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Vazquez Remains Eligible to Race at NYRA Tracks…For Now

Trainer Juan Vazquez has been granted a stay of a recent suspension handed down by the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission, which will allow him to continue to race at the NYRA tracks for the time being. He has three horses entered on Thursday's card at Aqueduct.

However, NYRA issued a statement Saturday in which it said it will consider filing charges against Vazquez, which could lead to his being banned.

Vazquez received two consecutive 15-day suspensions after two of his horses tested positive for the dewormer levamisole in races at Parx. One, Hollywood Talent (Talent Search), tested positive after winning the GIII Turf Monster S. at odds of 108-1.

Because NYRA is affiliated with the state of New York, a court ruled in the Bob Baffert matter that it cannot ban trainers without adequate due process. Since the court decision, it has gone ahead with a hearing for Baffert and another, for Marcus Vitali, is scheduled for next month.

“Since Juan Vazquez was granted a stay of the Pennsylvania suspension, he retains his license to participate in New York,” the statement read. “In the July decision, and in subsequent rulings, the court was clear that NYRA is required to provide adequate due process prior to revoking privileges to participate at NYRA tracks. To refuse entries or prohibit Mr. Vazquez from accessing the property, for example, are actions that NYRA could take against a licensed trainer only after he is provided satisfactory due process. That process is deliberative and not immediate, which is why Juan Vazquez is permitted to participate at NYRA while he appeals his suspension in Pennsylvania. Any suspension handed down in Pennsylvania will be reciprocally implemented in New York and Vazquez will be suspended from participating in all racing activities at NYRA tracks for the duration of the suspension. NYRA is gathering information that could inform a statement of charges and subsequent hearing, should that be required.”

Vazquez has numerous suspensions and violations on his record. In one ruling, issued in 2017 in Pennsylvania, it was noted that Vazquez had eight drug positives during a 23-month period.

Vazquez has maintained a stable at Parx and in New York this year. He is just 2-for-22 (9%) at Parx while going 7-for-30 (23%) at the Big A.

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KHRC Vacates Levamisole Rulings Against Sharp

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission has vacated the sanctions it imposed on trainer Joe Sharp following five positive tests for levamisole in horses who ran at Churchill Downs in November 2019. A KHRC ruling issued Thursday and first reported by Blood-Horse, read, “Due to the de-classification of levamisole in August 2015 by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, all penalties previously assessed to Owner/Trainer Joe Sharp in Stewards' Rulings #21-0006, #21-0008, #21-0010, #21-0011 and #21-0012 are hereby vacated.”

Sharp was suspended 30 days and fined $2,500 by the KHRC last January for the levamisole positives. The trainer also had eight horses test positive for the drug at Fair Grounds and was issued $1,000 fine for each horse, but not suspended for the Louisiana violations. He blamed the levamisole positives on an over-the-counter dewormer he had purchased and used to treat his horses.

While announcing his client was appealing the KHRC decision last January, attorney Clark Brewster told TDN, “The stewards sent out this notice saying [levamisole] is a class B drug. Not only is it not a class B, it's not listed at all. They held a hearing where I strongly urged them to dismiss this and they got real quiet. Then they returned a suspension of 30 days and fines. It was truly astonishing. We expect public servants to apply the law based on what is set forth.”

Brewster said that levamisole is only prohibited when it metabolizes into the drug aminorex, which he said did not happen in the case of Sharp's horses. He also pointed to a 2015 case in which the KHRC suspended trainer Daniel Werre for a full year after a levamisole positive. The suspension was reversed by the Franklin Circuit Court, which cited its finding that the KHRC had improperly classified the drug at the time. Werre was eventually given a seven-day suspension.

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Kentucky Horse Racing Commission Vacates Levamisole Sanctions Against Joe Sharp

Nearly one year after trainer Joe Sharp appealed a 30-day suspension for a series of positive tests for levamisole, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission issued a one-sentence ruling on Jan. 14 vacating all sanctions against him.

The ruling read: “Due to the de-classification in August 2015 by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, all penalties previously assessed to Owner/Trainer Joe Sharp in Stewards' Rulings #21-0006, #21-0008, #21-0010, #21-0011 and #21-0012 are hereby vacated. By Order of the Stewards.”

The decision was first reported by Bloodhorse.com.

Sharp was cited for five positive tests for levamisole in horses that raced at Churchill Downs in November 2019. The Jan. 21, 2021, rulings stated levamisole is a Class B drug, even though the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission had voted in 2015 to declassify levamisole.

The Kentucky sanctions came after Sharp was fined $1,000 each but not suspended for eight positives in Louisiana for levamisole. Sharp said the positives resulted from use of an FDA-approved deworming product designed for cattle, sheep and goats that he used on his horses.

Clark Brewster, Sharp's attorney, told Paulick Report's Natalie Voss at the time the appeal was filed: “I found it to be extraordinarily unfair and damaging to Joe. It's just the intransigence of the stewards not having the courage to recognize the truth and say, 'OK, we're sorry about that. Let's get it right.”

Voss wrote at the time of the appeal: An important difference to Brewster is the history of changes of levamisole's classification. At one point, the drug was considered a Class A drug (the most serious category) and was later made a Class B. Then, in 2015, commissioners for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission unanimously agreed to remove levamisole from the drug classification scheme altogether after they detangled the association between levamisole and another drug called aminorex. Aminorex is a stimulant which has the potential for performance enhancement and was the primary substance of concern, they concluded. Initially it had been unclear whether one was a sign that the other had been administered, but Brewster said it's now generally accepted that levamisole can metabolize into aminorex, but not the other way around.

(Read more about the challenges of regulating levamisole and aminorex in this 2018 feature.

“This is truly beyond the pale of regulation,” Brewster told Voss when filing the appeal. “[The positives were] all over the news. Joe couldn't get stalls at Fair Grounds for a while. People pulled their horses, including one that ran in the Kentucky Derby (Art Collector). He was completely pilloried in the press, all on the basis that the stewards just didn't read the list.”

The five horses who tested positive for levamisole were disqualified and purse monies redistributed, according to 2020 rulings. They are: Zero Gravity (Nov. 14, 2019); Chitto (Nov. 19, 2019); Street Dazzle (Nov. 23, 2019); Blackberry Wine (Nov. 30, 2019); Art Collector (Nov. 30, 2019). The reversal of sanctions against Sharp does not affect those disqualifications.

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Regulatory Roundup: Jose Delgado, Saffie Joseph Jr., Douglas Nunn, Mario Serey Jr. Sanctioned

Regulators in New Jersey and Maryland have issued a number of rulings in recent months for medication violations involving trainers Jose H. Delgado, Douglas Nunn, Saffie Joseph Jr., and Mario Serey Jr.

Two horses were disqualified from stakes wins for medication violations.

The Critical Way's victory in the June 19 Get Serious Stakes at Monmouth Park was taken away after the 7-year-old gelding tested positive for levamisole. Trainer Jose H. Delgado was given a 15-day suspension from Oct. 11-Oct. 25 and he was fined $500.

The Critical Way, who went on to win two subsequent stakes, including the Grade 3 Parx Dash on Aug. 31, is owned by Randal Gindi's Monster Racing Stables. Gindi in 2017 was fined $5,000 for “conduct detrimental to racing” in connection with a cell phone video in which he Jorge Navarro, his trainer at the time, could be heard joking about giving “juice” to horses and Gindi said he bet on them through a bookmaker Navarro recently pleaded guilty to federal charges of drug adulteration and misbranding.

Delgado was suspended an additional 15 days, from Sept. 26-Oct. 10 and fined $500 for a second incident in New Jersey when Glory Roll tested positive for an overage of phenylbutazone in a post-race sample from a June 13 race in which the mare finished fifth as the 3-2 favorite. Glory Roll is owned by Carole Star Stable.

Trainer Douglas Nunn was suspended 15 days from Oct. 16-30 and fined $500 after Team Effort tested positive for flunixin following a second-place finish in a May 31 Monmouth Park race.Team Effort, owned by Winner Circle Stables LLC, was disqualified from purse money in the race. The horse is entered to race Oct. 15 at Meadowlands with David Nunn as trainer.

Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. was fined $1,000 and the horse Wind of Change was disqualified from his victory at Monmouth Park in the Mr. Prospector Stakes on May 29 after testing positive for aminocaproic acid (better known as Amicar), an adjunct bleeder medication. Wind of Change is owned by Daniel Alonso.

The sanctions against Delgado, Joseph and Nunn were first reported by Bloodhorse.com.

Earlier this year, trainer Mario Serey Jr. was sanctioned in Maryland for two clenbuterol violations. Amen Corner, second in a May 20 race at Pimlico, was disqualified and placed last after testing positive for the bronchodilator. Family Fortune was disqualified from a May 21 win at Pimlico. Serey owns Amen Corner, while Family Fortune is owned by K12 LLC.

For both violations, Serey was fined $500. He received a 15-day suspension that was stayed, provided he does not pick up another Class 3 violation within a 365-day period. Serey served a 165-day suspension in 2019 after receiving a number of clenbuterol positives in Pennsylvania.

All of the positive tests were reported by Industrial Laboratories of Wheat Ridge, Colo. Industrial replaced Truesdail Laboratories of Irvine, Calif., as the official testing lab in a number of states over the past year, including New Jersey and Maryland.

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