Gorder Suspended 14 Months

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission stewards issued a pair of rulings dated Apr. 18, suspending trainer Kellyn Gorder for a total of 14 months after a formal hearing. 

Gorder was fined $5,000 and suspended from May 1, 2015 to Apr. 29, 2016 after Gorder trainee Bourbon Warfare tested positive for methamphetamine (a Class A drug) in her blood following a maiden special weight win at Churchill Downs Nov. 22. 

Bourbon Warfare, a then-3-year-old owned by Bourbon Lane Stable who took an Oaklawn optional claimer Apr. 2, was disqualified from purse money. Gorder was suspended an additional two months after a Dec. 27 Keeneland barn search found him in “possession of injectable medications, hypodermic syringes and needle ‘by a person other than a veterinarian licensed to practice veterinary medicine’ and oral medication ‘not properly labeled or validly prescribed by a licensed veterinarian.’” 

Gorder issued the following statements Wednesday afternoon: 

“I am devastated, not just for me but for my clients and my employees. I love horses. Period. They are my passion, my profession, my life. I would never, ever do something or give something to one of my horses that would in any way put them or the people around them in jeopardy, or gain them an unfair advantage over their competition. To put it bluntly, I did not, nor would I ever, give a horse methamphetamine, nor have I ever done or been in contact with methamphetamine. 

“The levels of methamphetamine found in Bourbon Warfare’s bloodstream suggests this is a contamination situation rather than doping. I have drug tested all 31 of my employees since learning of this positive, and all came back clean for methamphetamine and all other Class A drugs. I don’t know whether it was a person walking through the barn one day with something on their hand and fed a horse a mint, or someone touched paper money with residue on it and then tied a tongue tie before her race. I am completely puzzled. I want to get to the bottom of it and find out where the contamination came from. I am looking into an appeal so I can better present my case before the authorities.” 

Of the second violation, Gorder said: 

“In early 2014 there was a horse in my care for training who had an infected artenoid chondroma and needed fourteen days of Naxcel nebulizer treatments, which had been prescribed by a veterinarian. The protocol for administering Naxcel, which is an antibiotic, via the nebulizer includes the use of a syringe and a needle to combine the Naxcel and sterile water and put it in the nebulizer so the horse can inhale the antibiotic treatment. I keep syringes in my barn to give oral medications and eye medications as well. I never injected the horse with the Naxcel. I only used the needle for the nebulizer treatments. The horse shipped out in June of 2014 and unfortunately I did not dispose of the medication and needle upon his departure properly as I should have, thus they were found in my possession when my stable was searched.”