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Parx-Based Trainer Pearce Hit With 1,950-Day Suspension

Trainer Penny Pearce has been issued a suspension of 1,950 days and fined $23,500 by the Pennsylvania Racing Commission after six horses under her care tested positive for clenbuterol during out-of-competition tests.

The penalties were announced after her barn at Parx was inspected June 22. During the inspection, investigators also found hypodermic needles, syringes and injectable substances. The suspension is scheduled to run from Sept. 11, 2022 through Jan. 12, 2028.

The Paulick Report was first with the story and has also reported that Pearce has filed an appeal.

Pearce began training in 2012 and, prior to 2021, never won more than 16 races in a year. During the 2012-to-2020 period, her winning rate was 11%. That changed in 2021 when she went 32-for-137 (23%). Her success has continued this year as she has posted a record of 23-for-84 (27%).

In June of 2021, Pearce reportedly hired former trainer Ramon Preciado as a groom. In 2016, Preciado's owner and trainer licenses were revoked after a horse he trained named Purcell (Jump Start) tested positive for clenbuterol in a post-race test. In the ruling covering Purcell, the racing commission noted that Preciado had a record of “multiple medication violations.” Despite Preciado's record of violations, the racing commission decided to grant him a groom's license and he went to work for Pearce.

The Pearce-trained horses that tested positive for clenbuterol were Mischievous Jones (Smarty Jones), Musamaha (Jack Milton), Relativlea (Lea), Call Me GQ (Weigelia), Market Maven (Super Ninety Nine) and an unnamed horse. Had there been just one clenbuterol positive, Pearce would have received a suspension of just 30 days. Instead, the commission used an escalating scale, with the number of days she was suspended increasing with each subsequent positive. For the sixth positive, she was suspended for 960 days.

“In accordance with ARCI medication and penalty guidelines, based upon the number of medication positives, the board of stewards finds aggravating circumstances in these matters,” the ruling reads.

In June, Monmouth Park stewards suspended Pearce for 15 days and fined her $500 after a horse she trained tested positive for clenbuterol following a May 29 race at the Jersey Shore track.

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Guess Who’s Back: Preciado Granted Stable Employee License At Parx

Five years after his owner and trainer licenses were revoked in Pennsylvania, Ramon Preciado is back on the backstretch at Parx. Preciado was granted a stable employee's license in December 2020 and has been working as a groom for trainer Penny Pearce ever since, according to his attorney, Alan Pincus.

State stewards ordered Preciado's licenses revoked in December 2016 after one of his runners was positive in a post-race test for clenbuterol. The racing commission apparently felt the positive, which came following a race in July, was the last straw. The test results came in as Preciado was appealing a 270-day suspension for eight medication violations that occurred earlier in the year. Parx banned Preciado from its grounds in April 2016, a move which Preciado contested in court.

A former Preciado employee would later be arrested on one count of rigging a publicly exhibited contest after she said she illegally administered clenbuterol to Preciado horses to seek revenge against the trainer. That employee, Marian Vega, was deferred to Pennsylvania's Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition Program and bypassed a trial.

At the end of 2016, Pincus said his client decided to accept the decisions of the track and the commission, and made plans to reapply for a license at a future date, should he show he had “rehabilitated.” In 2018, Preciado's application for a stable employee license was denied due to “his background and numerous medication violations.” At the end of last year however, Pincus said Preciado's application was granted. He still does not hold an owner's license.

Pearce, meanwhile, is having her best year yet. While her win percentage in 2020 was 8 percent, it jumped to 25 percent thus far in 2021. She has sent out 36 runners, which have picked up nine wins, six seconds and two thirds, meaning she finishes in the money 47 percent of the time now.

“I imagine that, he's a top-flight horseman, that, you know, he would function as a groom and she could benefit from his expertise with the horses,” said Pincus of Preciado's role in Pearce's shedrow.

One of Pearce's runners, Beto's Girl, moved to the barn earlier this year after a second-place effort at Tampa Bay Downs and is now owned by the partnership of JAG Racing and Jettany Thoroughbred Corp, which ran horses with Preciado prior to his license revocation.

When asked about the distinction between a trainer's role and Preciado's function as a groom, Pincus said, “A trainer is in charge, enters the horses, supervises everything. He, like any other employee, assists in whatever way he can, but he's not the trainer.”

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One-Horse Stable Bringing Longshot Market Maven To Wood Memorial

Market Maven will provide Aqueduct's Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial presented by Resorts World Casino some intrigue as the Pennsylvania homebred will make his first stakes appearance after making his first four career starts at his home base at Parx.

The Super Ninety Nine gelding is the only horse currently in training for owner [and breeder] Gregory Gordon, who has compiled 10 wins, four runner-up efforts and three third-place finishes with 23 starters since sending out his first starter in 2013.

Market Maven has improved his career speed figures in every race, beginning with a 39 Beyer in a sixth-place debut effort in November to a 48 in a runner-up effort on December 22. Making his sophomore debut, Market Maven registered a maiden-breaking one-length score that garnered a 74 number and followed with an 81 for his four-length score against optional claimers going a mile and 70 yards last out on February 23 over a sloppy and sealed track.

Trainer Penny Pearce, who will saddle her first career graded stakes starter, said Market Maven has been training forwardly since, prompting the connections to be ambitious in nominating to Aqueduct's signature race with 100-40-20-10 qualifying points to the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby available to the top-four finishers.

“Every time we take him out there, he gets a bit better every time,” Pearce said. “We really don't know what we have yet. You can't win it if you ain't in it. We're all pretty excited. I don't think anyone is more excited than Gregory; he bred and raised him and he's the only one he has in training. When he came to me about this race, I was a little [surprised]. But we started talking about it and we said, 'why not?' He's a nice horse and has talent.”

The Wood Memorial, which has seen 11 of its winners go on to the win the “Run for the Roses,” will also be an opportunity for jockey Dexter Haddock to compete in a prestigious stake. Haddock, primarily based on the Parx circuit, has been aboard for all four of Market Maven's previous starts, developing a strong rapport that Pearce said she wanted to maintain.

“He's the only jock that's been on him since I got him; Dexter's done all the work with him,” Pearce said. “That gives me a little more confidence because he knows him better than anyone.”

Market Maven has won as the front-runner in his last two starts, though Pearce said he has the skill-set to be versatile.

“I think if he could get up close to the lead or get the lead, [ it would be his preferred trip] he could run it like his last race. But he can come from a little out of it, too, so never know. It all looks good on paper but you go out there and everything changes when you come out of the gate.

“He's good-natured and quiet, so I think he'll be all right,” she added.

Pearce has a ledger of 102-112-123 in 883 career starts since going out on her own in 2012. She said running in a historic New York stakes will be a special event for her family-run operation and a nice reward for both Gordon and Haddock as well.

“Greg just told me let's go have fun and there's no pressure and no stress,” said Pearce. “He said, 'let's go have a day of fun.' This day will be exciting for everyone but especially for him; I'll be happy to see him do good and Dexter. We're a family-run barn here, so we're a team. I have my husband and my children working here and my nephew and his wife are stabled with us. It's a seven-day a week job and we all work hard and these kind of horses don't come around every day.”

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