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.

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Kadyrov, the Head of the Chechen Republic, was added to the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office Of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)'s list for his record of serious human rights abuses in 2017. Seemar, who trained the 2018 G1 Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3 victor North America (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) for Kadyrov, was put on the list due to his connection with Kadyrov on Dec. 10, 2020.

“The status of Mr. Seemar's license will be reviewed by the ERA upon the resolution of his status with the United States Government,” the ERA said in a statement.

Seemar's string based out of Zabeel Stables will in the meantime be handled by his assistant, Bhupat Seemar.

“I have been informed by the Emirates Racing Authority that they are suspending my license temporarily, with immediate effect,” Seemar said in statement. “This is due to one of my former clients [Kadyrov] being included on the United States OFAC list. I have been placed on the list due to training the horse.

“The horse in question, North America, is no longer in training at Zabeel Racing Stables, and has been exported from the UAE. My case has been submitted to lawyers in Washington DC and I am confident my name will be removed from the list in the near future.

“Bhupat Seemar will be holding the license until further notice and he and the excellent team at Zabeel Stables will endeavor to uphold the high standards we have maintained throughout the past 30 years.”

OFAC said of Seemar at the time of his designation, that he “has materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial material, or technological support for, or goods and services to or in support of, Kadyrov.”

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Most new licensees start out hungry for that one lionheart of any stripe to announce their arrival. Those trainers who are routinely sent the big weekend warriors learn to acquire a more refined palate, to remodulate their ambitions accordingly.

But scant few are fortunate enough to have harnessed the sort of thunderbolt that doesn't just electrify a trainer's career but leaves a patch of scorched earth for posterity. And really, how many ever expect to?

In part one, we deconstructed some of the scaffolding of the Shirreffs training philosophy-today, we take a peek beneath these outer-workings.

And where better to start than with a horse who, for three years between November of 2007 and October of 2010, danced her way to a 19-race win-streak that encompassed 14 Grade Is before signing off with a narrow defeat in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Churchill Downs, the collective groan to which still resonates today.

“She was difficult,” said John Shirreffs of Zenyatta (Street Cry {Ire}), as though narrating her movie trailer. “She was very difficult.”

For one, the shell was ill-designed for the engine, with back-end problems and creaky joints a source of constant headaches. “We had to be really careful with her,” Shirreffs continued. “I don't know how she did it. She overcame so much.”

Nor did it help that she was wired with an electric current, evident from the moment she pranced off the horsebox and into the Shirreffs barn at Hollywood Park that looked out onto the old training track.

“She was very highly strung and very nervous on the track. At the start, I don't know how many times I saw her drop the rider and come running back to the barn,” he said. “So yeah, she was difficult.”

By the time the 2008 GI Vanity H. at Hollywood Park rolled around, personality quirk was devolving into vice–she washed out in the preliminaries, all jittery nerves and sweat, before dispensing with her rivals in unusually grueling fashion.

“Almost cost us the race,” admitted Shirreffs, about her pre-race antics. “That's when we realized we needed to do something on the racetrack to conserve her energies.”

Shirreffs pressed reset, stood her by the quarter pole every day. Why there? “From the quarter pole, it was only an eighth of a mile walk to the gate,” he said. Stretched and supple from her parade-ring yoga, Zenyatta needed no warm-up.

“And while all the other horses were warming up, we'd stand her just to conserve her energy.”

Her next race–the GII Clement L. Hirsch H. at Del Mar–was won in customarily graceful fashion, setting a Polytrack record in the process.

“I'll have to go back to the basics.”

Superstition runs like the Nile Delta through any backstretch, with good fortune sought from many an idol, false or not-voodoo amulets nailed to the wall, lucky socks, the empty stall nearest the office reserved for the trainer's next oracle.

Shirreffs, however, appears less than dogmatic about one of the staple deities of the track-old father time, whose avatar is the trusty stopwatch. “I don't even clock my horses any more,” he said.

“What makes everybody excited? Speed. You're watching your horse work and, 'wow, we went in :23. My goodness, he's going that fast.' But the stopwatch is like a treat, right? It can give you a lot of satisfaction-but that's all it is, a treat. I think that will never change.”

Nor is he beholden to the rigid sanctity of the morning set-list. Just take Life is Sweet (Storm Cat), the 2009 GI Breeders' Cup Ladies Classic winner, a veritable sleeping beauty who Shirreffs sent out for morning exercise only when she deemed the hour ripe to rise, yawn and stretch.

And once again, patience is the key virtue when it comes to returning sheen to tarnished reputation. Or as Shirreffs puts it: “Is that not the joy of training, having fun with different personalities, doing something that'll help them bridge that gap?”

No finer example of that can be found than in Morning Line (Tiznow), a Grade I winner on the East Coast whose career had jack-knifed. Two starts after claiming pole position the GI Carter H. at Aqueduct, he brought up the rear in the GI Whitney H. at Saratoga. Jim Stark in need of a cause.

Indeed, when Morning Line arrived in California, “He would just go to the outside fence and he wouldn't move,” Shirreffs explained, about the son of Tiznow's black mood of a morning. “I didn't know what to do. So, I thought to myself, 'well, I guess I'll have to go back to the basics.'”

Back to basics isn't a euphemism for a few weeks of jogging or tack-walking around the shedrow. No, this was the equivalent of sending Einstein back to grade school.

“We would put the driving reins on him and drive him around the racetrack,” said Shirreffs, of the foundation stone of the rebel's rehabilitation.

When Morning Line became accustomed to the driving reins, then a rider was put on. When he acclimatized to both driver and rider, they increased the pace–a performance that necessitated a relay race, where the more athletic members of the Shirreffs Olympic team would be situated around the track, ready to be handed the driving reins from their rubber-legged counterparts.

“Pretty soon, it got to the point where we just started him with the driving reins, and then the rider would let go of them and carry on like usual,” said Shirreffs.

On his first start post Betty Ford, Morning Line won the GII Mervyn LeRoy H. at Hollywood Park, and two starts later, finished third in the GI Triple Bend H.

A more timely war of perseverance concerned the recently-retired Hard Not to Love (Hard Spun).

A one-eyed bag of nerves. “She obviously needed to see what was going on, so when she got nervous and upset, she just she'd have to spin around and spin around.” Shirreffs experimented with a mirror in her stall, an optical illusion for the optically challenged. “It made all the world of difference.”

Still, Hard Not to Love had a greater phobia to overcome if she were ever to make her mark. “She was terrified of the gates. Absolutely terrified,” he said.

In a nod to Hansel and Gretel, Shirreffs built a starting gate from straw. “But she'd just run through it, and then she wouldn't want to go back.” Then came an eureka moment–the same straw replica of the starting gate, but positioned around the entrance to her stall.

“So, when she went through it, tried to run, she could only go to the back wall-it made all the difference.” Indeed, the daughter of Hard Spun ended up winning the GI La Brea S. at Santa Anita, cementing herself a star of the West Coast distaff division.

“Let them drink as much as they want the first time”

Not all idiosyncrasies are created equal, however, and as anyone who sweats the details can attest, even a small realignment of the daily routine can suddenly unlock the vault. But in Express Train (Union Rags), Shirreffs is rewarded the long game.

Indeed, the improving son of Union Rags recently ran a career high when finishing second in the GI Santa Anita H., a race that once was a high-tide mark on the calendar, but in its sublimation by other dueling interests has become a barometer to the shifting fashions of the West.

It's instructive to hear Shirreffs's commentary of these changing fads, some of it dusted with nostalgia, like a hankering for the journey-man days of the old California circuit. Or a time when the backstretch community dispensed horse-sense like penny toffies.

“I was new to the track, and one day I remember Don Porter, a great trainer up North, he saw me walking into the receiving barn to give a horse a drink.

“He said, 'John, just remember the first drink a horse takes will be its biggest drink in there. So, let them drink as much as they want the first time, because otherwise they're not going to rehydrate themselves well enough.' I mean, back then people helped each other.”

Has that changed?

“I don't see a lot of that going on now,” Shirreffs replied.

Some have a historical bent, observations that betray hokey bygone truths–like the way he and others once used arsenic to stimulate the appetite and on bandages to cool the legs. “I used to use a lot of lead to help cool the legs, as well.”

Some of it reflects shifting industry winds. “I think the jockeys are fitter now than they were before. As soon as the gate opens, it's like, 'go, go, go,' right? There's more pressure on jockeys to perform all the time and in every race.”

Fitter jockey, tougher race. “Back when I started, people didn't expect the horse to win first time out-they expected the horse to have a couple of races and eventually race himself into shape. The demands on the horse are, I think, a lot higher now than they were, so we've had to adjust.”

Telling are those trainers he holds in high regard. “I think Neil Drysdale's a really good trainer,” said Shirreffs. “I think he's one of those people that understands horses and doesn't overtrain, tries to get along with them. The trouble is, he's English!

“I think Bobby Frankel was another great trainer. His approach, I thought, was always interesting. Another one who wouldn't over face them.”

Is there a connecting thread between these names? “All these trainers, I think, they just love their horses.”

If there's another, then surely it pertains to the little things. Which brings us full circle to Giacamo (Holy Bull), the horse that gave the Shirreffs name its international flavor.

The day before the 2005 GI Kentucky Derby was a lazy and warm spring Kentucky morning. Shirreffs was in the paddock schooling his great white hope, Giacomo, when the son of Holy Bull twisted off a shoe.

“We had to get him back to the barn to get re-shod, but Giacomo had very shallow feet–he really didn't have strong feet–and as you know at Churchill Downs, it's very gravely.”

Shirreffs dispatched the exercise rider to the barn, who returned with a bandage that they used to swaddle the foot, carefully led him back to the barn. The next day, Giacomo won the Derby at 50-1.

It can be all too easy to dismiss anecdotes like this as insignificant–just one of a million incidental decisions made along the winner's path. “Just doing those little things, you know, they don't seem like they're really important,” admitted Shirreffs.

But we need look no further than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle–he of Sherlock Holmes fame, with the microscope eye-for redress: It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.

“I mean,” Shirreffs added, in explanation, “were it not for what we did, he probably wouldn't have won the Derby, right?”

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“He really looked into the soul of a horse,” said David Abrams, Barry Abrams’s brother. “He had horses run that didn’t run for anybody else.”

Abrams had battled throat cancer for more than 15 years.

“He never once complained about what he was going through,” said trainer Richard Baltas, Abrams’s former assistant. “He helped people who were less fortunate than him and was one of the good guys at the track.”

From hard-scrabble beginnings–“One of the underdogs. The little guy with a small stable,” said David–Abrams left an indelible stamp on the sport in the Golden State. From just over 6,000 individual starts, he secured 688 victories and more than $30 million in prize money.

His top-tier prizes included Famous Digger (Quest for Fame {GB})’s win in the 1997 GI Del Mar Oaks, the 2008 GI Las Virgenes S. with Golden Doc A and the 2010 GI Hollywood Turf Club S. with Unusual Suspect–the latter two by Unusual Heat, the remarkable lynchpin stallion of the California breeding industry who Abrams also conditioned.

“He was brilliant with his claims,” said David, of his brother. “He claimed two horses from Richard Mandella. One became a Grade I winner [Famous Digger], the other one was Unusual Heat. He saw in Unusual Heat what other people didn’t–they thought he was crazy claiming a 6-year-old with potential bowed tendon. He said, ‘the horse is worth what I’m claiming him for as a sire.'”

Abrams remained a minority owner of Unusual Heat, who stood at the Harris Ranch in Coalinga, and eventually became the all-time leading sire in California through his offsprings’ earnings.

“Barry was a remarkable horseman and a real horse whisperer. He was also a master at navigating the racing office, which I think is a lost art in trainers,” said Harris Auerbach, managing partner of the Unusual Heat Syndicate.

“He taught me an awful lot about horsemanship, about gamesmanship and about life,” Auerbach added. “He was just a giving, caring, remarkable man.”

Over the years, Abrams hewed closely to the ethos, “you don’t get paid for workouts,” becoming synonymous with moderately bred horses who earned their supper on the track.

“I remember a horse called Bengal Bay, one of the first horses we were successful with. He ran it three times in nine days,” said David. “Even [trainer] Roger Stein, who Barry worked for, criticized him for doing it. The horse won by six lengths at Hollywood Park on the third trip. That horse just loved to run.”

Beyond Abrams’s chronicled deeds that are now stamped into the dust of racing posterity, many point to a largesse and generosity of spirit that encompassed all, the less fortunate and the blue collar everyman that constitute racing’s rank and file.

“Anybody could walk up to Barry and be part of the family,” said David. “At Del Mar he had an area where he sat–it was a table around which sat a bunch of guys, just the common gambler. Folks just having fun. There’s Barry with a Grade I horse, and he doesn’t go to the director’s room. He sat back down there and made sure his family was all taken care of.”

Whether it was gamblers or racetrack patrons or those he’d known for years, “Barry felt obligated to help them out when they needed it,” said Auerbach. “He would give anybody the shirt off his back–he was that kind of guy.”

Abrams’s father was a Polish holocaust survivor, his mother a Russian economist. The family emigrated to the U.S. in 1963. “We came with nothing,” said David.

If their mother had her way, Abrams would have charted a course into the less exotic realms of certified public accountants. But he caught the gambling bug early. “My mom almost had a heart attack when he quit school, laid carpet, then became a groom,” said David.

Abrams took out his training license in 1975. “When he first started, he only had I think four horses, and didn’t have a groom. He did everything himself. He lost 28 pounds that first summer he trained on his own,” said David. “He just had a passion for horse racing.”

He also had a passion for the Lakers and wasn’t shy about advertising it–the stakes-winning Lakerville, who he part-owned with the Auerbachs, would go on to earn more than $300,000 on the track.

“We asked the nurse last night to put the Lakers game on,” said David. “Ten minutes after they lost he passed away.”

“He was a fighter,” David added. “He knew. I saw him two days before and he knew. He wanted to tell everybody how much he loved them all, and how much we all meant to him.”

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Daily Racing Form reported the cause of death as numerous health issues complicated by a recent hospitalization for COVID-19.

According to a 2010 profile in the Evansville Courier & Press, Montano arrived in Louisville at age 17, taking a three-day bus ride from his native Mexico City after his contract as a jockey was purchased by a Kentucky-based owner. But he was hurt in a spill while galloping a horse in the morning and never rode in a race.

Montano rose through the ranks on the backstretch and in 1961 started training on his own, earning a reputation for being able to bring out the best in cheaper horses. He was admired and respected by backside employees and horse owners alike for treating his animals and other people with dignity and respect.

Despite keeping relatively small stables, over the decades Montano won three seasonal training titles at Churchill Downs, five at old Miles Park in Louisville, four at old Latonia (now Turfway Park), and four at Ellis Park, according to the Courier & Press feature story.

On the 1995 GI Kentucky Derby undercard, the Montano-trained Goldseeker Bud, a 20-1 long shot, upset the previous year’s Derby champ, Go For Gin, in the GIII Churchill Downs H. It was the only graded-stakes score of Montano’s nearly 60-year career.

“I can’t ask for any better,” Montano told the Courier & Press in 2010.”I’ve got my wife and seven kids, who all graduated from college and are doing great. And I’ve got my horses and friends. The racetrack has been good to me. The horse business can be good to me. It’s been a good life.”

Montano’s wife of 58 years, Patricia, also known as “Mom Pat,” predeceased him in 2018.

Visitation hours are Oct. 7 from 2-8 p.m. at Ratterman Brothers Funeral Home, 12900 Shelbyville Road in Louisville (this is the East Louisville location; please note there are two Rattermans locations in the city). A funeral service will be held Oct. 8 at 10 a.m., with details to be posted here.

Montano’s family is asking for memorial gifts in his honor to be donated to the Backside Learning Center at Churchill Downs.

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Max Player’s unique journey to the top started early on when he failed to meet his reserve at Keeneland September, RNAing for $150,000. Sent to Rice in late May of his 2-year-old season, the lanky bay did not show his trainer much in the mornings.

“As a 2-year-old, he was a bit of an enigma as he did not show much ability or talent,” Rice said from her beautifully decorated office beside Barn 44 at Belmont. “I had to explain to George Hall on multiple occasions that Max Player was making progress, but it was slow and steady. I really couldn’t tell him how much ability this horse had. We finally got him as far along as we could and we put him in a race at Parx, trying to give him an easier race to start out with, and he showed a big, closing kick, which he has done in all of his races at this point, like his father, Honor Code.”

The main word that could be used to describe Max Player’s Nov. 12 debut at Parx is green. Racing wide and at the back of the pack most of the way, the George Hall colorbearer came flying late to be second by a half-length. Back in at Parx Dec. 17 going a mile in the slop, Max Player made good on the promise he showed in his unveiling, unleashing a powerful late turn of foot to win going away by 4 1/4 lengths.

That victory gave Rice the confidence to run Max Player back home in New York, entering him in the Feb. 1 GIII Withers S. over nine furlongs at Aqueduct. Sitting off the pace again, but a bit closer than his previous races, the sophomore powered past his competition in deep stretch for a 3 1/4-length success (video).

After Max Player rallied to victory in the Withers, Rice had her eye on the GII Wood Memorial S. in early April, choosing to take the New York route to the GI Kentucky Derby. While Rice’s star colt certainly had her dreaming of roses, he also had her thinking further ahead to the Test of a Champion. However, the leading conditioner did not envision that this would be the route she would take to get there.

Enter COVID-19. Racing was halted in New York in mid-March and the entire world was put on pause. This forced Rice to not only call an audible, but to call them just about daily as the pandemic kept racing in a state of constant fluctuation.

“After we won the Withers, we were pointing towards the Wood Memorial,” Rice said. “It would have given him a two-month break and it was run on the same track, Aqueduct, where he won the Withers and was at a mile and an eighth. That was canceled because of the pandemic and we were training towards something.”

The horsewoman continued, “With racing canceled in New York, we discussed going to the [GI] Arkansas Derby [May 22] and the [GIII] Matt Winn [S. May 23], but elected to wait for racing to open up in New York. It looks like there will be a lot of opportunity from this point forward and we didn’t want to travel our horse and wear him out before then.”

Racing finally returned to the Empire State June 3 and the Belmont was pushed from its original June 6 date to June 20. In addition, it was shortened from 1 1/2 miles to 1 1/8 miles. In keeping with the topsy turvy nature of 2020, the Belmont had also now become the first leg of the Triple Crown instead of the last as the GI Kentucky Derby was moved to Sept. 5 and the GI Preakness S. was pushed to Oct. 3.

“I think he will be fine at1 1/8 miles and I think he would have been fine at 1 1/2 miles,” Rice said. “But coming off a five-month layoff, I am glad it is 1 1/8 miles. I think that is a distance that more horses are able to compete at.”

Max Player will break from post three on Saturday with Joel Rosario in the irons for the first time. Rosario looks for back-to-back Belmont wins after capturing last year’s renewal with Sir Winston (Awesome Again). He also won the race in 2014 with Tonalist (Tapit).

“I think Joel is going to fit the horse very well,” Rice said. “Joel has won a lot of Grade Is and most of them have been at a route of ground. He won the Belmont last year with Sir Winston and a few years back with Tonalist. So, I think he fits this horse really well. He is very good on a strong closer.”

Max Player will still be coming from behind in Saturday’s test, but, Rice said she believes he will be closer than he was in his past races. The colt has matured into his large frame, making him quite impressive to look at, and has also made quite a bit of progress in his training during quarantine. He enters the Belmont off a six-furlong breeze on the main track in 1:12.25 June 13.

“I am hoping they will set an honest pace in front of him,” Rice said. “I don’t think he will be as far back as he was in his earlier races. He has more tactical speed than he used to.”

Rice has been asked many times over the past week what it would be like to be the first woman to win a Triple Crown race. While Rice has been breaking down doors for females in the racing industry for decades, such as becoming the first woman to win a Saratoga training title and the first to win a Grade I at Keeneland, the third-generation conditioner prefers to focus on what a Belmont victory would mean for her as a trainer.

“Everyone would love to be on the Triple Crown trail, man or woman,” said Rice, who secured her 2,000th win in January. “It is very exciting to have a horse you really want to run and that you know can get the distance. I’ve won seven training titles in New York, but I’ve never won a Triple Crown race, so we are hoping to get that done.”

At the Belmont draw Wednesday, Rice said they had just not given women enough time to win a Triple Crown race. But, with Rice’s knowledge and diligence and Max Player’s ever-improving talent, the time may just be now.

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