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Given 22-Month Suspension From HIWU, Trainer Poole Calls Process A ‘Joke’

When two members of Gulfstream Park's security team and a veterinarian descended on his barn on the morning of June 2, the 62-year-old trainer Jeff Poole didn't think he had anything to worry about. According to the Jockey Club's Thoroughbred Regulatory Rulings website, Poole, who has been training since 1989, had never had a violation of any kind. And his recent record–he had won 11 races combined since 2021–hardly suggested that he was a trainer who was taking an edge.

Even when investigators found in his office a tube of Thyro-L, which is used with horses for the correction of conditions associated with low-circulating thyroid hormone, Poole wasn't that alarmed. He was given a prescription for the medication in September to use on a horse that was subsequently transferred to another trainer a month later. He says he had not used the drug on any horse since. At the time, it was perfectly legal to use the drug if a prescription had been obtained and in the states Poole raced in, Florida and Ohio, it was not illegal to possess the medication.

Then everything changed on May 22 when the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) took over, handling the drug testing at most U.S. racetracks and levying the penalties for those who were found to have violated HIWU rules. Under the new Anti-Doping and Medication Control (ADMC) rules, the mere possession of Thyro-L was a serious violation as the drug had been designated a banned substance. Suspensions for banned substances carry suspensions of up to two years.

Jeff Poole was in a lot of trouble.

“I was totally unaware I had (Thyro-L),” he said. “I would have thrown it away. I wasn't even using it and they don't accuse me of using it. All they've accused me of is having it. It is not a performance-enhancing drug. This is a joke.”

Poole got the prescription for use on a horse named King Andres on Sept. 27, 2022 while the horse was training at Thistledown. After that race, he was transferred to the barn of trainer Randy Faulkner. The Thyro-L prescription was written by Dr. Scott Shell. In what may be nothing more than a coincidence, Shell was provisionally suspended by HIWU for being in possession of banned substances, none of which were Thyro-L.

From Thistledown, Poole shipped to Tampa Bay Downs and then to Gulfstream. He said that on each occasion his employees packed up everything that wasn't nailed down in his tack room and office, which included the tube of Thyro-L. While it should have been thrown away, it was simply forgotten and thrown in with the rest of Poole's belongings.

One thing Poole cannot do and has not tried to do is claim ignorance. He admits that on March 15, 2023, while at Tampa Bay Downs, he sat in on a presentation from HIWU Chief of Science Dr. Mary Scollay in which Scollay warned trainers that new rules were about to go into effect and that they needed to get rid of medications that were about to fall into the banned substance category. Thyro-L was specifically mentioned.

“I'm hitting myself over the head,” Poole said. “This is so stupid. I could have gotten rid of the stuff. I just didn't think about it. Too much else on my mind.”

Poole decided to fight, which led to having a hearing before an arbitrator that took place on July 26. That gave him plenty of time to think, beginning with why someone would have inspected his barn in the first place.

“They said someone tipped them off that it was in my office,” Poole said. “As far as I'm concerned, they must have sent a stool pigeon into my place. I never would have let anybody in my office who wasn't a friend. And if a friend saw it and knew what was going on, they would have said 'Jeff, get rid of that stuff. You're not allowed to have it anymore.'”

He's also followed other HIWU cases and claims a pattern is emerging whereby it seems that the majority of those who have been suspended are small-time trainers with limited resources. (Ironically, in his ruling, arbitrator Jeffrey Benz referred to Poole as a “high-level trainer of thoroughbred racehorses.”)

“(HISA CEO) Lisa Lazarus talks about how they're not trying to get rid of the little people but it looks to me like that's exactly what they're trying to do,” Poole said. “They gave me 22 months and I never had a bad drug test on a horse ever. They don't care about destroying a man's life when it's totally unnecessary. Horses are my life.”

Lazarus has had to respond to accusations that HISA is targeting small stables many times. When asked to comment on Poole's accusations she said “The ADMC program is completely unbiased” and referred to a letter to the editor she wrote to the TDN that addressed that issue.

During the first weeks of his suspension, Poole did nothing. He remained convinced that his side of the story would hit home with whomever was to decide his fate and that he would be exonerated. He was, of course, wrong.

“I thought this would all be straightened out,” he said. “I never dreamt they'd do this to me. I sat for months with no income. It got to the point where I couldn't keep doing it. I couldn't make a red cent. There was nothing but money going out.”

Once the arbitrator ruled against him, upheld the 22-month suspension plus a $10,000 fine and ordered Poole to pay $8,000 in arbitration costs, he knew he had to do something. While most trainers who have been provisionally suspended by HIWU have sat on the sidelines, Poole moved his stable to Mountaineer Park. HISA does not have jurisdiction over West Virginia racing. The same goes for Louisiana. So Poole is free to race in both states.

“West Virginia is not my home,” he said. “This is not where I want to be. My home is in Tampa, Florida. Every year I look forward to going home. After Mountaineer closes, my only option is to try to get stalls in Louisiana at the Fair Grounds. That's not a place I ever wanted to go to in my life, but it's either that or welcome to Walmart.”

Poole realizes he made mistakes. He was told by Scollay that Thyro-L was going to become a banned substance and that he needed to get rid of it if he had any in his barn. He ignored her warning. He also understands the trainer responsibility rule. No matter what he might think about the rules regarding Thyro-L, he was in possession of a banned substance and under the trainer responsibility rule he had set himself up for a penalty.

But what he can't understand is why he was suspended 22 months and fined $18,000 for what he considers to be a very minor offense.

“I expected to probably be fined for not discarding it,” he said. “But 22 months? If they think that's fair, that's beyond me. Officials, trainers, owners, everybody is telling me how unfair it was what they did to me. But I didn't see it coming. I don't think I deserve anything more than a possible fine.”

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West Virginia Derby Switches to Sunday This Season

Mountaineer Park's premier stakes, the GIII West Virginia Derby, will shift to the first Sunday in August with a later post time this year in an effort to make the $500,000, nine-furlong race for 3-year-olds better stand out against national simulcast competition.

The West Virginia Derby, plus the supporting GIII $200,000 West Virginia Governor's S. at 1 1/16 miles for 3-year-olds and up, will now be carded Sunday, Aug. 6, after the track received unanimous permission for that change at Tuesday's West Virginia Racing Commission (WVRC) meeting.

The purses for both stakes remain level from last year.

Jim Colvin, Mountaineer's racing director, detailed to commissioners the reasons for the switch.

“This year, we are requesting to run our Derby on Sunday versus Saturday [because] we are trying to stay off the Grade I races [at competing tracks] on Saturday. I know there was some problems in the past about races overlapping, That was one of the reasons,” Colvin said.

In 2022, the West Virginia Derby went off at 5:56 p.m. Eastern, just seven minutes after Saratoga's GI Whitney S., the nation's marquee race that Saturday. In 2021, the West Virginia Derby went off a 5:39 p.m., 11 minutes ahead of the 5:50 p.m. Whitney.

“We are also changing the [first] post time to 5 p.m. instead of the normal 2 p.m. post time on Derby day,” Colvin continued. “The seventh and eighth races, which would be the Derby and Governor's races, would be close to being in prime time on TVG as well.”

Starting Apr. 30, Mountaineer will race 124 dates on Sundays through Tuesdays, with Wednesdays added June 21-Dec. 13. Colvin said another aim with the switch to Sunday is so bettors don't get caught off guard with the Derby being carded on a non-standard Saturday.

“We felt, honestly, to move back to a [regularly] scheduled race day would [keep customers from] getting confused on what days [we're] racing,” Colvin said.

Also at the Apr. 18 meeting, Mountaineer was unanimously granted approval by the WVRC to be reimbursed out of the capital improvement fund for two recentl projects.

One was a $44,000 main track sand upgrade project. Ironically, even though West Virginia is one of two states (along with Louisiana) that is under a federal injunction that will keep the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) Authority's rules from being implemented until a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of HISA gets decided in full, Mountaineer has opted to abide by one of the HISA standards regarding track safety in case that injunction expires during the running of the upcoming meet.

WVRC executive director Joe Moore explained it this way: “In the Racetrack Safety Program, HISA requires the racetracks to replace and regrade their sand on an annual basis. Mountaineer, even though we're not under HISA, saw this as a safety issue and wanted to go ahead and complete it before the start of this racing meet, in the chance that HISA would come into effect in West Virginia [sometime] during their meet and require them [to either do] this or stop racing until it's completed.”

Colvin pointed out that Mountaineer totally replaced its main track two years ago, so the project recently completed this spring was more along the lines of routine maintenance to ensure a 5 1/2-inch uniformity of the top layer.

“At whatever point we do fall under {HISA's rules], this is basically a project that's going to have to be done annually to meet their requirements,” Colvin said. “When you have rain, some of the track ends up [washed] between the main track and the turf course. Therefore, the sand has to be replaced. We just put 300-some tons of sand on the track when we did this. It was low in some places [and] we had to add the material to get the surface consistent with the other parts of the track.”

The WVRC also approved a $79,620 capital improvement reimbursement for a rebuilt outdoor viewing deck.

“Mountaineer Park, on their apron, they have a very large deck for viewing the races,” Moore explained. “This year, the deck was in such poor shape that it was necessary, before patrons [could use it], to tear it down and replace it.”

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Charles Town Requests 15 Fewer Dates in ’23

Charles Town Races on Tuesday was approved for a reduction of 15 dates for 2023 compared to its 2022 allotment, with the understanding that the 164-program schedule could be revisited mid-year to include additional dates if finances warrant extra racing.

The awarding of race dates in West Virginia is a somewhat confusing several-step process bound by a state statute that requires Charles Town to apply for 220 programs every year. The state's other Thoroughbred track, Mountaineer Park, is required to apply for 210 dates.

But what has ended up happening in recent seasons is that after the initial approvals of 220 and 210 dates by the West Virginia Racing Commission (WVRC), both venues have subsequently come back before the commission to ask for reductions that reflect what each track and its respective Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA) think is a workable schedule based on available purse funds.

At the Nov. 14 WVRC meeting, Mountaineer was granted additional approval to reduce its schedule to 124 dates in 2023, a six-program cutback from the 130 that the track was awarded in 2022.

Also at that Nov. 14 meeting, WVRC executive director Joe Moore noted that Charles Town was approved for 179 programs in 2022.

But at the Dec. 20 meeting, Moore said that Charles Town ended up racing just 173 dates because of cancellations during the 2022 season just completed Dec. 17.

So prior to the 3-0 unanimous vote by commissioners Tuesday, Charles Town's revised 164-date request was framed by Moore as a nine-date reduction based on the actual number of programs.

But as per the 179-date allotment he had previously stated in November, it's a parsing of 15 cards.

“The request comes with the agreement [by] the racetrack and the HBPA that they will meet in July to revisit their live race schedule and their available purse monies to assess whether there is a possibility of adding any days towards the end of the calendar year,” Moore said.

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HISA Visits Mountaineer During Chronic Vet Shortage at Track

A representative of the Horse Racing Integrity Act's (HISA) Racetrack Safety Team has been on the grounds at Mountaineer Park in West Virginia this past week–at a time when the track is experiencing an ongoing chronic shortage of attending, association and regulatory veterinarians, according to observers.

According to Jami Poole, president of the Mountaineer Horseman's Benevolent and Protective Association (MHBPA), there is often no veterinarian on the facility's grounds during training hours.

“I'm not pleased about the vet situation here in the morning time,” said Poole, who estimated that training is conducted at Mountaineer for about 50% of the time without a veterinarian on the grounds to ensure that any potentially stricken horse is attended to immediately.

Poole declined to answer when asked if the veterinary shortage at Mountaineer has led to any instances of horses' welfare put in jeopardy.

One unnamed source, however–who asked to remain anonymous for fear of professional reprisal–said that the lack of a veterinarian on the grounds during training has led to one instance, which occurred about two months ago, of an injured horse remaining unattended for a prolonged period of time.

“The horse broke down at around 8:30 in the morning,” said the source. The nearest veterinarian was around 30 minutes away, according to two other sources.

According to Lori Bohenko, the West Virginia Racing Commission's (WVRC) regulatory veterinarian at Mountaineer, there have been two fatalities during morning training at Mountaineer this year. The other, Bohenko said, was a sudden death for which she was present on the track.

The veterinary shortage during training, said Poole, has been ongoing since the start of the year. Curiously, neither the WVRC nor HISA requires a racing association like Mountaineer to maintain a veterinarian presence during training hours.

“Many tracks exceed the current HISA regulations to provide veterinary coverage whenever horses are on the racetrack, and HISA strongly encourages the few that do not provide this care to re-examine their practices and do everything possible to ensure veterinary care is available at all times,” wrote HISA director of racetrack safety Ann McGovern in emailed answers to a series of questions.

McGovern added that the HISA Racetrack Safety representative who visited Mountaineer was working with track management “to provide support and help bring Mountaineer into compliance with HISA's Racetrack Safety standards.”

A dearth of veterinarians at Mountaineer raises equine welfare concerns in other ways, according to those on the grounds.

Aside from no association veterinarians at Mountaineer, Poole said that there was only one full-time attending veterinarian for the entire backstretch–what sources estimate to be typically between 400 and 600 horses.

There should, said Poole, be at least two full-time attending veterinarians for the backstretch. “Good if we had four,” he said, adding that a veterinarian from Texas has expressed interest in working at Mountaineer next year. “I hope she doesn't change her mind,” he said.

Furthermore, the lone regulatory veterinarian who conducts pre-race examinations is sometimes late to the facility due to conflicting work commitments, Poole said. This has occasionally led to pre-race examinations being conducted in the paddock, immediately before a race, he said.

“It's happened probably three times,” said Poole, adding that the sheer workload at Mountaineer was too large for just one regulatory veterinarian. “We couldn't do without her, so you've got to work around her schedule, too,” said Poole, about Bohenko.

The WVRC's other regulatory veterinarian for Mountaineer, Jon Day, retired this past May.

Poole said that he has repeatedly alerted the WVRC, Mountaineer track management and HISA to the veterinary shortage at the track.

The WVRC executive director Joe Moore, did not dispute Poole's claims. “The Racing Commission is aware of the shortage of racetrack veterinarians, not only in WV, but across the country,” wrote Moore, highlighting an industry-wide problem hitting smaller tracks like Turf Paradise especially hard.

When asked what steps the WVRC has taken to correct the veterinary shortage at Mountaineer, Moore wrote that the commission has increased the rate of pay for regulatory veterinarians in recent years.

However, when it comes to private attending veterinarians on the backside, they are there “at the request/contract of the Mountaineer Horsemen,” wrote Moore.

When asked about the track's veterinary shortage, Jim Colvin, Mountaineer's director of racing, wrote, “You will have to address the veterinarian questions to Joe Moore from the WV Racing Commission since Mountaineer has no vets that work for us or are employed by us.”

Colvin failed to answer follow-up questions about whether Mountaineer has attempted to hire association veterinarians to assist the commission's regulatory team and to cover holes during training. Colvin also failed to respond to questions about the recent visit by a HISA representative.

When asked the same question, Moore wrote that commission management was not involved with the HISA representative's visit to Mountaineer Park. “I'm certain he spoke with Racing Commission staff while onsite. However, I have no further details about said conversations.”

HISA's McGovern left the door open to the new federal organization stepping in to fill the veterinary holes at Mountaineer.

“Should HISA determine that safety is compromised at a covered racetrack, HISA has the authority to place a vet at the racetrack, at the racetrack's expense,” she wrote. “HISA has compensated Regulatory and Association veterinarians to enforce HISA regulations. Those expenses are billed back to the racetrack.”

McGovern wrote that HISA “recognizes the national shortage of Equine veterinarians and has had internal discussions about programs to incentivize veterinary students to consider Equine medicine.”

She added, however, “those plans are longer term and do not address the immediate needs.”

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