SHINING LIGHT ON THE HORSE INDUSTRY
A hearing officer has upheld a stewards' ruling in West Virginia disqualifying R Adios Jersey from her win in the Grade 3 Charles Town Oaks last Aug. 27 at Charles Town. The filly, trained by Georgina Baxter for owners Averill Racing LLC and ATM Racing, was placed last and stripped of her portion of the purse, while Baxter was fined $1,000 after the horse tested over the limit for the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory flunixin meglumine (known commercially as Banamine).
A report from hearing examiner Jeffrey Blaydes summarizes the testimony presented in Baxter's appeal case. The report indicated that the initial test from the horse revealed a Banamine level of 1,121 nanograms/ml of blood. A split sample test, performed by the New York Drug Testing and Research Laboratory, came back with a level of 985 ng/ml. The permitted level in West Virginia is 20 ng/ml. A DNA test on the blood sample later confirmed that it came from R Adios Jersey.
The hearing officer's report indicates that Baxter tried to argue there are mitigating circumstances in the case because she was not given a stall in the receiving barn at Charles Town. Baxter shipped the filly in from her base in Florida, and said she was told by assistant racing secretary Anna Hibbard that the receiving barn was closed and she would have to find her own stall somewhere else. When testifying before the hearing officer, Hibbard said she did not recall discussing the status of the receiving barn with Baxter and denies that she would have told Baxter to find her own stall.
Baxter ended up stabling R Adios Jersey with John Carlisle. The report indicated the track did install cameras in Carlisle's barn but “they produced no relevant views or information concerning the multi-day stabling of R Adios Jersey.”
The filly ran in the Oaks after spending five days in Carlisle's barn. Baxter and Bernie Hettel, who testified for her at the stewards' hearing and appeal hearing, asserted that it was possible Carlisle's barn was not subject to the same security measures as the receiving barn, and it was possible the horse was more likely to encounter Banamine there.
Blaydes wrote that “at no time during the multi-day stabling of R Adios Jersey in Barn 18 did Baxter question the track's security measures; question the condition or ongoing treatment of neighboring horses with Flunixin; or request for the horse to be moved to another stall.”
Further, the report indicated, while Baxter denied that she or her representatives treated R Adios Jersey with Banamine, they did not dispute that the horse had tested some 50 times above the threshold or that the sample came from the identified horse. In such cases where the drug positive itself is not disputed, Blaydes wrote that any mitigating circumstances are not applied to a horse's disqualification.
“If the commission were to allow Baxter to keep the winner's share of the purse despite the undisputed drug violation it would be the first and only time such an action would be taken by the commission,” the report read.
“The amount of Flunixin in R Adios Jersey was approximately fifty times the permitted amount. And, although neither the stewards nor the commission alleges that Baxter intentionally administered the drug to the horse to gain an advantage in the race, the fact remains that Flunixin can have such a result because it masks pain. Also aggravating is the fact that, since 2018, Baxter has accumulated six drug violations in the state of Florida, five of which involved Flunixin.”
Baxter has filed a post-hearing relief request with the West Virginia Racing Commission, according to her attorney, Karen Murphy.
“We found out after the stewards had decided the case that, in fact, there was a receiving barn with multiple top trainers stabled there, but no effort was made to notify Baxter to secure a spot for her filly,” said Murphy. “If this was not a case to find 'mitigating circumstances' to avoid a penalty and DQ I don't know what case would be.”
In a post-hearing relief filing, Murphy requests the commission set aside the stewards' penalties. In that filing, Murphy stated that two horses also stabled in Barn 18 were being treated with Banamine at the same time R Adios Jersey was there — one horse “near the filly” who was treated the night before the race, and another horse next to her who was receiving the medication as part of a treatment for a fracture.
EquiSport Photos (Matt and Wendy Wooley)
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