Tag: The Biz

New Zealand's Judicial Control Authority has issued a 10-year ban to harness racing trainer Phillip Burrows after he admitted to injecting a horse with 30 milliliters of vodka and to tubing it with a mixture of bicarbonate of soda, Epsom salts, brown sugar and water, reports the NZ Herald.

On Nov. 8, morning of the iconic Cup Day at Addington Raceway in Christchurch, Racing Integrity Board investigators conducted covert surveillance of Rakero Racing Stables. Burrows and Matthew Anderson, a former harness racing star who was at that time a prohibited person under the Racing Industry Act, were caught on video injecting Rakero Rebel, and shortly thereafter, tubing the horse with less than four hours before the race.

RIB investigators stopped Burrows before he left the property with the horse; Burrows admitted to injecting and tubing Rakero Rebel. The trainer then assisted in the investigation, showing investigators the tubing equipment and vodka.

The investigators scratched Rakero Rebel from the Group 1 race in which the 3-year-old filly had been entered, and told Burrows to take the horse to Addington Raceway for testing. The test results showed no prohibited substances.

“It's a Group 1 race and you just feel like you're behind the eight ball sometimes and you just want to do your best, get the best result you can for the owners,” Burrows later explained.

Read more at the NZ Herald.

The post New Zealand: Harness Trainer Banned 10 Years After Admitting To Injecting Horse With Vodka appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

The 148th running of the Preakness Stakes (G1), Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown, and 99th renewal of the $300,000 Black-Eyed Susan (G2) highlights a spectacular weekend of racing featuring 15 stakes, eight graded, worth $3.5 million in purses on May 19 and 20 at historic Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md.

The $1.5 million Preakness for 3-year-olds going 1 3/16 miles is the centerpiece of the weekend and the Preakness Meet at Pimlico, scheduled to run May 11 to June 4. There are nine stakes, five graded, worth $2.5 million in purses on the Preakness Day program on Saturday, May 20.

Other graded stakes on the undercard are the $200,000 Dinner Party (G3) for 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/8 miles on the grass; $200,000 Chick Lang (G3) for 3-year-olds and $100,000 Maryland Sprint (G3) for 3-year-olds and up, each sprinting six furlongs; and $100,000 Gallorette (G3) where fillies and mares 3 and older will travel 1 1/16 miles on the turf.

Four $100,000 races round out the Preakness Day stakes – the 1 1/16-mile Sir Barton for 3-year-old non-winners of a sweepstakes and six-furlong Skipat for fillies and mares 3 and up on dirt and the five-furlong Jim McKay Turf Sprint for 3-year-olds and up and one-mile James W. Murphy for 3-year-olds on the grass.

The 1 1/8-mile Black-Eyed Susan, one of the most prestigious events in the country for 3-year-old fillies, holds its traditional spot on the Preakness Eve program Friday, May 19 featuring six stakes, three graded, worth $1 million in purses.

The historic $300,000 Pimlico Special (G3) for 3-year-olds and up, contested at the Preakness distance of 1 3/16 miles, and $150,000 Miss Preakness (G3) for 3-year-old fillies sprinting six furlongs top the Black-Eyed Susan undercard.

Three $100,000 stakes round out the program – the 1 1/8-mile Allaire du Pont for fillies and mares 3 and up on dirt and the five-furlong The Very One for fillies and mares 3 and older and one-mile Hilltop for 3-year-old fillies on the turf.

Live racing is currently being conducted at Laurel Park for its winter meet that began Jan. 1 and runs through March 31.

Preakness Weekend: https://www.pimlico.com/sites/www.pimlico.com/files/PDF/2023-Pimlico-Stakes.pdf

The post Pimlico: Preakness Weekend To Feature 15 Stakes Worth $3.5 Million appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board has issued what is believed to be its longest ban in recent times, finding trainer Ronan McNally guilty of multiple integrity breaches, reports the Racing Post. The IHRB's referrals committee published its report on Jan. 31, 2023, announcing the 12-year ban and a fine of €50,000 as well as the return of over €13,000 in prize-money.

“The committee regards the findings against Mr. McNally as very serious,” the report stated. “His offences strike at the integrity and the objective of having a level playing field for all who send horses out to race. They also involved a deception of the public, especially the betting public.”

In December 2022, the committee found McNally had “used the racecourse as a training ground and schooled in public with the objective of acquiring a lenient official handicap rating for his horses,” and was deemed to have achieved “a pattern of improvement in form of horses at a level previously unfamiliar to experienced and long-serving handicapping officials.”

Several of McNally's sanctions related to the races of jumps performers Dreal Deal and The Jam Man. The committee found that McNally passed on information about Dreal Deal to allow others to profit from betting on the horse.

McNally was also found to have concealed his ownership of horses in other training yards and orchestrated a “manipulation of their official handicap ratings.”

Trainer David Dunne was found guilty in 36 cases in which All Class, Full Noise, and Petrol Head ran in his name while McNally's ownership of the horses was concealed. Dunne was handed a two-year suspension of his license, with the final 18 months of that suspended for two years, as well as a €5,000 fine and forfeiture of prize-money that was deemed to have been won by illicit means.

Four others were sanctioned due to their roles in the integrity breaches: point-to-point handler Ciaran Fennessy and jockeys Darragh O'Keeffe, Eoin O'Brien and Mark Enright. Fennessy received a three-year ban, with the final two years suspended for a period of five years, as well as a €5,000 fine. O'Brien was suspended 21 race days, while Enright  and O'Keefe were both cautioned as to their “duty to report.”

Read more at the Racing Post, and find the full IHRB report here.

The post Irish Trainer Ronan McNally Banned 12 Years Over ‘Very Serious’ Integrity Breaches appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen plans to appeal the 30-day suspension handed down last week by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, attorney Clark Brewster told the Daily Racing Form this week.

Brewster said Asmussen will file a petition in Franklin Circuit Court in Kentucky, arguing that he followed well-known standards for oral administration of the sedative Acepromazine and that the original hearing officer applied the “wrong burden of proof” in the case.

“There are a number of issues here that I think are important to the industry and horsemen in general,” Brewster told DRF.

The case dates back to 2018, when two Asmussen trainees showed post-race positives for metabolites of the sedative Acepromazine: Thousand Percent after winning the second race at Churchill Downs on June 28, 2018; and Boldor after winning the sixth race at Keeneland on Oct. 25, 2018.

The post Steve Asmussen Plans Appeal Of KHRC’s 30-Day Suspension Over 2018 Ace Positives appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post