By Mike Kane
A fourth Maryland trainer, Jerry Thurston, has been suspended for a post-race positive for anabolic steroids.
Thurston received a 30-day suspension and was fined $1,000 for a positive for stanozolol in the horse Home of America on Dec. 12, 2014 at Laurel Park. The suspension is scheduled to run from Feb. 7 through Mar. 8. Maryland Racing Commission Executive Director Mike Hopkins said Tuesday that Thurston has not appealed the ruling.
Home of America is the seventh horse to test positive for stanozolol, now only available through compounders, in Maryland since early December.
Trainers Scott Lake, Henry Garcia and A. Ferris Allen all had stanozolol positives that led to suspensions by the commission in late January. Lake and Allen filed appeals and are eligible to race in Maryland. Lake received 60 days from the state stewards and an additional 60 days for reaching a threshold level in the Multiple Medication Violations Penalty System. Allen was handed a 15-day penalty. Garcia's suspension for three stanozolol positives and one for the sedative xylazine produced added suspension time from the multiple violations system and runs until the end of Feb. 2016.
Lake and Garcia were the first horsemen in the country to receive extra suspension time mandated by the multiple violations penalty rules of the National Uniform Medication Program. Thurston was assessed four multiple medication violation penalty points for the steroid positive.
Hopkins said that the stewards did not rule on the Thurston case until Feb. 5 because he was out of the state and not available to attend a hearing.
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