Tag: The Biz

Overwhelming Submissions Received For NYRA’s Inaugural Big Data Derby

A total of 106 submissions were received for the inaugural Big Data Derby, a competition requiring entrants to provide a machine-learning model to analyze all manner of data regarding horseracing tactics, strategies and path efficiencies.

Sponsored by the New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) and the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (NYTHA) in partnership with the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association, Equibase, The Jockey Club, Breeders' Cup and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association (TOBA), the Big Data Derby launched with a goal of better understanding the vast data set at hand to racing organizations, and to potentially develop new ways of racing and training in a highly traditional industry.

“Our main objective with this competition was to see if qualified data scientists could utilize horse-tracking data to improve the sport's collective knowledge in key areas such as equine welfare and performance,” said NYTHA President Joe Appelbaum.

The Big Data Derby offers a total of $50,000 in prize money with $20,000 awarded to the winner and $10,000 each to the next three placings. The competition is held on Kaggle, a global data science platform with over 500,000 active users where participants compete by using machine learning to solve problems ranging from the trivial to the extremely complex.

A total of 9,349 potential competitors accessed the competition's four data files providing NYRA racing data from 2019 along with in-race horse tracking information. A wide and varied range of submissions offered models that shed light on injury prevention, jockey decision making metrics, race tactics, track bias and more. An open notebook of user-created content and data can be viewed at: https://www.kaggle.com/competitions/big-data-derby-2022/code.

“The response in both participants and submissions highlights the interest in alternative data sets and bodes well for potential future applications. We are very much looking forward to the results of the competition,” said Joe Longo, NYRA's General Manager of Content Services.

A judging committee will score the submissions based on four categories – Innovation [25 points], Relevance [30 points], Competence [25 points] and Presentation [20 points]. Winners will be announced in early December.

For more information, please visit https://www.kaggle.com/competitions/big-data-derby-2022.

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Doug O’Neill Suspended 30 Days, Fined $10,000 For Lidocaine Positive

Two-time Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Doug O'Neill has been suspended 30 days and fined $10,000 for a medication violation that occurred at Golden Gate Fields in Albany, Calif., on May 1, 2022, when Reddam Racing LLC's Worse Read Sanchez tested positive for lidocaine after a third-place finish in the Silky Sullivan Stakes.

The stipulated agreement calls for a 60-day suspension, with 30 days to be stayed “for good cause.”

O'Neill was suspended 30 days and fined $7,500 in March 2021 for a previous lidocaine positive, with 20 days of that suspension stayed.

Lidocaine, a local anesthetic, is a Class 2 drug with a Category B penalty under California Horse Racing Board rules.

According to the complaint, Worse Read Sanchez was found by the UC Davis laboratory to have 180 picograms per milliliter of 3-Hydroxy Lidocaine in his system. O'Neill requested a split sample be tested by Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory, and that lab confirmed the presence of the drug at time of testing.

The reduction of the suspension from 60 to 30 days – conditioned on there being no further Class 1, Class 2 or Class 3 drug violations during a probationary period from May 1, 2020, through May 1, 2023 – means O'Neill can turn the stable over to an assistant during his absence.

Under CHRB rules, a 60-day suspension would have required O'Neill to transfer his horses to someone other than a family member or employee. In addition, O'Neill would have been required to forfeit all stalls assigned to him and remove all signage, training-related equipment, tack, office equipment and other property. Those sanctions do not reply with 30 days of the original suspension stayed.

Stewards set the days of his suspension from Nov. 21 through Dec. 20, meaning O'Neill will miss the final two weeks of Del Mar's Bing Crosby season and the six-day Los Alamitos winter Thoroughbred meet.

O'Neill, who has been a licensed trainer since 1988, has won 2,738 races from 17,052 starts. In addition to his two Kentucky Derby victories (I'll Have Another in 2012 and Nyquist in 2016), O'Neill has saddled five Breeders' Cup winners.

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Indiana Suspends, Fines Two Veterinarians Four Months After Offense Date

Stewards in Indiana issued 60-day suspensions and $5,000 fines to two veterinarians on Nov. 7 after determining they violated commission rules prohibiting possession of non-FDA approved drugs.

Drs. Cynthia Loomis and Nicole Wettstein, both practitioners at Equine Medical Associates, were also handed summary suspensions banning them from racetrack grounds.

The rulings also cited both for “possession of non-FDA approved compounds, where there are FDA approved, commercially available medications to appropriately treat a horse; possession of improperly compounded substances which contain non-FDA approved ingredients; and, possession of drugs that do not meet the labeling requirements established in IHRC regulations.”

The rulings both list an infraction date of July 5, 2022. That is one day after Loomis was summarily suspended alongside trainer/owner/agent Marvin Johnson after officials alleged she treated two of his horses on race day. The commission ultimately failed to bring a charge against her regarding that alleged treatment.

When reached by the Paulick Report on Nov. 14, Loomis said that a tack room used by her and Wettstein for medication and equipment storage at Horseshoe Indianapolis was locked up at the time of the alleged infraction related to Johnson. When the commission failed to bring a charge against her related to that case but sought to extend her summary suspension through the end of this year, Loomis went before an administrative law judge in an attempt to lift the summary suspension. On Oct. 15, an administrative law judge found in Loomis' favor and ended the summary suspension, citing a time limit the commission had to bring a formal charge.

Loomis says it was after this Oct. 15 decision from the administrative law judge that the Indiana commission notified her they intended to unlock and search the storage room.

The November ruling stems from that search, and Loomis says it refers to compounded phenylbutazone paste and powder in that tack room. Loomis said she had the drug in compounded forms because the mass-produced version was on long-term backorder in July.

Compounded versions of mass-produced FDA-approved drugs are considered legal in some circumstances when there is a significant or long-term supply chain disruption of the commercial version of the drug.

She also said investigators found expired isoxsuprine, which was in the storage room awaiting a trip back to her primary base in Kentucky for appropriate disposal.

“It's absurd, is what it is. It's just another hoop to jump through,” said Loomis. “This is their last attempt to keep me suspended in some way, to keep me off the grounds through the end of the meet. Which is ridiculous, because I don't want to go back to Indiana anyway.”

Loomis and Wettstein were both cited since they both have their names on the storage room. Wettstein was served with medication labeling violations on July 15, but then postponed her hearing until October.

Both veterinarians have appealed the ruling.

“It is clear that the IHRC, after having been denied the ability to renew Dr. Loomis's original summary suspension from July 4, 2022, set a hearing regarding other alleged violations as a way to circumvent the lift of the original summary suspension and re-suspend Loomis,” read the appeal in part. “Dr. Loomis has been and continues to be irreparably harmed because she cannot work in Indiana or in any other jurisdiction and her reputation and excellent veterinarian record have been irreversibly tarnished. To date, the IHRC has not filed an administrative complaint against Dr. Loomis for any alleged infractions which occurred in July of this year.”

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Amoss Suspended Seven Days For Lidocaine Positive In Indiana

Trainer Tom Amoss has been suspended seven calendar days, fined $3,000, and assessed two points on the Association of Racing Commissioners International's multiple medication violation program for a lidocaine positive for the 3-year-old filly Catwings, winner of the sixth race on June 23, 2022, at Horseshoe Indianapolis in Shelbyville, Ind.

Catwings has been disqualified from the maiden special weight race victory and the purse redistributed. Sammies Samurai, the runner-up will receive first-place money of $20,400 and be declared the winner.

The Indiana Horse Racing Commission ruling, dated Nov. 10, states that Industrial Laboratories in Denver, Colo., detected lidocaine at a concentration of 127 picograms per milliliter in blood serum. According to the ruling, lidocaine and its metabolites are prohibited at levels greater than 20 pg/ml. A picogram is one-trillionth of a gram.

Amoss requested a split sample be tested. UIC Analytical Forensic Testing Laboratory in Chicago, Ill., confirmed the drug's presence at a concentration in excess of the permitted level. At that point, the ruling states, Amoss waived his right to a formal hearing before the board of stewards.

Lidocaine, a local anesthetic, is a Class 2 drug with a Category B penalty under Association of Racing Commissioners International model rules. The model rules call for a 15-day suspension, absent mitigating circumstances, for a first offense. The ruling did not reference mitigating circumstances, but Amoss said in a comment posted on Twitter that he was “grateful to the stewards for independently recognizing this as a possible cross-contamination, and reducing my suspension from 15 days to 7 days.”

The trainer added, “We will work to ensure this will not happen again.”

According to ThoroughbredRulings.com, this is Amoss' first medication violation since a betamethasone positive in Kentucky in 2016 resulted in a five-day suspension and $500 fine.

The suspension is to be served Nov. 13-19.

 

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