lidocaine | Horse Racing Free Tips

The Friday Show Presented By Woodbine: COVID-19 And Positive Drug Tests

It's been a busy news week in horse racing. COVID-19 continues to disrupt the racing business, most recently with the cancellation of this weekend's racing at Del Mar. How might a second wave of coronavirus cases impact the racing business as a whole?

Also this week, Arkansas officials announced the disqualification of Bob Baffert trainees Charlatan from the G1 Arkansas Derby and Gamine from an allowance race at Oaklawn Park due to lidocaine overages. Baffert has also been handed a 15-day suspension. Baffert asserts those tests were the result of the horses' exposure to a Salonpas patch used by an employee. That raises the question — should the means of exposure to a substance factor in to a commission or steward's decision when disqualifying a horse?

Ray Paulick and Natalie Voss sit down to discuss these questions in this week's edition of The Friday Show. Watch below and share your thoughts.

The post The Friday Show Presented By Woodbine: COVID-19 And Positive Drug Tests appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Oaklawn Drug Positives: Baffert Suspended 15 Days, Charlatan, Gamine Forfeit Wins

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert has been handed a 15-day suspension by the Arkansas Racing Commission, reports the New York Times, for a pair of positive tests on Arkansas Derby day (May 2) at Oaklawn Park.

Both Charlatan, winner of the first division of the G1 Arkansas Derby, and Gamine, winner of an allowance race earlier on the card, will forfeit their victories and the purse monies earned, $300,000 and $36,600, respectively.

Gamine went on to win the G1 Acorn Stakes at Belmont Park on June 20 by almost 19 lengths, setting a stakes record for a mile on the main track in 1:32.55.

Baffert's 15-day suspension is scheduled to run from Aug. 1 through 15.

Information leaked from initial testing by the Arkansas Racing Commission's contracted laboratory in late May indicated that Gamine and Charlatan both tested positive for the Class 2 drug lidocaine, also according to the New York Times. Split samples, sent at Baffert's request to the Equine Analytical Testing Laboratory at the University of California-Davis, confirmed the findings, as first reported in the New York Times.

Lidocaine is used by veterinarians during lameness examinations to “block” or numb a horse's limbs. It is also commonly found in ointments and analgesic treatments and patches to alleviate pain in humans.

A statement from Baffert's attorney, Craig Robertson, released on July 6, said both Gamine and Charlatan were exposed to the lidocaine from a patch worn by a member of the trainer's staff suffering back pain while tending to the horses at Oaklawn.

“Even though lidocaine is a lawful, widely available therapeutic medication, it was never intentionally administered to either Gamine or Charlatan,” the statement reads. “When test results indicated that trace amounts of lidocaine were found in both horses after their respective races on May 2, Bob Baffert and his team were shocked. Leading up to May 2, both horses were healthy and worked hard to earn their victories that day.

“After investigation,” the statement continues, “it is our belief that both Gamine and Charlatanwere unknowingly and innocently exposed to lidocaine by one of Bob's employees. The employee previously broke his pelvis and had been suffering from back pain over the two days leading up to May 2. As a result, he wore a Salonpas patch on his back that he personally applied. That brand of patch contains small amounts of lidocaine. It is believed that lidocaine from that patch was innocently transferred from the employee's hands to the horses through the application of tongue ties by the employee that was handling both horses leading up to May 2.”

Jimmy Barnes, assistant trainer for Baffert, saddled the horses at Oaklawn in the trainer's absence. He suffered a fractured pelvis in September 2017.

The statement continued: “What I want to make clear are the following three points: 1) This is a case of innocent exposure and not intentional administration; 2) the levels of Lidocaine found in both Gamine and Charlatan that day were extremely small – 185 picograms for Gamine (in race 7), and 46 picograms for Charlatan (in race 11). A picogram is a trillionth of a gram. 3) It is our understanding that the trace amounts of Lidocaine found in both Gamine and Charlatan would not have had any effect on either horse – much less a performance enhancing one. The extreme sensitivity of modern-day testing can now pick up trace levels of innocent contaminants that have no effect on a horse. This is an issue that regulators of horse racing need to account for and address.

“Based on these facts, we intend on defending the cases involving Gamine and Charlatan before the Arkansas Racing Commission.”

Should Baffert and his attorney choose to contest the ruling, an appeal would go before the Arkansas Racing Commission. Any appeal of that decision would then be handled in civil court.

Recommended penalty for a Class 2/Category B penalty drug like lidocaine is a minimum 15-day suspension and $500 fine for a first offense under Association of Racing Commissioners International Model Rules. A second offense has a 30-day penalty and $1,000 fine. Some racing commissions consider simultaneous violations of the same drug as a mitigating factor and do not increase penalties for a second offense.

The Model Rule also calls for disqualification, meaning the owners would lose the purse money from the races (Gamine earned $36,600 and Charlatan $300,000). In the case of Charlatan, the 100 qualifying points earned for the Kentucky Derby would be transferred to Basin, the second-place finisher (if the case is resolved before Sept. 5). Currently sidelined Gouverneur Morris finished third, Winning Impression fourth and Anneau d'Or fifth. Points for the Arkansas Derby division are awarded on the basis of 100-40-20-10 to the top four finishers.

Gamine is owned by Michael Lund Petersen. Charlatan is owned by the partnership of SF Racing LLC, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables LLC, Stonestreet Stables LLC, Frederick Hertrich III, John D. Fielding and Golconda Stables.

The post Oaklawn Drug Positives: Baffert Suspended 15 Days, Charlatan, Gamine Forfeit Wins appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Baffert Gets 15 Days; Charlatan and Gamine DQ’d for Lidocaine Positives

Hall of Famer Bob Baffert has been suspended 15 days for previously announced lidocaine positives found in post-race samples from two runners on Oaklawn Park’s May 2 card, GI Arkansas Derby division winner Charlatan (Speightstown) and allowance winner Gamine (Into Mischief). The Oaklawn Park Board of Stewards has also disqualified both horses from their wins and ordered purse monies to be redistributed in rulings dated July 14 and made public Wednesday.

News of the positives first surfaced in late May, and it was revealed last week that split samples taken from both runners confirmed the original test results. In Baffert’s defense, attorney Craig Robertson said it was believed an employee had inadvertently exposed the two horses to Lidocaine while wearing a pain-relieving Salonpas patch. Robertson also noted the trace amounts of the drug would have had no impact on the performances of the two horses. Lidocaine is a Class 2 substance.

The ruling calls for Baffert to be suspended from Aug. 1 to Aug. 15, but the conditioner told the TDN that he plans to appeal: “We’re definitely going to appeal. We are very disappointed. I thought we did a great job answering this and showing how innocent I am. I understand there is the trainer’s responsibility rule, but the levels, especially with Charlatan, were so low. We showed them the science that showed it wouldn’t have affected the horses at all.”

With Charlatan’s disqualification to last place in his division of the Arkansas Derby, Basin (Liam’s Map)–most recently 10th in Saturday’s GII Toyota Blue Grass–now receives 100 GI Kentucky Derby qualifying points, with Gouverneur Morris (Constitution) earning 40; Winning Impression (Paynter) 20; and Anneau d’Or (Medaglia d’Oro) 10. Basin’s connections had previously announced that he had been taken out of consideration for the Derby in favor of shortening up in distance going forward.

Charlatan, meanwhile, was sidelined in June due to an ankle issue. Baffert also won the other division of the Arkansas Derby with Nadal (Blame), who was later retired due to a condylar fracture. Baffert trainee Authentic (Into Mischief), owned by a group that overlaps with Charlatan’s ownership group, is 4-5 on the morning line for Saturday’s GI Haskell S. at Monmouth.

Gamine’s neck victory in that May 2 allowance came over Speech (Mr Speaker), a decisive winner of the GI Ashland S. at Keeneland this past Saturday. Gamine would go on to take Belmont’s GI Acorn S. June 20 by 18 3/4 lengths, earning a 110 Beyer Speed Figure in one of the most dominant performances by a horse in 2020.

The post Baffert Gets 15 Days; Charlatan and Gamine DQ’d for Lidocaine Positives appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Report: Baffert’s Lidocaine Findings Not Likely A Sign Of An Effort To Mask Injury

Now that the results of split sample tests are back on Bob Baffert trainees Charlatan and Gamine, both of whom won races at Oaklawn Park in early May, Baffert's attorney has confirmed the positive tests were for lidocaine. Dr. Mary Scollay, executive director and COO of the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium, told The Blood-Horse this week that it seems unlikely a trainer would use lidocaine intentionally to mask a lame horse before a race.

Lidocaine has a number of accepted therapeutic uses — as a topical numbing agent, it can be deployed before a veterinarian puts in stitches to a wound, or can be helpful to relieve pain or swelling from a bug bite or other skin issue in a spot that's hard to bandage. It can also be injected as a temporary nerve block as part of a standard lameness exam. In order to isolate the source of a lameness, veterinarians will carefully apply short-acting nerve blocks to work out, by process of elimination, which structures are responsible for a horse's gait abnormality and then target their diagnostic imaging from there.

It seemed unlikely to Scollay that someone would numb a horse with lidocaine before a race to mask a problem or gain a competitive advantage because it's well-known as a substance easily detected in drug tests.

Still, Scollay told writer Eric Mitchell, she's of the opinion that horses should be disqualified in the case of medication violations, because not doing so unfairly disadvantages the horse that finished second with no medication overages. In the case of Charlatan and Gamine, Arkansas guidelines would allow for disqualification and reallocation of purse money if the commission determines a violation occurred.

Baffert's attorney told media Monday the overages were the result of a pain patch a member of Baffert's staff was using to relieve back pain, and that he intends to defend the cases before the commission.