fine

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. Resolved ADMC Violations Dates: 04/21/2026 Licensee: Anthony F. Cunningham, trainer Penalty: A written Reprimand (per 9/26/23 HISA Guidance). Explainer: Vets' list medication violation for the presence of Omeprazole (Gastrogard)--a class C controlled substance--in a sample taken from Sound Doctrine on 3/20/26. Dates: 04/21/2026 Licensee: Scott E. Young,...

In a unanimous decision, the State of New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division Third Judicial Department, has thrown out a 14-day suspension and a $2,000 fine that was originally handed down by the Commission to Todd Pletcher after a horse he trained tested positive for an overage of phenylbutazone (bute) following a July 30, 2022 race at Saratoga, and has remanded the matter back to the New York Gaming Commission for a rehearing. The horse in question, Capensis (Tapit), finished sixth in the allowance race. In affirming Pletcher's petition in...

Back in the summer of 2024, the ubiquitous type 2 diabetes drug metformin was having an oversized impact on the sport. As a banned substance, a metformin overage came with a maximum two-year ban and $25,000 fine. Among the seven metformin cases adjudicated by June of last year, the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) had meted out three hefty suspensions including one for the maximum two years. The crux of the controversy was this: While regulators said that they had received intelligence metformin was being abused as a potential...

Fined $4,000 by the New York Gaming Commission over a rule regarding when a trainer can run a horse outside of New York after it has been claimed, trainer Gary Contessa was afforded a hearing Wednesday before a hearing officer assigned to the case by the commission. The hearing officer will now consider the facts that were presented Wednesday and make a recommendation to the Gaming Commission regarding whether or not the fine should be upheld. Contessa was charged after he ran a horse named Answer the Call (Dialed In)...

For the second time in a little over a year, the New Mexico-based jockey Oscar Ceballos has successfully appealed to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to wipe out penalties related to a more-than-six-strikes whipping disqualification handed down by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA). The Oct. 3, 2024, ruling involved circumstances remarkably similar to Ceballos's first penalty reversal by the FTC on Sept. 11, 2023. Both successful appeals involved a total of 11 strikes administered to a Thoroughbred in a stakes at a New Mexico track, and both appeals...

Billionaire Luke Comer lost an appeal against the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board to overturn a three-year-suspension of his training license, the organization confirmed in a statement Thursday. The suspension is scheduled to begin July 15. The three-person appeals body was chaired by Justice Peter Kelly in addition to Laurence McFerran and Dr. Paddy Molony. Suspended last September, the trainer was ordered to pay in excess of €750,000 in fines and legal costs after traces of the prohibited substances methandienone (MD) and methyltestosterone (MT) were found in 12 of his horses....

Two of the planet's top jockeys, Ryan Moore and Irad Ortiz, Jr., were penalized by the Santa Anita Park stewards for riding infractions aboard winning mounts on the Nov. 4 Breeders' Cup program. Moore was fined $20,800 and suspended one day (Nov. 12) for being one whip strike over the limit of six when guiding 5-2 favorite Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) to victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf. Under Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) rules, the fine equates to 10% of Moore's personal purse winnings from...

The New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC) on Tuesday fined trainer Linda Rice $100,000 in a re-adjudication of her "improper practices" case that has persisted at the commission level and in the New York courts for more than two years. In 2021, the NYSGC fined Rice $50,000 and revoked her license for three years after investigating claims that Rice received favorable treatment from the New York Racing Association (NYRA) and that the racing office was releasing to her the names and past performances of horses that had already been entered...

The chief state steward at Mountaineer Park, Jim O'Brien, on Friday defended his board's seemingly light $100 penalization of jockey Jose A. Leon after other licensees who were on horseback during training hours at the West Virginia track Sept. 10 testified that the 24-year-old rider dismounted from an unruly horse and struck it across the face with his whip. "He was wrong, but I guess he let his anger get the best of him, and he hit the horse in the face," O'Brien told TDN. O'Brien added that he and...

Jockey Jose A. Leon has been fined $100 for hitting a horse in the face during training hours at Mountaineer Park. According to a Mountaineer stewards' ruling, "Mr. Leon was caught striking a horse across the face on Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023, during morning exercising." The ruling didn't specify whether Leon struck the horse with his whip or his hand. Joe Moore, the executive director of the West Virginia Racing Commission, wrote in an email that he did not have any details about the incident beyond what the Mountaineer stewards...

After a hearing before an arbitral body, trainer Jeffrey Poole has been hit with a 22-month suspension by the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) after it was alleged that Poole possessed the banned substance Levothyroxine. He was also fined $10,000 and ordered to make a payment of $8,000 to cover arbitration costs. Poole did not have a horse test positive for the substance. Levothyroxine, commonly known by the trade name Thyro-L, is a synthetic version of the naturally-occurring hormone thyroxine. Thyroxine is produced by the thyroid and works with...

The stewards at Delaware Park have fined trainer Don Bryant, Jr. $2,000 for a series of "not conducting business in a proper manner" infractions that started with the falsification of a workout for an 0-for-12 maiden-claiming gelding he reportedly owns that hadn't raced in nearly a year. According to the June 15 ruling, the stewards "received evidence that Trainer Bryant falsified a workout" for the 4-year-old gelding Dondada (Klimt) on May 10, 2023, at Delaware Park. Dondada had not started since running second at Delaware on June 30, 2022. The...