Trainer Rohan Crichton, suspended by Gulfstream Park management for alleged violations of house rules restricting the use of clenbuterol, said he is awaiting word from officials at Keeneland on whether his 4-year-old stakes-placed filly Bajan Girl can enter the Grade 1, $500,000 Juddmonte Spinster Stakes Oct. 10 at the Lexington, Ky., track. The Spinster is a Breeders' Cup Challenge Series Win and You're In race granting a fees-paid berth in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Distaff, to be held at Del Mar on Nov. 6.
“I will run if they let me,” Crichton told the Paulick Report on Tuesday, “but they haven't told me yet if they'll let me.”
The suspension of Crichton, along with trainers Georgina Baxter, Daniel Pita, Peter Walder and Gilberto Zerpa, came on Oct. 1 after horses in their stables had hair and blood samples tested out of competition. Clenbuterol was detected in 12 horses from the five trainers in violation of Gulfstream Park house rules. Horses from five other stables tested clean.
Because Florida does not have a racing commission, many regulations governing the sport are done via a track's house rules. Included in Gulfstream's house rules are the regulations on use of clenbuterol, a bronchodilator that can have anabolic steroidal affects on horses.
Unlike rulings from a racing commission or board of stewards, suspensions under house rules, more accurately called exclusions under a track's private property rights. are not automatically reciprocated from state to state. For example, though trainer Bob Baffert was notified of a two-year suspension by Churchill Downs officials after Medina Spirit's positive test for betamethasone in this year's Kentucky Derby, Baffert has not been denied entries in California.
Keeneland's media notes on Sunday and Monday listed Bajan Girl as “probable” to run in the Spinster, but on Tuesday her name was not on the list of probable starters.
A statement on the matter from Keeneland said: “We are in the process of obtaining information regarding the reported suspensions from Gulfstream Park so Keeneland is in a position to make an informed decision about race entries. As you know, and as is clear from our actions for 85 years, Keeneland continues to work in furtherance of our mission to perpetuate the best in Thoroughbred racing, which definitely includes fair competition and integrity.”
Keeneland's Fall 2021 Condition Book contains a clause under “special notices” stating, “At the discretion of the stewards, and without notice, the entires of any person, or acceptance or transfer of any entries, may be refused.”
A 4-year-old filly by Speightstown owned by Robert Slack and Daniel Walters, Bajan Girl is winless in five starts this year and is 3-for-13 lifetime. Two starts back she finished second in the Grade 3 Molly Pitcher Stakes at Monmouth Park. She most recently breezed a half mile in :47.75 on Oct. 3 at Gulfstream Park.
Entries for the Spinster are taken on Thursday.
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