Director of Enforcement Jason Klouser, who led the investigation, said, “The Racing Commission's investigators observed Danny Hamilton failing to weigh-out the jockeys for race 8, which is a violation of numerous sections of Pennsylvania's rules of racing.”

Klouser added, “At this point, the investigation into Hamilton's activities is ongoing to determine if there were any other violations.”

According to the stewards ruling which is posted on the commission's website, part of the duties of the Clerk of Scales and/or their assistant is to preside over the racing process from when the jockeys assemble before the race to weigh-out, all the way through its conclusion when they come off the course to weigh-in.

Hamilton appeared this past summer on an episode of Horse Racing Today co-hosted by Jamie Martinez in which he discussed his experiences and delved into his duties as a clerk.

On that program, Hamilton said, “We run a very tight ship here at Presque Isle.” When asked what happens if a rider's weight is off when he or she comes off the course, the clerk said with a laugh, “Well then we have real problems! Then the Racing Commission gets involved and stuff gets really real.”

He went on to say, “But we don't have that problem, all the riders come back heavier than what they went out. So, if you go out at 124 [pounds], chances are you're going to come in at 126 [pounds], 127 [pounds], because the saddle towel, the pad, the horse's are sweaty, it soaks up into the pad and saddle towel … it weighs a lot. If they come back lighter than they went out, major problem, if they come back heavier, then you're good to go.”

Growing up around racetracks, including Beulah Park and Delaware Park, Hamilton as recently as 2019 served as an inspector for the Ohio State Racing Commission. Since then, he's had several other stops at locations such as Oaklawn Park, where he was an integrity officer.

Hamilton was hired as the Clerk of Scales by Presque Isle Downs earlier this year after he was the horse identifier at the course during the 2022 season. An attempt was made to contact the track's Director of Racing, Matthew Ennis, but several messages were not returned.

Currently, Hamilton is serving as a placing judge at Fair Grounds, which is also owned by Churchill Downs Inc.

Klouser confirmed that, “We have notified the Louisiana Racing Commission of the pending suspension.”

As for the ruling, Hamilton is denied access to all grounds under the jurisdiction of the Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission and does have the right to appeal. He was unable to be reached for comment.

The post Clerk Of Scales At Presque Isle Downs Suspended For Failure To Weigh-Out Jockeys appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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CDI issued the indefinite ban on Sept. 24, revoking Broberg's stalls and banning him from the entry box at all its parent company's racetracks after an incident involving a voided claim of Rockandahardplace on Sept. 18 at Churchill Downs.

A statement from CDI released to the Paulick Report at that time read: “A claim for the 5-year-old gelding was voided after the race by rule when the horse was declared lame by a KHRC veterinarian at the test barn. The horse was returned to his stall by a paid hotwalker, but a subsequent investigation revealed that there was no responsible representative of the trainer on-site to make veterinary decisions or to take appropriate steps to protect the welfare of the injured horse.”

Broberg told the Paulick Report that a veterinarian treated the horse for injury, and he was left in the receiving barn due to being too sore to travel. Rockandahardplace has since been retired from racing.

The commission's ruling is based on due process concerns, arguing that the matter should have gone before stewards in either Kentucky or Louisiana.

Read more at bloodhorse.com.

The post Broberg Will Be Allowed To Run At Fair Grounds, Commission Rules appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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“I am allowed to enter and run at the Fair Grounds,” Broberg told TDN hours after the LSRC ruled that the private-property exclusion by CDI doesn't carry the same reciprocity as a ruling issued by a board of stewards or state racing commission.

According to the Blood-Horse, which first reported the story, the LSRC questioned whether Broberg had been afforded due process when CDI barred him from participating at all of its properties over allegations that he didn't properly care for a gelding who returned sore after a race at Churchill Downs Sept. 18.

According to previously published reports in the Blood-Horse and the Paulick Report, the Broberg-owned and trained Rockandahardplace (Hard Spun) came back sore after a sixth-place finish in a $10,000 claiming race. The 5-year-old had been claimed, but the claim was voided post-race when the horse was determined to be lame by a Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) veterinarian.

After a preliminary investigation, CDI alleged that “the horse was returned to his stall [but] there was no responsible representative of the trainer on-site to make veterinary decisions or to take appropriate steps to protect the welfare of the injured horse.”

Broberg, the nation's winningest trainer by victories between 2014-19 (he was second in both 2013 and 2020), had said last month that Rockandahardplace was indeed treated, but had been left in the Churchill receiving barn because he was too sore to travel immediately, according to the Paulick Report.

Broberg pointed out to TDN that CDI didn't want to hear his side of the story before issuing the multi-track ban, yet the Churchill stewards did not sanction him in any way after explaining what happened when he met with them last month.

CDI, Broberg told TDN in an Oct. 26 phone interview, “just came with this out of nowhere, with no facts or reason.”

Broberg continued: “I was sad that I never even had the opportunity to weigh in with the facts that Churchill, to this day, still hasn't even heard. The stewards were willing to [hear me out], which is why they made no ruling, because there was [no wrongdoing] there.”

Broberg was at Tuesday's LSRC hearing, but he didn't get to testify there, either. Neither did Dr. Will Farmer, the equine medical director for CDI. The commissioners did hear from CDI's attorney, Haley Nix, but after ascertaining there were no known rulings against Broberg in this matter, the board voted unanimously to pass the measure in Broberg's favor.

On the way out of that meeting, Broberg said “I did hand [CDI's] counsel some information that I wish they had prior to them making the decision that they did. I can only hope that it doesn't fall on deaf ears.”

Broberg continued: “This is the epitome of cancel culture just going crazy. I can only try to hope and work to mend the relationship. I mean, obviously, I don't want to poke the bear. I want to be able to get along with everyone. Most racing secretaries love me with the way they get starts per stall.”

Asked if he has a Fair Grounds stall application pending or plans to file one soon, Broberg said, “It's way too early to say at this point. This is unchartered territory I'm in right now.”

As to whether he plans to challenge CDIs ban of him at its flagship track in Kentucky via the KHRC or through the courts, Broberg said, “One step at a time.”

The post Louisiana Commission Sides with Broberg in CDI Exclusion Dispute appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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The Louisiana Racing Commission still needs to approve the $22 million sale; it meets Tuesday.

Rubico plans to add games and concessions to the casino at Louisiana Downs, and under the terms of the sale, will be required to keep the racetrack open.

“I really believe if this sale didn't go through Caesars would ultimately close the facility; the company just isn't interested in operating a horse racetrack,” said Gaming Board Chairman Ronnie Johns.

Read more at dailyunion.com.

The post State Gaming Board Approves Sale Of Louisiana Downs appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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The trainer paid $150 for the items but then began to have second thoughts, wondering whether he could face consequences for buying them. The trainer brought the items to Boulet and identified Gibson.

When questioned by the stewards, Gibson admitted he had stolen both objects from tack rooms in other barns. The bridle came from the barn of Brendan Walsh, and the medication came from the barn of Chris Hartman. A stewards hearing was conducted and the ruling against Gibson was issued.

The plastic bottle did not bear the standard blue and white labeling of the FDA-approved form of clenbuterol sold as Ventipulmin Syrup, which can run close to $300 for a 330-milliliter bottle. Instead, it had one small sticker on it with the contact information for a Dr. Michael Stevens out of Edmond, Okla. The sticker included instructions for use, and the patient name “Smoking Memo.” It appeared that the bottle contained a compounded substance.

Compounded drugs are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and there are limited circumstances in which a drug may be legally compounded. Accepted circumstances include making a drug with a different route of administration (flavoring a medication for easier dosing, for example), providing emergency supply during a supply chain compromise, or making the drug in a different concentration from its mass manufactured version.

Louisiana has a rule on the books about compounded drugs. Title 35, Chapter 17 Section 1707 of the state's administrative code reads, “Any substance or material for human or animal use, ingestion, or injection, or for testing purposes that is not formally approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration is prohibited.”

The rule does not outline possible penalties or detail whether stewards may take mitigating circumstances into effect when considering a potential violation of section 1707.

When questioned by stewards, Hartman explained that the medication had been prescribed for an unnamed offspring of Smoking Memo while the horse was training in Oklahoma. The horse had suffered a knee injury necessitating a lay-off and subsequently been loaded on a trailer along with Fair Grounds shippers, along with all its equipment and the bottle. The horse was offloaded along the route to the racetrack, but the bottle was left on the van and ended up in Hartman's tack room, according to the trainer, who has made 73 starts at the track's current meet and is 15^th in the trainer standings.

According to stewards' notes obtained by public record request, the stewards did not make further inquiries of Hartman and did not conduct any searches of his barn or person to verify whether any other compounded drugs were present. As of March 5, they indicated they considered the matter closed and planned no further inquiries.

Subsequent testing on the bottle by the Louisiana State University's Equine Medication Surveillance Laboratory indicated that there were no other drugs detected in the bottle besides clenbuterol. While the bottle was not labeled with a concentration, the strength of FDA-approved Ventipulmin is 72.5 micrograms per milliliter. LSU's testing showed the sample in the Gibson case contained a similar, if slightly higher concentration of about 85 micrograms per milliliter.

Churchill Downs, Inc., which owns Fair Grounds, conducted its own investigation into the incident. Dr. Will Farmer, equine medical director for CDI, indicated the ownership group had evicted Gibson from the Fair Grounds property and placed him on a no-entry list for all CDI properties. With regard to Hartman, Farmer said the track would defer to the stewards' decision not to pursue further action.

“Fair Grounds Race Course is fully committed to the safety of our human and equine athletes and the integrity of our sport,” read a statement from Farmer. “We are aware of the Louisiana Racing Commission's findings of a questionably compounded product that was uncovered on our backside and believe this activity jeopardizes the wellbeing of the horses and fairness in our sport and should not be tolerated. We have long advocated for strict regulations with respect to the use of medications to ensure that competitors are fit to race and the races are conducted fairly and with transparency.

“Circumstances like this are among the many reasons we herald the recently-passed Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act which will serve as a vehicle to establish and implement uniform medication rules and operational standards that will codify the culture of safety and integrity of which we are so firmly committed.”

Multiple calls to Hartman for comment were unreturned at press time.

The post Stewards Hand Groom Suspension Related To Compounded Clenbuterol, No Action Taken Against Trainer appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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This wasn't her first time being offered for sale with a metaphorical gun to her head.

In March 2018 she showed up in the hands of Jacob Thompson, then the operator of Thompson Horse Lot in Pitkin, La. The mare was part of a group of horses bailed by Dina Alborano of ICareIHelp around Easter of that year. Alborano called upon her vast social media army and later said she raised Thompson's ransom of $875 per horse plus another $350 in assessed travel and quarantine and transport charges for Apt To Smile and ten others – a total of $13,475 that materialized within hours from sympathetic onlookers around the country. The group of horses was transported to Alborano's associate Hal Parker for “quarantine” for 30 days before being offered for adoption.

Apt To Smile, according to Alborano, left Parker's care fairly quickly, with her adoption announced on social media in May 2018. (Other horses of course, were not lucky enough to ever leave.) Where she's been from mid-2018 to December 2020 is unrecorded, but it's not uncommon for the same horse to spend time rattling around on the circuit of auctions, horse traders, and kill buyers, changing hands frequently.

In December 2020, Apt To Smile was advertised with a ransom price of $1,050. Pen representatives confirmed to the Paulick Report that the mare was purchased privately before her advertised ship date to Mexico, but declined to identify the buyer.

Assuming the Bastrop lot and the Thompson lot were indeed paid the stated prices for her, that means $1,925 has been paid to two kill pen owners in an attempt to secure one horse's future. Another $350 raised for her feed and board was given either to a man who later pleaded guilty to charges of animal cruelty or vanished after it went to a woman who was eventually the target of an investigation by the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General for mishandling funds given to an unregistered charity. The mare, who is now seven years old, has spent three of those years shuffling from one situation to another, sought out more than once by people who knew she was worth money – but only if she were in danger.

And, she's not alone. A rescue watchdog recently provided this publication with a list of 198 off-track Thoroughbreds said to have passed through the Thompson Horse Lot and advertised for bail or purchase on the lot's social media between 2018 and 2020. Since the relocation of the Thompson operations to Texas, the lot located in Bastrop has reportedly begun advertising more OTTBs. The list also included 20 OTTBs advertised through the Bastrop pen since Oct. 16, 2020.

It must have seemed to some like the end of an unfortunate era when the Louisiana Department of Agriculture sanctioned operators of a well-known social media bail pen in late January, followed by an announcement by the operators of Thompson Horse Lot that it had moved to Texas. The reality is, this segment of the equine economy probably isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

How the slaughter pipeline has become big business

While the flow of horses from racetracks to kill pens was once a happenstance of owners, trainers, and breeders using the pipeline as a way to get an unwanted horse out of the barn, it's now subject to its own economic drivers. The Thompson and Bastrop lots are not the only ones that have caught on to an alternate cash flow source in the form of bail horses. Pen operators sometimes require a single purchaser for each horse and other times will allow the horse to be “bailed” with a price on the horse's head that can be crowdsourced, and then they release the horse to whoever will take it.

People purchase the horses, well above meat price, sight unseen, and are encouraged to use the pen's preferred contractors to vet the horse, attend to the horse's feet, transport the horse to them, and to put the horse in quarantine care – recommended by most animal health experts, since horses at livestock auctions are often mixed and herded together in groups and could be exposed to transmissible disease.

Of course, those paying into the system are taking a lot on faith – they're trusting that the pen is being honest about how much money has or hasn't been raised for a bailed horse; they're trusting that the horse they receive will be the one they saw in videos; they're trusting that even if the horse they saw advertised online is the one that arrives in a trailer, that the horse will be in the same physical condition it was when they sent money for it; and they're trusting pen operators who say these horses were bought for the purpose of slaughter and not as high price, high risk resale projects.

Many people and legitimate non-profits raise bail or buy horses from kill lots through gritted teeth, saying they hate the system but feel for the individual animals trapped in it on this particular week. The trouble is, the recurring willingness to raise funds any way possible has given bail lots financial incentive to buy at auction or seek horses privately not based on which horses will most efficiently fill their trucks to fill a contract with a slaughterhouse, but which can be sold at a higher profit margin to a sympathetic public.

In recent years, Thoroughbreds have begun commanding higher bail prices, no doubt because an ex-racehorse in a kill pen seems to generate a particular type of disgust from social media followers, leading to more likes, shares, and ultimately, more money. In fact, bail pen operators have begun specifically seeking them out for this reason.

This post appeared in April 2019 on the social media page of La Petrona Equine Kill Pen & Auction Horses, a group which was run by the operators of the Thompson Horse Lot

Unfortunately, there is limited information available on the hammer prices for horses at small, local livestock auctions, and often identifications on horses either at auction or at bail can be lacking, so it's nearly impossible to know – did this pen indeed buy this horse with the option of selling it for meat (paying below average meat price of $400 to $600), or did the pen buy the horse at a high enough price that it can only make money if it sells for a $1,000 to $2,000 ransom? If it's the latter, are purchasers rescuing a horse or creating an economic demand?

Where is the racing industry in all this?

For nearly everyone watching the flow of Thoroughbreds into this system, the question is what the Louisiana racing industry is doing about it.

There are two authorities that would seem reasonably able to address the issues: racetrack ownership and the state racing commission. Both have legal snags making it difficult for them to take drastic action to punish people for sending Thoroughbreds into the slaughter pipeline.

The state racing commission has jurisdiction over people who hold racing licenses and is tasked with making and enforcing state regulation regarding horse racing. Someone who's not licensed (i.e., breeders) cannot have action taken against their license.

The commission, after considerable input from attorneys, is hard-pressed to make a state racing regulation against sending a horse to slaughter when there's no federal law against doing so. Slaughtering a horse commercially for meat, or selling/transporting a horse to be slaughtered are not illegal activities in this country. The reason commercial horse slaughter is not a reality in the United States these days is that funding for federal inspection of equine slaughterhouses was written out of the Agriculture Appropriations bill in 2005. That funding language has been carried forward ever since. Animal rights advocacy groups have made moves to formally ban the practice and to prevent the transport of horses for the purposes of slaughter, but have not yet been successful.

As long as the activity itself isn't illegal, the commission hesitates to write a regulation against it. If it did write a regulation against it, the commission would have to enforce that regulation. To enforce it, they'd have to show definitively that someone knowingly sent a horse to the slaughter pipeline. Because horses often pass through livestock auctions and/or horse traders, sometimes in a matter of hours or days, on their way to a bail pen, licensees can frequently claim quite reasonably they didn't know where the horse was going to end up. The commission would be tasked with proving what was or wasn't in someone's mind, which is not an easy thing to do legally.

The ghost of civil cases past

Louisiana in particular has another legal challenge. In other states, courts have ruled that racetracks have certain rights as private actors to exclude people from their grounds. In Louisiana though, an incident in 1980 set a somewhat more complicated legal precedent.

Herbert Roberts, who was a trainer for a Texas racing operation, was one of several horsemen who became critical of track management at Louisiana Downs in Bossier Parish, La., where he often saddled horses for Paradise Farms. Roberts and the others were disturbed that the track was permitting horses to run with a certain type of shoe, and after he had signed a petition about the issue, he was informed he would not be permitted to stable horses or to race there in the 1981 season. The track later recanted, but not before Paradise had laid Roberts off because he couldn't saddle horses for them. Roberts asked the racing commission for assistance but was told the responsibility lay with the track.

Roberts sued for damages and injunctive relief, claiming his rights to free speech had been violated by a system that paired the state and the racetrack in a symbiotic way. The track claimed it was a private entity and could make decisions however it chose regarding stabling in particular. A district court sided with the racetrack, but Roberts appealed.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found that, in fact, the question of access to stalls and to the entry box was a matter over which the tracks and the commissions both had input, since the racing secretary and the stewards at various times behave as private actors and as state regulatory enforcers. The appeals court reversed the lower court's ruling.

“We do not today hold that the state and Louisiana Downs are in such a relationship that all acts of the track constitute state action, nor that all acts of the racing secretary constitute state action,” the opinion read. “We do not hold that the actions of any individual in a position which a regulated business is required by law to maintain constitute state action. We hold only that in the complex of facts and regulations present at this stage of the proof in this case, there is a sufficient nexus between the conduct complained of and the state to attribute the conduct to the state.”

The lack of clarity from this case seems to have resulted in a standard response from Louisiana racetracks: with sufficient language they can (and do) include an anti-slaughter clause in their stall applications and can revoke a trainer's stalls if they find it has been violated. They believe however, that they cannot ban a trainer or owner from the entry box if the person's license is clear and that it's up to the commission to take action.

What's being done — and what isn't

“The sale of racehorses to slaughter is a distasteful and inhumane act, and we are vehemently opposed to this practice,” said David Strow, vice president of corporate communications for Boyd Gaming Corporation, which owns Louisiana racetracks Delta Downs and Evangeline Downs. “If we find that an owner or trainer has knowingly sold a horse to slaughter, we will punish them to the greatest extent permitted under state law: the permanent revocation of stall privileges at our track.

“Through our partnership with the National Thoroughbred Welfare Organization (NTWO), we are also providing significant financial support toward putting an end to this practice. Thanks in part to our support, the NTWO has been able to rescue hundreds of retired horses to date. We are proud of our partnership with the NTWO, and will continue doing what we can to help every retired racehorse find the loving home it deserves.”

For a while, NTWO president Victoria Keith said the organization was flooded by calls from trainers. Now, for some reason, the phone hasn't been ringing as much, despite the economic uncertainty of the global pandemic.

“We'd gotten up to 90 plus horses at one time and we just started having to say no to taking horses until we got some cleared out,” said Keith. “Right as we got back to a manageable number, here comes COVID-19.

“Bottom line is we were just taking a horse here or there. The wave that people were expecting didn't really happen.”

As of late January, the organization had 13 off-track Thoroughbreds in its system between facilities in Kentucky and Louisiana.

Boyd Gaming did not inquire further about the list of 200 horses alleged to have passed through Louisiana bail pens since 2018 (or the connections of those horses) but urged this reporter to send that information to the commission for further action. Of course, some of the horses on that list had been off the track for years, pulled off a breeding farm or out of a riding stable or backyard before they showed up in the lot.

It's not always clear how direct the line is from racing industry to bail pen. One thing continues to be true: whatever route they took to get there, there will be pen owners ready to sell them — however many times they pass through the gates.

The post The Kill Pen Economy: Why Is The Slaughter Pipeline So Hard To Shut Off? appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Based on the progress of repairs to date, Delta Downs believes it will be able to allow horses to move back on the grounds and start training by late October and begin live racing in late November.

This year's meet was originally scheduled to run from Oct. 6, 2020 to Feb. 27, 2021 for a total of 84 race days. The end of the season may now be revised and extended along with a change in the total number of race days, pending approval from the Louisiana Racing Commission

As work continues and repairs are completed, Delta Downs will provide further information about when horses will be allowed to be stabled on the backside, when the track plans to begin its season, and the new schedule for live racing. This information will be posted to the Delta Downs website at www.deltadownsracing.com.

Delta Downs Racetrack Casino Hotel, a property of Boyd Gaming Corporation (NYSE:BYD), features exciting casino action, live horse racing and fun dining experiences. Delta Downs is located in Vinton, Louisiana on Delta Downs Drive. From Lake Charles, take Exit 7 and from Texas, take Exit 4.

The post Delta Downs’ Repairs Progressing, Targeting Late November To Begin Delayed Thoroughbred Season appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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