“I'm delighted to be joining the team at Monmouth,” said Dinerman, a 31-year-old native of California. “It's an honor to be selected as their next voice.  Monmouth is a beautiful racetrack with a large, enthusiastic fan base that supports great racing.  I'm really looking forward to meeting and being a part of the community.”

Dinerman, currently the voice of Oaklawn Park, began his announcing career at the age of 22 at Emerald Downs. Before moving to Oaklawn late last year, he was the track announcer and handicapper at Golden Gate Fields for six years.

“Matt is a great addition for Monmouth Park,” said General Manager Bill Anderson. “His accurate, spot-on calls, coupled with his enthusiasm are a great fit here in Oceanport. I'm certain he'll add to the long list of great voices that have called Monmouth Park their home.”

Matt follows Chris Griffin, Jason Beem, Frank Mirahmadi, Travis Stone and Larry Collmus, all who have been the full-time announcers at Monmouth Park for the past 30 years.

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There can't possibly be another track announcer as unique as Larry Lederman.

Hell, there can't possibly be another human as unique as Larry Lederman.

Lawrence Brian Lederman died Mar. 5, at his home in East Windsor, New Jersey, weeks after his 67th birthday.

That Larry survived more than a dozen years with an inoperable brain tumor (winning that game of under/over) was a testament to his acerbic wit, unyielding faith, biting sense of humor and a shrewdness/stubbornness to realize the multitudes who loved him wanted him around (let's not forget his many medical friends).

A dear friend described Larry as 'a gentle and generous soul. His approach to the cancer treatment was to take it as far as he could, which is why he was able to sustain so long after the passing of his beloved wife and daughter.'

…and he brought pies to those who were taking care of him.

Born and raised in Manhattan, Larry caught the track bug early, even before sharing a stand-up microphone with some guy named Robin Williams.

He was a three-decade-plus Harness/Thoroughbred announcer extraordinaire at New Jersey's Atlantic City Race Course, Freehold Raceway and Garden State Park, plus an in-demand guest at more venues than this space permits.

His calls were clear, concise, comical and, above all, correct.

…then, there were the voices.

Larry interjected so many spot-on impressions, and dropped so many names into the course of a race, you'd swear it was a fire hazard having that many people in the booth.

His Jackie Mason was so good, Jackie Mason wasn't sure if he, himself was indeed Jackie Mason.

The silver screen took notice, recruiting Larry to be the off-camera track announcer in 1993's 'A Bronx Tale.'

There was commercial voice-over work as well, but it was his equine passion, and his compassion toward others, that made Larry Larry.

As was mentioned, Larry was predeceased by his wife, Jodi, and their daughter, Leslie. Larry is survived by his brother, Alan, son, Scott and grandson, Cayden LoBianco.

Listing his extended family, both in and out of racing (shout-outs to the Christian Harness Horsemen's Association and the Meadowlands) would take way too long.

Here's the irony…anyone who tries to be the next Larry Lederman would be nothing more than a poor imitation of someone who never did a poor imitation.

TDN's Bill Finley, for 40 years a friend of Lederman, said: “Not only was Larry a great and colorful announcer, he was maybe the nicest guy on the planet. He cared more about others than himself. As announcers go, there was no one else like him. He was so clever and so creative that he could have you laughing after listening to his call of a $5,000 claimer. I got to know him even better during the many years he was battling this terrible disease, which happened to concur with the loss of his wife and his daughter. He was truly dealt a horrible hand, but he stayed remarkably upbeat and optimistic through the entire ordeal. Cancer or not, he kept you laughing. This is a great loss and not just for horse racing but for mankind.”

While Larry's services are private, those who desire honoring him might consider a donation to the Christian Harness Horsemen's Association or a cancer- or hospice-related charity.

Remembering Larry Lederman

“He was an outstanding race caller,” said Dave Johnson, the longtime voice of the GI Kentucky Derby on ABC. “He had a unique sense of humor that he blended into his work. He was a very funny and decent guy. I had touched base with him through emails before he passed away on Tuesday and he was in a good mood. He's in a better place. 'It's such a shame.”

“Larry was a creative, passionate, skilled race caller and an even better friend,” Caton Bredar said in a tweet. “We got to spend time him during our Atlantic City days which were the best of times. Truly one of the good guys.”

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It is a bit of a gamble. Monmouth Park is set to run for just 51 days this year and there will be 10 days of turf racing at the Meadowlands after that. New Jersey-breds do run for good money. At the 2023 Monmouth meet, the purse for a New Jersey-bred maiden race was $72,000. But with so few opportunities for Jersey-breds to run in restricted state-bred races, it's a constant struggle for the New Jersey breeding industry to convince people to breed in the state.

“I know breeding is important to people in this state,” Hall said. “It's just a matter of finding a way to get all the pieces to fit together.”

Could Max Player be one of those pieces?

In 1987, when there was year-round racing in the state, the New Jersey foal crop numbered 1,075. In 2023, it was all the way down to 110. Nine stallions stood in the state in 2023. The hope for Max Player is that his status as a Grade I winner will set him apart from the rest and that he will be the first choice among breeders and owners who remain interested in the New Jersey program.

Max Player is the first Grade I winner to stand in the state since 2004, the last year Evening Kris, the winner of the 1988 GI Jerome H., stood at Walnford Stud.

“Any time you bring a Grade I winner to your state it is a big deal, especially here because we have not had many,” said Mike Campbell, the executive director of the Thoroughbred Breeders' Association of New Jersey. “It shows that George Hall and his partners have faith, not only in New Jersey racing, but also New Jersey breeding. We're happy he's here and hope he does well.”

Max Player had talent, but what he lacked was consistency. In just his third career start, he won the GIII Withers S. during the COVID year of 2020. He then ran third in both the GI Belmont S. and the GI Travers S. before finishing fifth in the GI Kentucky Derby, run in September because of the pandemic. It was more of the same when he finished off the board in the GI Preakness S. and, the following year, the Saudi Cup and the GIII Pimlico Special.

And then he turned into a star, at least for two months. He won the 2021 GII Suburban S. by a neck over G1 Dubai World Cup winner Mystic Guide (Ghostzapper) and came back two months later to win the Gold Cup over 2020 Gold Cup winner Happy Saver (Super Saver) in his next start.

“Winning a Grade I, especially one at Saratoga, is very tough,” Hall said. “You know you're going to be facing the best competition. To win that race, it was an amazing experience.”

After the Gold Cup win, Max Player again finished out of the money in his next four starts. His final appearance on the racetrack came in a Feb. 25, 2023 allowance race at Oaklawn in which he lost his action and had to be vanned off the track.

He was sent to Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington after the Oaklawn race and was treated for an infection. He then spent time at Spy Coast Farm in Lexington for rehabilitation, and made a full recovery.

It was already too late for the 2023 breeding season, so Hall took a step back while deciding what to do. In the end, he owned a farm in New Jersey and thought there was an opening in the state for a Grade I-winning stallion.

“In terms of New Jersey, New Jersey-breds get bonuses and I have the farm here,” Hall said. “If I didn't have the farm, we probably wouldn't be here. It was pretty easy to just bring him up here and stand him here. If a stallion farm in Kentucky said they really wanted Max and were going to support him, I would have considered that. In the absence of that, I wanted to bring him up here. Hopefully, New Jersey breeding will get better now that Max is here and, hopefully, some other strong sires will come to New Jersey.”

Max Player's stud fee is $5,000, which, Hall hopes, people will come to realize is a bargain.

“He's got a Grade I, two thirds in Grade I races, he won graded stakes as 3-year-old and as a 4-year-old,” Hall said. “And the Grade I's were not run of the mill Grade I's. They are some of the biggest races on the calendar. That's our pitch.”

Hall's goal is for Max Player to attract 25 mares this year, a number he believes will increase once his foals hit the track and find some success.

“If he hits a home run, we will keep him in New Jersey,” Hall said. “That would be great and would mean more mares will come into the state. I'm not going to move him. He's here. It would be great if New Jersey racing and breeding could advance because of Max.”

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“This is a great way to expand Haskell Day into Haskell Weekend and provide our fans with an amazing racing experience for three straight days,” said Monmouth Park director of racing and racing secretary John Heims. “While Haskell Day is already circled on many conditioners' calendars, this new bonus will hopefully attract more of the nation's top Thoroughbreds to the Jersey Shore this summer.”

The $150,000 in total bonuses will be awarded as follows:  $75,000 (1st); $25,000 (2nd); $20,000 (3rd); $10,000 (4th); $7,500 (5th); and $2,500 (6th-10th).

With over $4 million in purses for the three days, the Haskell Weekend Trainer Challenge will feature eight stakes races: the July 19 Jersey Shore S.; July 20 Haskell, GII United Nations S., GIII Molly Pitcher S., GIII Monmouth Cup, GIII WinStar Matchmaker S., and Wolf Hill S.; as well as the July 21 Regret S.

Points will be awarded based on the race, led by 25 points to the winner of the Haskell, 20 to the runner-up, 15 to third-place finisher, 10 to fourth-place finisher and seven for fifth to last-place finishers.

For all other graded races, points will be awarded to first through last finishers: 18, 15, 10, 8, and 5. All other stakes will offer points of: 12, 9, 7, 5, 4.

Maiden special weights, allowances and handicaps will offer points of: 8, 6, 4, 2 and all other races will offer points of: 5, 3, 2, 1.

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This year's race meet, which runs through Sept. 15, will feature 48 total stakes, including 10 graded events, and 11 stakes restricted to New Jersey-bred horses.

Along with the featured race, the Haskell Day program will once again sport an undercard with four graded stakes races, including: the $600,000 GII United Nations S., the $500,000 GIII Molly Pitcher S., the $400,000 GIII Monmouth Cup S. and the $300,000 GIII Matchmaker S.

Monmouth will offer a “Haskell Preview Day” with four stakes on Saturday, June 15–Pegasus S., GIII Monmouth S., GIII Salvator Mile and GIII Eatontown S., each carrying a purse of $150,000.

The 22nd annual New Jersey Thoroughbred Festival, with three stakes events, will be renewed Aug. 25, with the $125,000 Charles Hesse III H. headlining the card.

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The money has already been approved for 2024. The extension was to run from 2025 through 2029.

Murphy vetoed 12 bills in all, using what is called a pocket veto. That type of veto applies only to bills sent to the governor's desk in the final 10 days of a legislative session. If the governor does not sign such bills within seven days of the end of a session those bills are vetoed without being sent back to the Legislature.

Murphy's decision came as a major surprise since he has largely supported racing during his time in office and the bill had overwhelming support in the Senate and in the Assembly. It passed the Senate by a 35-1 margin and the Assembly by a 73-0 margin.

The purse subsidy is vital to Monmouth Park, which, without it, would offer far smaller purses and have trouble competing for horses with the many other tracks in the Mid-Atlantic region.

“If we didn't get this money, it would be a disaster,” said Dennis Drazin, the chairman and CEO of Darby Development, the management team that operates Monmouth. “We'd either have to cut days or purses.”

Drazin admits he was alarmed when first hearing news of the veto and he immediately placed a call to Murphy. Drazin said he heard back within 15 minutes and the governor reassured him that future purse subsidies remain very much alive.

“I spoke with him and he wholeheartedly supports the industry, but he did not feel a bill like this should get passed through a lame-duck session,” Drazin said. “He is committed to continue to work on it and get it done through the budget process. I take him at his word. He has been supportive of the industry ever since he's been in office and he says he will get it done, just not the way it was being handled. I trust this governor. He made a commitment and I am taking him at his word. If he had said, 'I'm vetoing it', that's it, we'd be having a different conversation.”

The post NJ Governor Murphy Vetoes Bill To Extend Purse Subsidies Through 2029; Drazin Optimistic Deal Will Still Get Done appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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So far this year, the answer to that question is that maybe things will be better in 2024 than we might have thought. There have been several recent positive developments for the sport, many of them having to do with state governments investing in the game's future.

We learned last week that the New Jersey Senate joined the state's Assembly in passing a bill that would extended a $10-million annual purse subsidy through 2029. Governor Phil Murphy is expected to sign the bill. New Jersey is one of only a handful of states where the racing industry does not receive revenue from gaming. Without the $10 million, Monmouth's purses wouldn't be large enough to compete with tracks in neighboring states. According to the Daily Racing Form, Monmouth distributed $31 million in purses over 56 live racing days, for an average of $553,000 a day, the highest in its history, with one-third of that money coming from the subsidy.

It wasn't that long ago that Monmouth was operated by the state and then Governor Chris Christie threatened to shut the track down. In 2011, he said that Monmouth would “disappear” if private management wasn't put in place at the state-owned facility.

The news out of New Jersey was just the latest example of a state government showing that it believes in the future of the sport. In Maryland, Governor Wes Moore endorsed a plan authored by the Maryland Thoroughbred Operating Authority that will overhaul racing in Maryland. The proposal, which is dubbed “Pimlico Plus,” would mean a re-envisioned Pimlico site, with a new clubhouse, stables for 700 horses, a 1,000-seat event space, 2,000-car parking garage, veterinary facilities, a possible hotel and other new amenities. Laurel will close once the new Pimlico is ready to open for business and a new training facility will be built at a site that has yet to be determined.

Pimlico Plus has a hefty price tag. According to the Baltimore Banner, the new Pimlico will cost between $274 million and $284 million, while the new training facility would cost about $113 million. In 2020, the Maryland General Assembly approved the sale of $375 million in bonds for capital improvements for Pimlico and Laurel. The projects that were on the table at the time stalled, but the $375 million is still available and, with legislative approval, can be used to rebuild Pimlico.

The deal would require 1/ST Racing and Gaming, which owns Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park, to transfer ownership of Pimlico to the state, and for 1/ST Racing to cede control of its day-to-day Thoroughbred operations to a non-profit entity as of Jan. 1, 2025. The non-profit entity would be structured so that it is similar to the New York Racing Association. 1/ST Racing will retain the rights to the GI Preakness S. and the GII Black-Eyed Susan S., which it would license to the non-profit operating authority.

The Maryland deal was announced about eight months after New York Governor Kathy Hochul's budget included a $455- million loan to NYRA that it will use to build a new Belmont Park, which is expected to open in 2026. Hochul did so despite fierce criticism from some advocacy groups, including PETA, that questioned the move. Victor Matheson, a Holy Cross College professor and expert on sports economics told the New York Post, “Basically it looks like with this project, you're kind of hitching your wagon to an industry that is in long-term decline.”

Belmont was last refurbished in the sixties and is a mammoth structure built during an era when 35,000 people might show up to the track on a Saturday afternoon. It is also not winterized, the primary reason why the Breeders' Cup has not been run at Belmont since 2005. New York racing needed a new Belmont and needed to consolidate so that there was just one downstate track. Thanks to Hochul, it's going to happen.

In October, Keeneland announced a major capital investment project highlighted by the construction of a permanent paddock building. Once again, a state government came forward to help with the costs. Keeneland is working with state and local government to secure incentive funds to support the project, which is expected to cost nearly $93 million. Already, upon the recommendation of the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet, Keeneland received preliminary approval from the Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority for incentives to support the project totaling up to $23.2 million.

“Keeneland is a historic destination for our local families and travelers, and this exciting investment will create more opportunities for everyone to enjoy, while boosting our signature horse racing industry and Kentucky's $12.9 billion tourism industry,” said Gov. Andy Beshear. “The horse racing industry is as indispensable to our economy as it is to our culture, and after a record-breaking year for tourism in 2022, leaders like Keeneland are going to help ensure Kentucky's success continues for years to come.”

Last week, we also learned that the purse for the Kentucky Derby has been raised to $5 million. It was $3 million. In addition, the 2024 spring meet at Churchill will offer purses totaling more than $25 million or a 25% increase over 2023.

This happened because Kentucky racing has never been healthier. Revenue from Historical Horse Racing Machines has created huge purses in the state. Maiden special weight races at Churchill Downs went for $120,000 and allowance races were worth $141,000 last fall.

“These record purse increases are a symbol of the health of horse racing in Kentucky,” Bill Carstanjen, CEO of Churchill Downs Incorporated said when announcing the Derby purse increase. “Churchill Downs Incorporated's over $1-billion investment into live and historical horse racing in Kentucky over the last five years has meaningfully strengthened the entire Kentucky Derby Week and year-round racing program. It's important to acknowledge the state legislature for its commitment to working closely with private enterprise in a truly collaborative partnership to support the continued growth of Kentucky's signature industry.”

None of this means that 2024 will be perfect or that we shouldn't brace ourselves for the next set of problems. But this sport is resilient, as the recent developments have shown. Let's hope for more of the same in 2024.

Triple Crown Purses

Churchill Downs was not the only track to raise the purse for its Triple Crown event. The purse for the GI Belmont S. has been increased to $2 million from $1.5 million. That's a step in the right direction, but it's not enough. Along with the Breeders' Cup, the Triple Crown races are supposed to be the sport's most important events. Their purses should reflect that. All three races should have purses of $5 million. As of now, there is a gap between the Derby and the $1.5-million Preakness and the Belmont, which isn't good for the Triple Crown. There should be enough money out there to have three $5-million races.

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The bill calls for a $20 million subsidy to be split evenly among the two breeds.

The money is seen as a critical lifeline as New Jersey's tracks do not receive revenue from any outside sources, namely from the Atlantic City casinos. Without the subsidy, Monmouth purses would fall behind those offered in nearby states like Pennsylvania and Maryland.

“What it does is give our breeders, owners and trainers opportunities through 2029,” said New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association Executive Director Michael Musto. “It establishes a continuation of the stability we have now in New Jersey. Thanks to Dennis Drazin [the chairman and CEO of Darby Development, operator of Monmouth Park] 100% of our money goes to overnight purses and that's the heart of what makes racing in New Jersey. It's really encouraging. It's really Dennis Drazin who makes this all possible.”

Earlier bills had already guaranteed the subsidy for 2024. The extension will now keep the subsidy in place through 2029.

According to the Daily Racing Form, last year, Monmouth distributed $31 million in purses over 56 live racing days, for an average of $553,000 a day, the highest in its history, with one-third of that money coming from the subsidy.

As a condition of receiving the subsidy, Monmouth, which is run by the state's horsemen, must issue a report to the legislature, the governor and the New Jersey Racing Commission on how the funds were appropriated.

The subsidies appear to be helping as Monmouth has recorded increases in average total handle and average on-track handle three straight years. The average total handle in 2023 was $4,032,648, an 11.4% increase over last year's average of $3,620,719.

Monmouth is scheduled to open on May 11 and run a 51-day meet. A 10 day meet of all-turf racing at the Meadowlands will commence when Monmouth closes.

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In a Dec. 22 filing in United States District Court (District of New Jersey), the judge in the case ordered both sides to file letters by Jan. 15 “if either party wishes to explain why this case should NOT be transferred back to the Central District of California.”

The judge explained his rationale: “This case relates entirely, or all-but-entirely, to alleged events at a 2021 horse race in Kentucky,” the judge wrote. “And this case was originally filed by the Plaintiffs in the Central District of California, before the Plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed their claims and re-filed them here. This is a case, in short, that has little, if anything, to do with New Jersey.”

The original version of the suit, led by Michael Beychok, the winner of the 2012 National Horseplayers Championship, was filed in California four days after Baffert's May 9, 2021, disclosure that Medina Spirit had tested positive for betamethasone after winning the May 1 Derby.

It wasn't until Aug. 22, 2023, that the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission's disqualification of Medina Spirit from the 2021 Derby–which also affirmed the elevation of runner-up Mandaloun as the official winner–was sustained after a long administrative appeals process.

Baffert, plus his incorporated racing stable, were named as the defendants back in 2021, and the plaintiffs' California-filed version of the suit made it a point to note that “Venue is also proper for these claims in this Court because Defendants reside and transact their affairs and conduct business in the State of California and, specifically, through this District.”

The more than 30 class members of that suit chose the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) Act as a tool to try and collect damages. In addition, they sought an order from the judge stating that Baffert must divest himself from the sport.

RICO is a sweeping 1970 federal statute initially designed to combat the Mafia. But in a legal sense, it has long since lost its “organized crime” stigma. RICO today is rarely used to go after stereotypical “godfather” figures. Instead, RICO has evolved as a civil litigation component, and is most often asserted by purported victims of white-collar crimes, such as mail and wire fraud.

Two months after its initial filing, the class-action complaint was withdrawn from the California federal court on July 22, 2021. One day later, an amended version of it resurfaced in New Jersey.

The New Jersey complaint from July 23, 2021, alleged that, “[Baffert's] multiple and repeated acts of doping and entering horses into Thoroughbred races, including the Kentucky Derby, constituted racketeering activity.”

In subsequent court documents, the plaintiffs explained why they believed New Jersey should now be the proper venue. They cited a legal precedent that involved a case in which the act of  simulcasting a race into New Jersey from another state “permits the Court to exercise personal jurisdiction over it.”

The plaintiffs also alleged that Baffert's purported doping fraud included his occasional starts at Monmouth Park.

But as far back as September 2021, when Baffert first moved for dismissal of this lawsuit, his court filing termed that switch from California to New Jersey “blatant forum shopping” because the new venue has “no meaningful connection to the allegations raised in their Complaint.”

The term “forum shopping” refers to the practice of litigants angling to get their case heard in the court thought most likely to result in a winning outcome. It is not illegal or unethical to forum shop, but judges can and do let parties know if they believe lawyers are stretching legal boundaries by trying to get their cases heard in venues that are most favorable to them.

Another Baffert filing, on Jan. 12, 2022, again alleged that the plaintiffs were off base in attempting to litigate the matter in New Jersey.

“The law is clear that there must be case-specific contacts with the forum state…” that filing stated. “Even if one were to accept Plaintiffs' tinfoil conspiratorial premise that Baffert engaged in a nationwide racketeering scheme to defraud individuals he never met, Plaintiffs would still have to establish that at least some of the alleged illicit conduct actually occurred in New Jersey. They have utterly failed to do so. This matter has zero connection to New Jersey and it must be dismissed.”

Earlier this year, a federal judge in Kentucky dismissed a similar (but entirely separate) class-action lawsuit initiated against Baffert by a group of horseplayers who alleged negligence, breach of contract, and unjust enrichment because their losing pari-mutuel bets on the 2021 Derby also weren't honored as winners.

Baffert's attorney in the New Jersey case, W. Craig Robertson III, made sure the judge in New Jersey was aware of that Kentucky dismissal when considering the motion to dismiss, which is still active and has yet to be ruled upon.

“Identical to this case, the [federal complaint in Kentucky] was commenced by a purported class of aggrieved gamblers against [Baffert] asserting claims connected to pari-mutuel payouts from the 2021 Kentucky Derby,” Robertson wrote in a July 26, 2023, letter to the U. S. District Court of New Jersey.

“The Western District of Kentucky dismissed those claims as a matter of law,” Robertson continued. “Specifically, the Court held that Kentucky's Rules of Racing govern all bets placed on the Kentucky Derby and because the Rules are clear that all payouts are final based on official race-day results, aggrieved gamblers have no injury at law and no viable cause of action even if race results are later altered.

“Similarly here, [Baffert seeks] dismissal of the case before Your Honor due to a lack of cognizable injury, whether under the RICO statute or otherwise,” Baffert's attorney wrote.

Counsel for the plaintiffs responded with their own letter to the judge Aug. 7, writing that the Kentucky decision “has no relevance or merit to the present matter” and that the “causes of action brought by the present Plaintiffs in this action are separate, distinct, and dissimilar from the claims brought by separate parties” in the dismissed Kentucky lawsuit.

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Lynch's attorney, John Mac Hayes, told TDN Monday that the trainer plans to appeal the arbitration result to a Federal Trade Commission administrative law judge.

A post-race drug screening revealed Altrenogest in Motion to Strike (Competitive Edge) after Lynch shipped the gelding to Monmouth Park for a June 24 race.

Motion to Strike ran fourth as the 7-10 favorite, and a $5,000 claim was subsequently voided after the HIWU test results came back positive.

Altrenogest is sold under the several brand names, including Regu-Mate. It is used in veterinary medicine to suppress or synchronize estrus in female horses and pigs.

The website of the National Library of Medicine states that Altrenogest is “a commonly used progestogen for the suppression of oestrus and associated distracting behaviors that interfere with training and performance of female racehorses.”

The website also notes that Altrenogest is “structurally similar to the anabolic androgenic steroid.”

However, Matt Hegarty of DRF.com, who was first to report on Lynch's penalties, pointed out a notable coincidence regarding Lynch's Nov. 9 arbitration judgment and a separate document released by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) Nov. 13 regarding proposed changes to the Anti-Doping and Medication Control (ADMC) program: The HISA Authority, Hegarty wrote, wants to reclassify Altrenogest as a controlled substance instead of its more severe “banned” status, “with recommended penalties starting at a fine of $500.” (The status change for Altrenogest was just one among numerous proposed rules changes outlined here.)

According to the decision written by arbitrator Bernetta Bush, a retired judge, when a HIWU investigator met Lynch at Belmont on July 20 to notify her of the Altrenogest adverse analytical finding, a search of the vehicle Lynch was driving revealed a container of Thyro-L, which is also banned under the ADMC rules.

Lynch had argued that the Altrenogest positive was cross-contamination as a result of Regu-Mate lawfully being administered to a filly that was supposedly housed in the stall next to Motion to Strike.

As for the Thyro-L, Lynch stated that earlier in the spring, she attempted to discard that newly banned substance by giving it to her mother. Yet she did not realize the drug had remained in her mother's vehicle instead of being thrown away. According to the arbitrator's report, Lynch said she was only driving her mother's vehicle on July 20 because she had lost the keys to her own car.

The arbitrator didn't buy the reasoning in either argument.

“Taken as a whole, Trainer Lynch has presented mere speculation, rather than competent evidence, regarding the source of the Altrenogest,” Bush wrote.

“[T]he uncontested evidence provided by Gregory Pennock, an investigator for the Agency whose testimony the Arbitrator credits as consistent with the record and not disputed with competent evidence, establishes that [the filly] was several–five to seven–stalls away from the Covered Horse, and that [the filly] had not been administered Altrenogest for five days before the day the sample was collected from [Motion to Strike],” Bush wrote.

“The record establishes that Altrenogest is administered orally and would have to be administered directly into the horse's mouth for contamination to occur, and that the amount detected in the sample is consistent with ingestion within 24 hours.”

Bush's ruling continued: “In connection with attempting to skirt liability, Trainer Lynch appears to have made many misrepresentations or inconsistent statements of fact which detract from the overall credibility of her testimony…. More specifically, regarding the Rules, the Arbitrator finds that Trainer Lynch bears significant fault for the presence of Altrenogest. This is not a case of simple negligence.

“Not only has Trainer Lynch failed to show any benign manner in which the substance entered the Covered Horse (a critical failure), but even if she had, Trainer Lynch had (and breached) a clear and unmistakable duty to protect the Covered Horse from any cross-contamination and otherwise comply with the Rules. No evidence presented mitigates the responsibility placed on Trainer Lynch by the Rules she is charged with disobeying.”

Taking up the charge of the Thyro-L, the arbitrator noted that Lynch had argued that her possession was not intentional, that she “wasn't trying to cheat,” and that none of the horses under her care had ever tested positive for that substance.

“Trainer Lynch offers many arguments to escape liability or mitigate the consequences of her unlawful possession, but none are persuasive such that she can carry her burden,” Bush wrote.

Hayes, Lynch's lawyer, classified the arbitrator's penalties as “unreasonably harsh.”

In a series of emailed bullet points, Hayes told TDN that the arbitrator “improperly discounted” expert testimony that was presented in Lynch's defense.

Hayes wrote that the arbitrator allegedly also “ignored the Federal Rules of Evidence and Civil Procedure” that have been established by the U.S. Supreme Court and instead “relied on International Law wholly inapplicable in federal court proceedings.”

Hayes also wrote that Regu-Mate is “not a doping agent” and that “no evidence of doping exists.”

Hayes added that the arbitrator allegedly “completely ignored” a different Regu-Mate positive “in a different horse who resided in the same barn where Natalia's horse had stood before racing.”

Hayes further claimed that “HIWU's own expert testified HIWU should have investigated the two positives coming from the same barn to determine if they might be related.”

According to a 2020 profile written by the Monmouth Park press office, Lynch, a Maryland native, had been enrolled in nursing school at Towson University when she started galloping horses a few years ago.

Lynch originally wanted to become a jockey, but switched her aspirations to training, the profile stated. She worked as an assistant to Brittany Russell, Jeremiah Englehart, and Ray Handal prior to getting licensed as a trainer, going out on her own three years ago when owner Al Gold offered to let her train nine horses from his Gold Square, LLC, stable.

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