorses, with fingers pointed towards electrical abnormalities like arrhythmias, genetic predispositions, drug use and faulty valves of the heart.

“We're asking better questions and we're asking more questions,” said Dionne Benson, chief veterinary officer for 1/ST Racing, when asked why progress has been slow in better understanding sudden death cases in racehorses. “But we've just started to ask those questions the last few years.”

Causes
Part of the reason is the infrequency with which these events occur. This paper pinned the number at roughly one sudden death per 10,000 individual starts.

Last Friday, the TDN asked the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA)–mandated to record and report all equine fatalities at participating jurisdictions–how many sudden deaths have occurred since the law went into effect on July 1 last year. HISA did not provide an answer.

This study from last year found that sudden equine deaths were more likely during training than during racing, and horses with fewer lifetime starts were at higher risk.

“Exercise intensity appears not to be critically important in precipitating sudden cardiac death in horses,” the researchers summarized, before adding that typically, “sudden cardiac death occurred early in the careers of affected horses.”

A pivotal area of research surrounds so-called “electrical irregularities,” like arrhythmias (an irregular heartbeat), and heart murmurs (the presence of irregular heartbeat sounds).

Indeed, some 50% of racehorses experience cardiac arrhythmias when put under some kind of physical duress. That is one main reasons researchers out of the University of Minnesota are in the middle of a study of some 1,200 Thoroughbreds and Standardbreds with normal heart function at rest, but who develop arrhythmia during exercise.

“It's really hard to know for sure because when a horse dies, the electrical conductivity of the heart stops,” said Molly McCue, a professor and the associate dean for research at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine, explaining why there still remains no concrete scientific proof that electrical irregularities cause sudden cardiac death, even though most experts agree that these issues are key to getting to the root of the problem.

In this regard, many veterinary experts bemoan the fact that in this scientific arena, horse racing is in some regards the medieval cousin of human athletics, which has already been closely monitoring and studying the heart's electrical capabilities for many decades, meaning so much of the dynamic possibility of a racehorse's heart remains shrouded in mystery.

Back in early 2015, in a study encompassing 30 racehorses in California, none of the horses suffered arrhythmias, but the authors noted a post-exercise increase in what is called valvular regurgitation, which is when heart valves don't close properly, allowing blood to flow backwards in the heart.

About 20% of healthy Thoroughbreds have some degree of valvular regurgitation when examined–but again, any clinical significance is currently unknown.

Despite the vast body of cardiac research in human athletes, the National Institutes of Health has its eye on the Grayson-Jockey Club funded arrhythmia study “as an interesting model for what happens in young human athletes,” McCue said, with the occurrence of sudden death in horses far higher than in humans.

“The frequency in horses, it's about 10 times more common than it is in people,” McCue said.

Another fast-evolving area of interest concerns genetics. Human science has found a genetic connection to a higher risk of heart disease. In racehorses, any potential genetic correlation with a higher likelihood of sudden death is still largely at lift-off.

McCue and her fellow researchers are taking DNA samples from the same 1200 horses in the arrhythmia study to see if any genetic pattern emerges. McCue calls these two studies “a two-pronged effort” to identify early horses at higher risk of experiencing sudden death.

“One is the genetics, figuring out who is high-risk and who we need to screen and look at really critically. And then two, developing tools that can identify the horses this is most likely to happen in,” said McCue.

“Our hope is that if we can develop computer models that can predict if a horse is more likely to experience severe arrhythmias today, we can then pull that horse from racing,” McCue added.

Some heart problems among horses that suffer sudden death are much easier to diagnose–but structural abnormalities are rare. A 2011 paper found that about 1% of horses who die suddenly suffer a ruptured aorta, which is the largest artery in the body.

Which brings the story around to the presumed connection between drugs and sudden cardiac death–the touchpaper of any high-profile sudden death in racing.

Drugs
“Here's the problem,” said Rick Arthur, former CHRB equine medical director. “People watch CSI and they see them taking a fingernail clipping and they can tell you what you had for lunch three days ago. Life doesn't work that way.”

In other words: Unlike an episode of CSI: NY, which typically wraps with a neat conviction, investigations into sudden racehorse death rarely conclude as tidily, even when a link emerges with a suspected substance.

Just take the case of a Standardbred that died suddenly at Cal Expo in early 2014. The horse, Arthur said, was subsequently found to have abnormally high levels of cobalt (a naturally occurring element) in its system.

The trainer faced no punitive actions because the death occurred before the CHRB passed rules instituting cobalt thresholds in test samples, said Arthur, who equivocated on whether the horse's death could have been definitively linked to an administration of cobalt.

“The cobalt was so high that it could have been associated with it,” Arthur said. “But again, that's when we were suspicious of cobalt–we might have over-interpreted it. But it certainly was very high.”

A recent limited study on six Standardbreds found a possible connection between cardiac arrhythmias (including atrial fibrillation) and levothyroxine–a thyroid supplement linked to the sudden deaths of seven Bob Baffert trained horses between 2011 and 2013.

A subsequent CHRB report noted that the horses had been administered thyroxine, and that use of thyroxine is “concerning in horses with suspected cardiac failure.” However, the report also noted that, because the drug had been administered to all horses in Baffert's care, the use of thyroxine “does not explain why all the fatalities occurred.”

Arthur co-authored a paper finding a “very strong” connection between anticoagulant rodenticide exposure and an increased risk of sudden death during exercise from unusual hemorrhaging. Strong suspicions surround the bronchodilator clenbuterol, which has been proven to increase heart muscle. Iodine–commonly found in seaweed-based supplements—has also been linked to arrhythmia.

“Certainly there are other things. Horses can build up levels of selenium [a naturally occurring mineral] which can cause sudden death,” Benson said. “You can also have things in the feed like monensin [a polyether antibiotic toxic to horses].”

In human sports the rise of erythropoietin [EPO]–a synthetic form of a natural metabolic product that thickens the blood–was linked to the deaths of multiple young professional cyclists and other athletes. Has illicit EPO use in horseracing ever been linked to any sudden equine deaths?

“No–at least not in California,” said Arthur, who said that EPO would have the same effect in horses' blood by thickening it though increased blood cell count, a process called polycythemia.

But a diagnostic complication in this issue, Arthur added, is how horses are “natural blood-dopers because of their huge spleens.”

Virus
Springtime, of course, is equine virus hunting season. And viral infections are known to cause myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle.

“It's always a possibility,” said Francisco Uzal, coordinator of the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory post-mortem program for the CHRB, when asked if a viral infection could explain the two recent Joseph-trained sudden deaths.

Uzal added, however, that while he has never seen during any sudden death necropsy instances of severe myocarditis–which would show up under the under the microscope as large lesions–“we've found in a number of sudden-death horses really, really mild and minor myocarditis.”

More tellingly, said Uzal, is how the same minor heart lesions appeared in horses that didn't suffer sudden death events. “You see it in normal horses, too. So, what does it mean? Probably nothing,” he said.

“This is so frustrating for us,” Uzal added. “We go home empty-handed most of the time.”

Which leads to the finer points of the actual necropsy process. Even if a substance suspected of increasing the likelihood of sudden equine death shows up at what are presumed elevated levels during the necropsy process, it doesn't necessarily indicate a smoking gun.

Take thyroxine, an endogenous substance, meaning it's produced naturally inside the body and therefore harder to evaluate than a medication with its own specific pharmacological signature.

“When you do a test, you compare what you find with the normal values in a normal animal in a living horse. There are no normal values for dead horses,” said Uzal, highlighting how difficult it is to determine baseline levels for endogenous substances like thyroxine.

“But having said that, we have compared the thyroxine found in postmortem blood in sudden death horses with the same in normal horses, and we found no difference,” he said.

Helpful to better understanding the underlying causes of sudden cardiac death in racehorses would be if all necropsies were made equal.

Uzal co-authored a 2017 paper highlighting how “autopsy technique” varies depending on personnel and “institutional preferences.”

As Uzal puts it, “pathology is a science as well as an art. You talk to 10 different pathologists, you hear 10 different stories. We have tried very hard to standardize, and we are still fighting for it.” In this regard, could federal intervention be on its way?

HISA's racetrack safety rules require all horses that die or are euthanized on licensed grounds at all participating jurisdictions undergo a necropsy. But the rules appear broad and fail to mandate more specific uniform rules on necropsy protocols.

HISA did not respond to a series of questions on the issue of necropsies. This includes whether every horse that has died during racing and training at jurisdictions under HISA's oversight have undergone necropsy examinations, and whether HISA has indeed instituted uniform protocols or guidelines for the actual necropsy process.

Future
In a bid to fill in some of the glaring blanks surrounding sudden death, UC Davis has begun storing necropsy samples taken from sudden death horses in a large freezer to be retrieved and re-tested in the advent of more sophisticated analytical technologies.

“The other thing we do from each horse, we have multiple different containers. So, the idea is we can provide it to different people,” said Uzal.

More contemporaneously, Uzal and his team are poised to begin studying the training records of horses that suffer sudden cardiac deaths for any possible explanatory patterns.

“We want to see if there's something in the training that could give us a clue of what's happening,” said Uzal. “We want to see if it's possible–and I don't know if that's the right expression–but see if it's possible that some horses are trained to the point of exhaustion.

“I don't know the answer–it's pure speculation,” Uzal added. “It could be nothing, or it could be something.”

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‘A Significant Disconnect’: Equine Veterinarians Speak Out At California Veterinary Medical Board Meeting

California's equine veterinarians and its equine medical board need to have a meeting of the minds — that's the takeaway from a series of public comments ahead of the board's regularly-scheduled video conference meeting Jan. 19, where a large number of racetrack and sport horse practitioners dialed in to voice their concerns over the board's recent charges against racetrack licensees.

The most high-profile of the track veterinarians facing action against their veterinary license is California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) equine medical director Dr. Jeff Blea, whose license was suspended at an emergency hearing by the board on Christmas Eve. Blea is accused of failing to perform adequate examinations of horses prior to prescribing drugs to them, as well as lacking in record-keeping and other areas of the state's veterinary practice law. He has since been placed on administrative leave as the case plays out. Blea isn't the only one facing charges – Drs. Vince Baker, Sarah Graybill Jones, Kim Lewis Kuhlmann, Steven Lee Boyer, and Kenneth Carl Allison also had accusation documents filed against them in 2021 with similar charges. Only Blea's case has resulted in an emergency hearing.

Many in the racing industry have, publicly and privately, questioned the motivation of the veterinary medical board in its pursuit of charges against Blea, as well as its public presentation of the charges as being relevant to Blea's work in overseeing the death of Medina Spirit at Santa Anita in December. (We ran this letter to the editor from trainer Richard Mandella earlier this week testifying to the conditioner's relationship with Blea before he retired from racetrack practice.)

Speakers during the public comment period of the veterinary medical board meeting Jan. 19 did not get into the specifics of Blea's case or mention him by name, but most suggested that the regulations under which the board filed an accusation document against him were outdated and ill-suited to equine practice.

“Not every veterinary practice in this state is conducted on small animals in four-walled hospitals,” said Dr. Rick Arthur, retired racetrack practitioner and former equine medical director for CHRB. “The California Veterinary Medical Board regulations do not reflect the standard of practice, the high standard of practice in ambulatory practice in California, which makes it easy for this board to play 'Gotcha.' That has to change.”

“The scope and tone of the charges on your website are extreme, and they don't' appear to be based on any knowledge of the standards of equine practice in this state,” said Dr. Michael Manno, racetrack veterinarian with San Dieguito Equine Group. “I can tell you that if you can suspend a license based on these accusations and complaints, most of the veterinarians that practice equine medicine in this state might as well hand in their licenses right now.”

Dan Baxter, executive director of the California Veterinary Medical Association, voiced the organization's concern about whether the regulations are in touch with business practices.

“On the heels of recent enforcement action taken by the veterinary medical board, the CVMA has received emails and phone calls from numerous members practicing within the California equine community concerning the board's interpretations of minimum practice standards and enforcement of those standards,” he said. “We fear that there may be a significant disconnect between the reasonable, sound practice standards observed by equine practitioners in the field and the standards to which those same practitioners are being held by the board.

“Without a meeting of the minds between this board, the body interpreting and enforcing the legal standards of practice, and the equine practitioners subject to that enforcement, the CVMA is deeply concerned that equine veterinary practice within the state of California, already a profession in which the supply of qualified clinicians is limited, may be further gutted due to the departure of practitioners unwilling to subject their licenses or livelihoods to the vagaries of a framework that does not reflect the standard of practice observed by the equine veterinary community in this state.”

Dr. Russ Sakai, surgeon at Petaluma Equine, agreed and also expressed concern about what these types of regulatory actions may mean for veterinary students.

“There is a lack of veterinarians graduating and coming into equine practice,” said Sakai. “I think it's difficult to recruit veterinarians at the student level, especially when they see equine veterinarians being subjected to this sort of what appears to be unfair treatment, or being treated with a double standard by a group of members that seem to have not a very thorough understanding of equine practice.”

After hearing the feedback, veterinary board vice president asked the California Veterinary Medical Association to submit a presentation to the board outlining their concerns about the state's Veterinary Practice Act as applied to equine medicine and any regulatory proposals they had to remedy those issues.

There were no specific cases set to be discussed by board members during the public portion of the meeting on Jan. 19 or during a follow-up meeting scheduled for Jan. 20.

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CHRB Investigative Reports Add Details to NYRA’s Amended Charges Against Baffert

In a press release Monday, the New York Racing Association (NYRA) announced that it had amended its ongoing Statement of Charges issued against trainer Bob Baffert to include a pair of positive tests for phenylbutazone (bute) in 2019 in California and a subsequent inspection of the trainer's barn which allegedly uncovered an unlocked medication cabinet, improperly labeled medications and the presence of unsecured phenylbutazone paste.

NYRA has charged Baffert with engaging in conduct detrimental to the best interests of racing and has sought to temporarily ban the trainer from its tracks. A hearing on the matter is scheduled to begin Jan. 24.

Dr. Rick Arthur, who was the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) equine medical director at the time of the 2019 violations, told TDN Monday that barn inspections are “routine” after a post-race medication positive, and that there is no regulatory requirement for drug cabinets to be locked, even though the board strongly encourages medications to be securely stored.

Arthur also explained that the proper labeling of medications is primarily the veterinarian's responsibility, and that a crucial question is: What were the mislabeled drugs?

“If it's Gastrogard tubes out of the box,” said Arthur Monday, pointing to a commonly used ulcer medication, “it's a technical violation, and not a serious one at all. If it was serious, an official warning or complaint would have been filed against either the trainer or the dispensing veterinarian.”

The investigation reports for the barn inspections–obtained through a California Public Records Act (CPRA) request–shed some light on the nature of NYRA's amended complaint but fail to answer the issue of what the mislabeled drugs actually were.

No subsequent warnings or complaints were filed against either Baffert or the attending veterinarian, Dr. Vince Baker, however.

The Del Mar barn inspection identified by the NYRA press release pertains to the one conducted Aug. 16, after the Baffert-trained Eclair (Bernardini) tested positive for bute after finishing 4th at Del Mar Aug. 3. Baffert was fined $1,500. Eclair tested positive with 2.88 micrograms per milliliter (ug/mL) of bute in her system.

According to the report, the investigator found “25 different kinds of medications that are not properly labeled and expired. There is no lock on the medication cabinet however the tack room door has lock capabilities. Dr. Vince Baker advised he would be taking care of the situation.”

According to the report, Baker told the investigator he did not know how Eclair tested positive for bute. “Baffert stated he thinks someone is intentionally giving bute to his horses and mentioned that he would be offering a reward to help solve the case,” the report added.

According to the report, Baker told the investigator he had treated Eclair no later than 10:30 am two days before the race.

Baker also told the investigator that he treated other Baffert runners with bute the following day, but that he “does not believe he inadvertently treated 'Eclair' by mistake,” according to the report.

The CHRB conducted a separate inspection of Baffert's Del Mar barn Aug. 10, after Cruel Intention (Smiling Tiger) tested positive for bute after finishing 3rd at Del Mar July 27 in the Real Good Deal S.

Baffert was fined $500. Cruel Intention tested positive with 0.51 ug/mL of bute in his system.

In light of the Santa Anita welfare crisis the spring of 2019, the CHRB reduced just months earlier the permissible level of race-day bute from 2 ug/mL to a level of non-detect.

Six days prior to the second barn inspection, the CHRB investigator found “expired medications and those that were up to date were properly labeled. There is no lock on the medication cabinet however the door has lock capabilities,” according to the inspection report.

According to the report, Baker told the investigator he treated three of Baffert's horses at the same time with bute, “and does not know why only one horse [Cruel Intention] tested positive for it.”

The two inspection reports can be read here and here.

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