banned substances

Following up on an advisory distributed in January 2024, HIWU strongly advises horsemen to dispose of any variations of the herbal products that may be identified on the labels as Yunnan Paiyao, Yunnan Baiyao, and/or Baiyao. HIWU continues to find these supplements during searches despite the risks associated with them. In testing various forms of these products, which are manufactured in the United States and abroad, both banned substances (e.g., boldione, glaucine, higenamine, and adenosine monophosphate) and controlled medications (e.g., ephedrine) have been reported in analyzed samples despite not being...

Every week, the TDN posts a roundup of the relevant Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) related rulings from around the country. The following rulings were reported on HISA's "rulings" portal and through the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit's (HIWU) "pending" and "resolved" cases portals. Among this week's rulings, trainer Angel Sanchez-Pinero has been banned a combined four years and fined a combined $50,000 for two out-of-competition positive tests involving banned substances. Sanchez-Pinero is already serving a combined 10-year ban for a series of medication violations stemming from 2024 onwards....

On May 22, the HISA Board of Directors will take a vote that could result in the ban of Lasix in all races. Any decision made by the Board, whether to keep the rules as they are, or to enact a full ban, must be unanimous. In response, five trainers and Eric Hamelback, the CEO of the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, signed a letter imploring HISA to continue to allow the use of the medication in most races. Trainer Ron Moquett was among those signing the letter. To...

A federal judge denied a preliminary injunction Oct. 22 in a lawsuit initiated 3 1/2 months ago by a Sunland Park-based veterinarian against the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) and Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU). The case involves anti-constitutionality claims that are similar to a number of other lawsuits swirling in the federal court system. But the civil complaint filed by Jason Scott, DVM, is unique because it raises the issue of what happens when a mixed-meet vet is found in possession of medications that are prohibited for...

The latest twist in the legal odyssey involving Phil Serpe and the agencies that regulate racing at the federal level was made public late on Tuesday, when the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued an order staying the issuance of a $25,000 fine that had been imposed against the veteran Thoroughbred trainer barely one day earlier by an administrative law judge (ALJ). That ALJ, Jay Himes, had been assigned by the FTC itself to adjudicate Serpe's FTC-level appeal of banned-substance charges. In addition to re-imposing the fine that the Horseracing Integrity...

Every week, the TDN posts a roundup of the relevant Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) related rulings from around the country. The following rulings were reported on HISA's "rulings" portal and through the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit's (HIWU) "pending" and "resolved" cases portals. Among this week's rulings, trainer Efren Loza Jr. has been suspended an additional four years and fined a total of $38,000 (including arbitration costs) for a Clenbuterol positive stemming from last September, adding to an 18-month suspension he is already serving, again for a Clenbuterol...

The stewards at Charles Town Races on Wednesday issued a ruling that will not impose penalties against the licensure of trainer Curtis Bass after deeming that a "trace level" of a cocaine metabolite detected in a $5,000 claiming mare who won Apr. 10 was the result of "inadvertent exposure" to that drug. It's the second time in eight months that the Charles Town stewards have made that type of  determination on a cocaine positive, disqualifying the winning horse but not penalizing the trainer. Although West Virginia's Thoroughbred medication testing and...

Every week, the TDN posts a roundup of the relevant Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) related rulings from around the country. Among this week's rulings, following a Nov. 22 hearing an independent arbitrator issued trainer Mike Puype a three-month and 17-day suspension (time served) along with a $1,000 fine after two bottles of Isoxsuprine tablets and two containers of Levothyroxine (ThyroL) powder were found in his barn during a routine search on April 24. The Isoxuprine tablets expired in 2012 and 2013, while the Levothyroxine powders expired in 2016...

I appreciated Bill Finley's conversation with Alan Foreman on TDN Writers' Room. Your question to him about trainers who are not guilty of cheating hit home for me. As a trainer who is dealing with this same issue prior to HISA in the state of Florida, I was hoping to make a brief comment. The banned substances provisions are more complicated than they want it to be in an era where the testing has become so fine any trainer can get a banned substance positive at any time no matter...

When two members of Gulfstream Park's security team and a veterinarian descended on his barn on the morning of June 2, the 62-year-old trainer Jeff Poole didn't think he had anything to worry about. According to the Jockey Club's Thoroughbred Regulatory Rulings website, Poole, who has been training since 1989, had never had a violation of any kind. And his recent record--he had won 11 races combined since 2021--hardly suggested that he was a trainer who was taking an edge. Even when investigators found in his office a tube of...

Following discussions with HISA's ADMC Committee, HIWU will no longer impose Provisional Suspensions on Covered Persons upon the service of an Equine Anti-Doping Notice for an Adverse Analytical Finding (i.e., positive test result) for Banned Substances that are recognized as substances of abuse in humans, the unit said in a release Friday. Examples that fall under this category include cocaine, methamphetamine, methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). If a Covered Horse's A Sample tests positive for one of these Banned Substances, a Provisional Suspension will not be imposed on the relevant...

Joe Taylor, who has been among the top trainers at Parx since he began his career about eight years ago, has received a six-year suspension from the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) after two of his horses tested positive for the banned substances clenbuterol and methylphenidate. According to a posting on the HIWU website, Taylor has admitted the violations and accepted the penalties. However, his attorney, Alan Pincus, raised questions about the positive tests. "No trainer is going to give his horse two different easily detectable illegal drugs and...