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O’Neill, Miller Combine For Trio Of 4C Drug Rulings Within Past Week

Two-time GI Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Doug O'Neill got fined $2,000 for a pair of methocarbamol positives at Santa Anita Park in May and June, one in a race and the other in a workout.

According to a Sept. 6 ruling published within the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) weekly stewards' report for Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, the two cases were combined into one because “O'Neill was not aware of the first medication positive [May 30] when the second complaint [June 3] was served by CHRB enforcement.”

Methocarbamol is a Class 4 and Penalty Category C skeletal muscle relaxant. Its 4C categorization is on the least-severe side of the scale on the Uniform Classification Guidelines for Foreign Substances list published by the Association of Racing Commissioners International.

Split-sample testing confirmed the findings. The infraction will also cost O'Neill half a point on the CHRB's multiple medication violations (MMV) penalty list.

O'Neill's attorney, Darrell Vienna, told TDN no appeal is planned.

The violation was O'Neill's second within the last calendar year. In March he negotiated a CHRB settlement agreement that included a $7,500 fine and the serving of 10 days of a 30-day suspension over a 2B positive lidocaine test triggered by one of his trainees in October 2020.

As part of the agreement in that Mar. 6 ruling, the 20 days of that lidocaine suspension were stayed on the condition that O'Neill would not have any Class 1, 2 or 3 violations within a calendar year. So the Class 4 methocarbamol violation does not count against the terms of his agreed-upon probation.

The methocarbamol race violation occurred in Deise Delight (Ire) (Brazen Beau {Aus}), who ran second in a May 30 starter/optional claimer. No disqualification was issued in the ruling, customary to the CHRB's rule about only DQ'ing horses who test for Class 3 or more severe drugs.

The methocarbamol workout violation came on June 3, when O'Neill was attempting to get Team Merchants (Nyquist) cleared from the vet list. The colt won his next start at 18-1 odds on July 16 in a Del Mar optional claimer.

O'Neill is the second prominent trainer within the past week to be handed a penalty for a 4C drug violation in a post-workout test.

On Sept. 2, Peter Miller, the leading trainer at the now-concluded Del Mar meet, was fined $1,500 for a phenylbutazone positive incurred June 19 at San Luis Rey Downs in Mo Forza (Uncle Mo). The MGSW subsequently won his next start, the Aug. 21 GII Del Mar Mile S. as the 11-10 favorite.

Miller was also docked half an MMV point for his second offense within the past year. It was not known at deadline for this story if the ruling will be appealed.

In April, Miller absorbed a $500 fine for a 4C finding of isoflupredone that was confirmed via split-sample testing when his trainee, Hembree (Proud Citizen), won the GII Joe Hernandez S. at Santa Anita Jan. 1.

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Asmussen Agrees To Pay $563,800 After Racing Deal With Dept. of Labor

According to a Sept. 8 filing in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen has agreed to pay $563,800 in back wages and damages covering 170 employees. The amount is derived from $281,900 in unpaid wages plus another $281,900 in damages.

The plaintiff in the case was Secretary of Labor Martin J. Walsh, who had filed a complaint against Asmussen's KED Equine LLC and Asmussen Racing Stables. The period in question runs from June 7, 2016 through at least Sept. 8, 2020, and the two parties had been litigating the dispute since 2019 before reaching an agreement.

The secretary alleges that during the time period in question, Asmussen failed to pay his employees in New York overtime wages for all hours worked and failed to make, keep and record adequate and accurate work records.

Among the 170 employees, one, Javier Rivera, is owed $44,367.84, and another, Diego Armando Pantoja, is owed $36,450.06. The average amount owed to the 170 workers is about $3,000.

Asmussen did not reply to a text seeking comment.

This is not the first time Asmussen has had to deal with the Department of Labor, which has on three occasions levied charges that the trainer has been in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Asmussen was sued by the government in 2012 and 2015 and both times it was alleged that he was paying flat wages for overtime hours worked and did not properly keep track of the amount of hours an employee had worked. He settled on both occasions.

Asmussen, who races at several different tracks at once, including the NYRA tracks, has one of the biggest training operations in the country.

Asmussen, who became he winningest North American trainer in the history of the sport during the Saratoga meet, is far from the first trainer to run afoul of the Labor Department. In 2019, Chad Brown was ordered to pay $1.6 million in back wages, liquidated damages and civil penalties for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Other New York trainers who have been ordered to make payments covering back wages include Kiaran McLaughlin, Linda Rice, Gary Contessa and Jimmy Jerkens.

The trainers who have spoken upon the matter have argued that the labor departments do not understand the unique nature of backstretch work, which may require an employee to work in the mornings, take a few hours off, and then to come back in the afternoon for short period. McLaughlin and Contessa both cited labor issues and onerous fines when announcing they had left the sport. McLaughlin is the agent for jockey Luis Saez and Contessa is back to training after a brief retirement.

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Spendthrift Breaks Ground On Hughes Visitor Center

Spendthift Farm has broken ground on what is to be an 8000 square-foot tourism facility that will be named the B. Wayne Hughes Visitors' Center in honor of the farm's late founder.

“We take it on as our responsibility now to continue to build on the vision Wayne had for Spendthrift and the sport of horse racing,” said Eric Gustavson, owner of Spendthrift and son-and-law to the late B. Wayne Hughes. “It's only fitting to name the new visitors' center after him because it largely represents his love for the industry and desire to share it with people. That's what we look forward to doing.”

The new facility is scheduled to be open the spring or summer of 2022 and will be located in the heart of the property, directly between the stallion complex and the main office. The building is expected to house a trophy room, gift shop, and entertainment/office space, and will include such features as a life-size statue of the late Malibu Moon at the entrance, Authentic's 2020 Kentucky Derby trophy and blanket of roses, Beholder's Breeders' Cup & Eclipse Award trophies, Into Mischief artifacts, a famous horses memorial and interactive history elements throughout.

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NYRA Sides With Commission, Seeks Upholding of Rice Penalties

The New York Racing Association (NYRA) is siding with the New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC) in the Linda Rice lawsuit. Rice is suing in Schenectady County Supreme Court to get her three-year license revocation and $50,000 fine for “improper and corrupt conduct” overturned while she continues to train under a temporary injunction.

On Thursday the court accepted a friend-of-the-court brief from NYRA arguing that if Rice does get her penalties tossed out, her presence as an admitted seeker and user of inside race-entry info will undermine the integrity of racing on one of the nation's most prominent circuits.

“As operator of the three largest Thoroughbred horse racing tracks in New York, including Belmont Park–the racetrack that housed Petitioner's stables and year-round training activities–NYRA respectfully urges the Court to consider her request for preliminary injunction relief in light of the intense public interest in protecting the integrity of Thoroughbred racing and the public's continued confidence in its operations and legitimacy, and deny the motion,” NYRA stated in its brief, which had been submitted in a proposed format July 19.

On May 17, 2021, culminating an investigation that had stretched over five years, NYSGC members voted 5-0 to agree with a hearing officer that Rice's years-long pattern of seeking and obtaining pre-entry information from NYRA racing office workers was “intentional, serious and extensive [and] inconsistent with and detrimental to the best interests of horse racing.”

Rice had testified that she did nothing wrong by using inside sources to gain a competitive advantage over other trainers. When the penalty got handed down, Rice contended in her court filing that it was “unduly harsh.”

The ban went into effect June 7. Two days later, Rice's legal team secured a temporary injunction from the court that has allowed her to resume training while the legal process plays out.

But a letter to the court filed earlier this week suggests that Rice's lawsuit might soon be severed into two separate cases heard in two different New York courts.

Three of the four “causes of action” in Rice's complaint involve Article 78, which is a state law by which a petitioner asks a court to review a decision or action of a state official or administrative agency to determine whether such action was unlawful.

The fourth involves the alleged “arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement” of “unconstitutionally vague” rules by the NYSGC, and Rice had requested that the court resolve that matter by issuing a separate declaratory judgment.

Now attorneys for both sides concur that the Article 78 proceedings belong in a different court.

On Sept. 7, assistant attorney general Chris Liberati-Conant wrote that “Respondents-defendants agree with petitioner-

plaintiff that the proper course in this proceeding is to sever the Article 78 proceeding and transfer it to the Appellate Division because it raises a question of substantial evidence. Case law appears to require that Supreme Court determine the merits of the declaratory judgment action…. The parties should be able to stipulate to an order of severance and transfer.”

NYRA's friend-of-the-court filing that was accepted Sept. 9 stated that Rice is seeking “the annulment and vacatur of a decision from the Commission concluding she knowingly and intentionally received confidential information concerning Thoroughbred racing in New York State in violation of the Commission's rules and regulations…. [V]irtually all the salient allegations in this proceeding involve events occurring in New York and, specifically, at NYRA-operated Racetracks.

“For example, and of particular interest to NYRA, the Commission alleges Petitioner admittedly paid money to NYRA employees in its racing office at amounts that exceeded NYRA's gift threshold that was in place at the time. NYRA, therefore, has been directly affected by Petitioner's actions as at least one NYRA employee was terminated as a result of the events at issue here.”

The NYRA filing continued: “A preliminary injunction is a drastic remedy which should be granted only when the movant clearly shows a right to relief under the law and undisputed facts…. New York courts consistently deny motions for preliminary injunction where public policy concerns outweigh the potential hardships to the movant–particularly where, as here, available evidence indicates continuation of the status quo may itself pose a significant risk to the public….

“Put simply, the need to protect NYRA's patrons and the wagering public from the significant risk Petitioner poses to the fairness and integrity of Thoroughbred racing in New York State far outweighs any alleged hardships to Petitioner's business resulting from the suspension of her license,” the filing stated.

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