Tag: The Biz

Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher has been suspended 14 days and fined $2,000 by the New York State Gaming Commission for a July 30, 2022, positive test for the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory phenylbutazone in the then-3-year-old Tapit colt, Capensis. It is the sixth positive test for a Pletcher runner in the last year.

Owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Robert V. LaPenta, Gainesway Stable, Winchell Thoroughbreds, and Stonestreet Stables, Capensis finished sixth as the even-money favorite in a Saratoga allowance race on turf going 1 1/16 miles on July 30. Capensis was making his second career start, following a five-length maiden win on the Belmont Park turf course four weeks earlier.

Capensis, the $2 million sale topper at the 2020 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, subsequently won the Grade 3 New Kent County Virginia Derby by two lengths as the 8-5 favorite at Colonial Downs on Sept. 6. He has not raced since but returned to the work tab at Saratoga May 21.

The ruling, dated Sunday, June 11, states that phenylbutazone was present at a concentration in excess of 0.3 micrograms per milliliter in violation of 9 NYCRR 4043.3 (a) (26).

Capensis was also disqualified from his share of the purse money.

Pletcher has appealed and a stay of the suspension has been granted.

Pletcher has also appealed a 10-day suspension given him last month for a positive test for another anti-inflammatory, meloxicam, after Forte won the G1 Hopeful at Saratoga last Sept. 5. Florida regulators have issued three complaints for overages of permitted medications in Pletcher horses racing at Gulfstream – two last December and one in February. Those cases have not been adjudicated. Neither has a positive test for G1 winner Mind Control after a victory via disqualification in the Parx Dirt Mile Stakes at Parx Racing last Sept. 24.

An eight-time Eclipse Award winner as outstanding trainer, Pletcher is Thoroughbred racing's all-time leading money-winning trainer, with his horses earning over $462 million.

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Saturday's blockbuster Belmont Stakes Day card, highlighted by Arcangelo's victory in the 155th running of the $1.5-million Belmont Stakes (G1), generated all-sources handle of $118,283,455, which is a NYRA record for a non-Triple Crown year.

The 2023 all-sources handle figure is an increase of more than five percent over the previous non-Triple Crown record of $112,725,278, which was set in 2021.

On-track handle for the 13-race Belmont Stakes Day card, which included six Grade 1 races among nine total stakes, was $10,657,332.

All-sources handle for the Belmont Stakes, which was carded as Race 12 was $56,533,820.

Following the construction of UBS Arena, and prior to the renovation of Belmont Park set to begin in 2024, capacity at the facility is 50,000.

Paid attendance on Saturday was 48,089.

The Belmont Park spring/summer meet continues through Sunday, July 9.

The post Belmont Stakes Day Generates Record Handle For Non-Triple Crown Year appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Mike Repole, co-owner of champion Forte, the 5-2 morning line favorite for the $1.5 million-Belmont Stakes (G1), took to Twitter Saturday morning to call for a governing body and national commissioner of Thoroughbred racing.

Repole campaigns Forte with St. Elias Stable, and their colt has been at the center of controversy during this spring's Triple Crown season. He was the morning-line favorite of the Kentucky Derby (G1) May 6 but was scratched the morning of the race with a bruised foot.

The scratch put him on the vet's list for 14 days, preventing a start in the Preakness (G1) May 20. In the interim, the New York Times reported that Forte had failed a post-race drug test after he won the Hopeful (G1) last summer at Saratoga. New York regulators then announced the test results—after eight months had elapsed since the race—and disqualified him from the win while suspending his trainer, Todd Pletcher, for 10 days and leveling a $1,000 fine. Each side pointed the finger at the other for the delay between the race and the ruling.

Repole laid out his grievances and suggestions to reporter Bob Ehalt in a Bloodhorse story published Friday. To read the story, click here.

ATTENTION ENTIRE HORSE RACING INDUSTRY:

I am calling for immediate action in the vision, the strategy of changing and evolving this great game we all LOVE.

Either we're an agent for change and evolution or we are on the side of stubborn, traditionalist self-inflicted demise of…

— Repole Stable (@RepoleStable) June 10, 2023

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The Appellate Division of a New York State Supreme Court issued a ruling on June 8 that will count as a victory for embattled trainer Linda Rice. Rice's training license had been revoked for a minimum of three years by the New York State Gaming Commission after a hearing officer concluded she improperly received information from the racing office.

On Thursday, a unanimous decision from a panel of four judges determined that while there was “substantial evidence” to support the commission's position that Rice knew it was wrong to receive this information, the penalty of a three-year license revocation “is so disproportionate to the offense and shockingly unfair as to constitute an abuse of discretion as a matter of law.

“As Supreme Court astutely recognized,” the opinion stated, “NYRA bears much of the responsibility for what happened in this matter by fostering an aptly named 'hustling' process without a defined written rule or diligent oversight.”

The ruling noted in particular discrepancy between the way former senior vice president of racing operations Martin Panza and former racing secretary PJ Campo characterized the seriousness of Rice's receipt of information.

“Not to be overlooked is that petitioner is the only trainer ever disciplined by respondent for this rule violation – a troublesome point given that petitioner is the only female trainer ever to win a training title at a New York track,” the opinion read.

The judges took no issue with the $50,000 fine assigned to Rice by the commission, but remitted her case back to the commission to “reassess the penalty.”

Read the full opinion here.

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