drugs | Horse Racing Free Tips

HISA Issues Updated Guidance On Intra-Articular Injections

The Anti-Doping and Medication Control Standing Committee (ADMC) of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (“HISA”) has re-considered the Intra-Articular injection rule and has issued new guidance regarding its enforcement.

HISA ADMC Rule 4222 prohibits Intra-Articular injections on Race Day, within 14 days prior to Post-Time and within seven days prior to any Timed and Reported Workout. Effective July 16, 2023, the Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit (HIWU) will sanction the Responsible Person of any Covered Horse that violates the prohibition on Intra-Articular injections within 7 days prior to a Timed and Reported Workout as follows (within a 365-day rolling period):

1st violation: $3,000 fine.
2nd violation: $6,000 fine, 10-day suspension.
3rd violation: $10,000 fine, 30-day suspension.
4th violation: $20,000 fine, 60-day suspension.
5th violation: $25,000 fine, 120-day suspension.

Beginning July 16, 2023, Covered Horses will not be subject to a period of ineligibility for violations of the Intra-Articular injections Workout rule or Race Day rule, unless multiple violations involving the same horse are incurred within the 365-day period.

Until this new guidance takes effect on July 16, and in accordance with guidance previously announced on June 26, the prohibition on Intra-Articular injections within 7 days prior to any Timed and Reported Workout will continue to be enforced only against the Covered Horse through the imposition of a period of ineligibility of 30 days. The sanctions associated with the prohibition on Intra-Articular Injections within 14-days prior to Post-Time have not been modified, other than the fact that the Covered Horse may not be suspended.

The full language of today's issued guidance, which was approved by the HISA ADMC Standing Committee and the HISA Board, can be found on HISA's website.

Under Rule 4222, the day of administration is considered day 1. A horse may breeze on day 8 following administration and may enter to race at any time, provided the race is on day 15 or later.

The post HISA Issues Updated Guidance On Intra-Articular Injections appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Feds Skewer Fishman’s Attempt to Avoid $13.5M Forfeiture

Federal prosecutors told a judge Friday that convicted veterinarian Seth Fishman's recent claim of illegality regarding the $13.5 million forfeiture imposed upon him “is predicated on a number of unfounded and easily disprovable presumptions.”

Fishman, who is currently imprisoned in Florida but appealing his 11-year sentence for two felony drug-supplying convictions in a decades-long international racehorse doping conspiracy, had stated in a Sept. 12 filing that the forfeiture order signed by the judge back on July 11 “is not authorized by statute and is therefore unlawful in its entirety.”

A response filing Sept. 30 by the legal team that successfully prosecuted Fishman stated that, “In arguing that the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) does not authorize forfeiture, the defendant elevates form over substance, ignores past precedent, and, in so doing, deliberately misreads the FDCA and several applicable forfeiture provisions to reach the defendant's desired outcome of avoiding forfeiture altogether.”

The filing by the feds also noted that at the time of his sentencing, “then-counsel for Seth Fishman contended that he wished to contest the amount of the forfeiture money judgment, not the basis for forfeiture itself.”

But shortly after his sentencing date, Fishman hired a new lawyer who now “wishes to revisit the availability of forfeiture entirely.” That new legal tactic has no merit, prosecutors contended.

“The defendant's strained reading of the law provides no support for his view that forfeiture is 'unlawful' in this case,” the government attorneys wrote.

Forfeiture “is lawful and mandatory; consequently the Court's forfeiture order entered at Fishman's sentencing should be left undisturbed,” the prosecutors wrote.

“The defendant argues in passing that the Government has not demonstrated that Fishman 'actually acquired' any forfeitable property,” the feds wrote. “The evidence that Fishman, the owner-operator of [the drug company] Equestology, controlled the adulterated and misbranded drugs subject to the forfeiture action is undisputable. So long as the defendant had control over the forfeitable property, which he did, he has acquired that property…”

Fishman had argued otherwise, writing in the Sept. 12 filing that “Misbranding is not a forfeiture crime. The misbranding statute under which the government seeks forfeiture against Dr. Fishman…only permits the government to confiscate the misbranded or adulterated products themselves and any equipment used to manufacture those products.”

The post Feds Skewer Fishman’s Attempt to Avoid $13.5M Forfeiture appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Parx-Based Trainer Pearce Hit With 1,950-Day Suspension

Trainer Penny Pearce has been issued a suspension of 1,950 days and fined $23,500 by the Pennsylvania Racing Commission after six horses under her care tested positive for clenbuterol during out-of-competition tests.

The penalties were announced after her barn at Parx was inspected June 22. During the inspection, investigators also found hypodermic needles, syringes and injectable substances. The suspension is scheduled to run from Sept. 11, 2022 through Jan. 12, 2028.

The Paulick Report was first with the story and has also reported that Pearce has filed an appeal.

Pearce began training in 2012 and, prior to 2021, never won more than 16 races in a year. During the 2012-to-2020 period, her winning rate was 11%. That changed in 2021 when she went 32-for-137 (23%). Her success has continued this year as she has posted a record of 23-for-84 (27%).

In June of 2021, Pearce reportedly hired former trainer Ramon Preciado as a groom. In 2016, Preciado's owner and trainer licenses were revoked after a horse he trained named Purcell (Jump Start) tested positive for clenbuterol in a post-race test. In the ruling covering Purcell, the racing commission noted that Preciado had a record of “multiple medication violations.” Despite Preciado's record of violations, the racing commission decided to grant him a groom's license and he went to work for Pearce.

The Pearce-trained horses that tested positive for clenbuterol were Mischievous Jones (Smarty Jones), Musamaha (Jack Milton), Relativlea (Lea), Call Me GQ (Weigelia), Market Maven (Super Ninety Nine) and an unnamed horse. Had there been just one clenbuterol positive, Pearce would have received a suspension of just 30 days. Instead, the commission used an escalating scale, with the number of days she was suspended increasing with each subsequent positive. For the sixth positive, she was suspended for 960 days.

“In accordance with ARCI medication and penalty guidelines, based upon the number of medication positives, the board of stewards finds aggravating circumstances in these matters,” the ruling reads.

In June, Monmouth Park stewards suspended Pearce for 15 days and fined her $500 after a horse she trained tested positive for clenbuterol following a May 29 race at the Jersey Shore track.

The post Parx-Based Trainer Pearce Hit With 1,950-Day Suspension appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Convicted Veterinarian Seth Fishman Was Hospitalized For Psychiatric Reasons During Trial

Dr. Seth Fishman was not present in a Manhattan court in the final days of his trial involving his role in manufacturing and distributing performance-enhancing drugs, an absence that had gone unexplained for months. But a motion issued Friday by his attorney Maurice H. Sercarz seeking an adjournment of his sentencing answered the question. On February 2, 2022, when the jury returned its verdict convicting Fishman, he was an inpatient in the psychiatric wing at Mt. Sinai Hospital West.

Fishman is scheduled to be sentenced Monday. Fishman was originally scheduled to be sentenced on May 5, but Sercarz has twice gotten the court to agree to a delay. His latest request for a delay is the first in which he raises the issue of Fishman's mental problems and delays in completing a report covering his medical and emotional issues.

Sercarz's filing painted a picture of a client who has battled mental health issues on an off for years and was first placed in a psychiatric unit at a New York hospital in 1996.

According to Sercarz's motion, on Feb. 18, Fishman was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals and taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) where he was placed in isolation for over a week and continued to be evaluated by mental health professionals. Additional time was needed for doctors at MDC to come up with a cocktail of medications that could help alleviate his condition.

Fishman remained locked up at MDC into the spring when Fishman and his family agreed to put the veterinarian through tests that would yield a psychological evaluation. On or about April 22, a doctor identified as Dr. Bardley was hired to conduct the evaluation. The process was delayed because Fishman was unable to sign some paperwork due to sporadic lockdowns at MDC.

Bardley conducted his first interview with Fishman on May 27. A follow-up appointment scheduled for June had to be canceled due to another lockdown at MDC. After still more problems, Bardley was able to conduct an evaluation with Fishman, who remains at MDC, on Thursday and submitted a draft of his report to Sercarz. Sercarz wrote that sentencing should be delayed until after Bardley and his staff have had a chance to complete and refine their report.

Sercarz is hoping that submission of Bardley's findings may lead to leniency when it comes to sentencing.

“While the defendant will seek a measure of leniency based upon matters relating to his mental health, we submit that the public will obtain a satisfactory understanding of the nature of the defendant's condition and the way in which it may influence the Court's judgment if limitations are imposed upon descriptions of the defendant's conditions,” the motion reads.

The jury found Fishman, 50, guilty of two counts of conspiring to violate adulteration and misbranding laws and the manufacture of PEDS administered to racehorses. He faces up to 20 years in a federal prison.

The post Convicted Veterinarian Seth Fishman Was Hospitalized For Psychiatric Reasons During Trial appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post