Orlando Paraliticci sat in his Honda Odyssey, a nervous wreck. Only minutes before, he had been caught by a Tampa Bay Downs official injecting a pain-blocking agent into a horse's right foreleg hours before it was to race – an egregious, illegal act. And now, Jane Cibelli, the trainer the equine veterinarian would later say had ordered him to give the injection, was calling.

He answered his phone warily.

“You stupid mother——!” Cibelli yelled at Paraliticci. She had a few other choice words for him, Paraliticci would later tell state officials.

He returned to Barn 11 to tell Cibelli what had happened.

Jorge Garibay, who worked as a groom for Cibelli, was holding Raven Train by the lead shank while Ortiz had a nose twitch on the horse. Paraliticci, who saw Pastir and Rigione come onto the scene, finished injecting the leg. Then, switching to a larger syringe (30-to-50 cc's, Pastir estimated), Paraliticci injected what he would later say was a mixture of the anti-bleeder medication furosemide and Solu-Delta-Cortef (a corticosteroid that is permitted on race-day in Florida) into the horse's shoulder.

Knowing he'd been caught in the act doing something illegal, Paraliticci quickly left the stall, saying, “I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.”

Pastir called Doug Murray, an agent with the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau and then notified the stewards what had happened. She then drew three vials of blood from Raven Train. Pastir was unable to retrieve the syringes Paraliticci had used to inject Raven Train's shin and shoulder.

Cibelli was not in the barn when Paraliticci was treating Raven Train. After he explained to the trainer what had occurred, the native of England lit into Paraliticci, the veterinarian would later say to investigators with the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering.

“You stupid mother——,” he quoted Cibelli as telling him. “Don't you involve me. Don't tell them I had anything to do with it. Keep me out of it. You better hope this stays in house.”

A report by the state investigator said Paraliticci later told him that he is “terrified of Cibelli.” When asked why, he responded that Cibelli and Tampa Bay Downs vice president of marketing Margo Flynn – the trainer's partner – “have threatened many people with being thrown off the track and being excluded from TBD. They threatened to ruin his business…they have a lot of power.”

The same morning that Paraliticci said Cibelli threatened him, TRPB agent Murray interviewed the veterinarian and the trainer separately. Murray's report said Paraliticci “injected high splint (bone) on his own. He wanted to be a hero; it was a mistake.”

Cibelli expressed surprise to the TRPB agent that Paraliticci would inject the horse in the leg. Her instructions to him for Raven Train when they met that morning around 6 a.m., she said, was “5 cc's Lasix and nothing else.”

Despite the blow-up between them, Paraliticci said he continued to do Cibelli's vet work until Tampa Bay Downs officials kicked him off the premises on Feb. 3, using the track's private property rights of exclusion. In addition to the illegal injection, a search of Paraliticci's vehicle uncovered a gallon jug of a compounded clenbuterol from Essential Pharmacy Compounding of Omaha, Neb. Ventipulmin is the only FDA-approved clenbuterol for use in horses.

Paraliticci said Cibelli called him after he was thrown out of Tampa Bay Downs, reiterating “not to involve her or tell anyone she ordered the treatment pre-race on Raven Train. There was also an implied threat in these phone calls,” a report from investigators said.

Stewards had set a Feb. 15 hearing date for Paraliticci but that was called off after James Decker, investigations supervisor for the Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering Office of Investigations, opened complaints against both Paraliticci and Cibelli.

Peter Berube, vice president and general manager of Tampa Bay Downs, said the track was unable to take any action against Cibelli until the Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering concluded its investigations. A state official disagrees.

“There is nothing in the law that prevents a permit holder from taking action during the time of an ongoing investigation related to what might be the same subject matter,” said Tajiana Ancora-Brown, director of communications for the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulations.

Paraliticci retained a lawyer, Michael Sierra, who was present when the veterinarian was interviewed by a state investigator on March 7. Paraliticci said he had worked for Cibelli for over five years, billing her stable approximately $20,000 to $30,000 per month. He added that Tampa Bay vice president Flynn handles Cibelli's bookkeeping. Cibelli received a 15% discount, said Paraliticci, adding that “she took an additional 25% discount when she paid her bill.”

(UPDATE: Jane Cibelli told the Paulick Report she does receive a 15% “prompt payment” discount but the allegation that she “took an additional 25% discount when she paid her (veterinary) bill” is “completely untrue.” The bills go directly to the owner after her approval, she said. “There is no padding of bills. I do not pay owners' vet bills and make money off of that.”

Cibelli said she could not comment on any other aspect of the case until the investigation is closed.)

On the morning of Jan. 27, Paraliticci said, he met with Cibelli between 5:30-6:30 a.m. to discuss that day's treatment of the stable's horses. Both he and assistant Ortiz, who was interviewed on March 13, said Cibelli uses a black and white composition notebook as a “Vet Book.” In the book that day, Paraliticci said, was a note that read: “Raven Train Splint?” It was a problem that Dr. Thomas Brokken had treated with DMSO and ice boots when Raven Train was at Gulfstream Park a month earlier.

“Cibelli told him that the horse Raven Train was to race this date and she ordered him to shoot up the right splint,” the state investigator's report reads. “Paralaticci claimed he was going to object but he knew that Cibelli would threaten and berate him as she has done in the past.” Cibelli advised the veterinarian to use Sarapin, the report states, quoting Paraliticci as saying “that this block is a substance that doesn't show on blood tests.”

When Ortiz was interviewed, he told investigators that he remembered Paraliticci was “upset that Cibelli ordered him to inject Raven Train's right front splint.” While he said he was not in the office when Cibelli and Paraliticci met early the morning of Jan. 27, Ortiz, who had worked for the veterinarian for five years, said he didn't believe Paraliticci when he told TRPB agent Murray he injected the leg on his own. Paraliticci would “only do what he was instructed to by Cibelli or (assistant trainer Robert) Holman,” Ortiz said. He also told investigators there were previous instances where Cibelli or Holman told Paraliticci to do pre-race treatment that involved “pain blocks in legs and hoofs of other horses.” He said Cibelli pays well but “is also very abusive if she doesn't get her way.”

Finally, Ortiz was quoted by investigators as saying that “in his 40 years of dealing and working around horses and being a vet assistant, he had never known a veterinarian to do any work without the trainer's instruction, order or request.”

Holman, who has worked as Cibelli's assistant for over three years, told investigators in a March 19 interview that he “knew nothing” about Raven Train's treatment. He said he never asked Cibelli about the Jan. 27 incident, the injection of Raven Train, or why Cibelli was so upset that morning. In fact, Holman told investigators he was “blissfully unaware” of what was happening.

“Holman's answers appeared to have been coached,” the report from the state investigator said.

On May 15, Paraliticci accepted a 90-day license suspension as part of a stipulated agreement with state officials that said he would “cooperate with the Division's continuing investigation or prosecution of other parties/licensees.”

Cibelli continued to race at Tampa Bay Downs until moving her stable north in the springtime to Monmouth Park in New Jersey, where she was leading trainer in both 2011 and 2012.

Nearly nine months after the Raven Train incident occurred in Stall 46 of Barn 11 at Tampa Bay Downs, the communications director for the state's Department of Business and Professional Regulations said the investigation of Cibelli is “ongoing.”

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Trainer Jorge Navarro, who is currently serving a 60-day suspension given by the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering, will be denied stalls at Tampa Bay Downs through June 2014, reports the Daily Racing Form. Racing officials also will not accept any of his entries during that time.

Navarro received the 60-day suspension from officials last week, after six horses under his care tested positive for Banamine at Tampa Bay almost two years ago. The DRF reports that Tampa Bay officials decided to put the additional ban in place after the 60-day suspension was determined.

Navarro will, however, be allowed on the grounds at Tampa Bay during that time, but “only in the public places”, according to officials.

Read more in the Daily Racing Form

The post Report: Tampa Bay Downs Bans Navarro for 2013-2014 Meet appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

The Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering has come under fire from many of the state's legislators for not enforcing many of the rules it put into place itself regarding several of the state's racetracks.

The Miami Herald reports that while many of the tracks found to be in violation are greyhound tracks, both Pompano Park – a harness track – and Gulfstream Park have also been cited in an investigation for not following procedures.

At Pompano Park, the investigation found that the track overstated its purses by 30 percent, while Gulfstream Park has understated its revenue received from simulcasts. The Herald reports that in 2012, Gulfstream reported $102 million received from simulcasts and intertrack wagering, but failed to report an additional $605 million it received.

Read more in the Miami Herald

The post Florida: Agency Draws Ire for not Enforcing Tougher Rules at Racetracks appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

In a short opinion issued today, February 7, 2014, the First District Court of Appeal (“First DCA”) affirmed last year's lower court ruling that Florida pari-mutuel regulators' licensing of “pari-mutuel barrel racing” failed to follow proper rule-making procedure.

To view the opinion, click HERE.

“ . . . the narrow issue in this case is whether the (Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering's) policy of treating barrel match racing as an authorized form of quarter horse racing is an unadopted rule,” the First DCA judges wrote today.

“The irony is that, during the years of litigation on this case, the professional riders who actually compete in real barrel racing have come to learn that the empty promises made by ‘pari-mutuel barrel racing' were not about promoting their sport, but about Gretna Racing LLC using them as a means to run a cardroom 365 days a year,” said Kent Stirling, Executive Director of the Florida Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, a statewide organization comprising over 6,000 Thoroughbred owners and trainers that supported the Florida Quarter Horse Racing Association in the litigation.

“The unfortunate aftermath of ‘pari-mutuel barrel racing' is that the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering immediately pivoted and issued a license to Gretna for ‘flag drop racing'—another contrived event conjured up for the same exploitative purpose,” Stirling added.   “The collateral damage for this and other statewide misuses of American Quarter Horse pari-mutuel permits is that the State of Florida cannot fully realize the immense positive economic benefit that legitimate horse racing actually brings.”

Hialeah Park, the only venue in Florida that hosts AQHA-accredited American Quarter Horse racing under the stewardship of the Florida Quarter Horse Racing Association, has seen record crowds and growing wagering handle each year.

“This case is not about the merits of one sport over another,” explained Trey Buck, Executive Director of Racing for the American Quarter Horse Association.  “It's about following the rules.  The fact is, legitimate American Quarter Horse racing is a proven economic driver nationwide.  By ensuring AQHA accreditation of American Quarter Horse racing, the State of Florida can be assured it is not only maximizing the revenue-generation of its pari-mutuel permits, but ensuring the integrity and safety of the events for fans and participants alike.”

About the American Quarter Horse Association

AQHA is the world's largest breed registry and equine organization with its international headquarters located in Amarillo, TX.

AQHA issues and maintains the pedigrees, registration and performance records of American Quarter Horses.  AQHA also promulgates rules and regulations that govern AQHA-approved events and competition including competition involving the pari-mutuel racing of American Quarter Horses and the showing of American Quarter Horses.

The AQHA rules and regulations that govern the pari-mutuel racing of American Quarter Horses are contained in the Racing Rules and Regulations section of the AQHA Official Handbook of Rules & Regulations.  AQHA does not recognize barrel racing as a pari-mutuel racing event.  Instead, barrel racing is considered a “show” event and as such is governed by the show rules and regulations set forth in Show and Performance sections of the AQHA Official Handbook of Rules & Regulations.

While rules of Racing Authorities take precedence, AQHA, for purposes of AQHA records and programs, reserves the right to deny or revoke recognition of a race which does not observe the rules and regulations contained herein. American Quarter Horse racing is defined as two or more American Quarter Horses registered with the American Quarter Horse Association, entered and competing in the same race at the same time from a regulation starting gate, at distances and conditions recognized by AQHA and running at full speed, unimpeded by obstacles, thru a common finish line.

In short, AQHA supports both types of disciplines as competition for American Quarter Horses.  Horse racing is conducted on a traditional oval racetrack covering distances between 110 and 1,000 yards without obstacles.  Barrel racing is an individually timed contest conducted in a pen or arena running around 3 evenly spaced barrels or obstacles.

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Even as Florida lawmakers declared gambling expansion to be a “dead issue” last week, it ironically expanded Monday in South Marion County, thanks to Florida regulators issuing a license for more horse-related “timed events” enabling the pari-mutuel permitholder of “South Marion Real Estate Holdings” to open a 365-day a year card room at a facility it calls “Oxford Downs” near The Villages—a popular Central Florida retirement community.

“We cannot fathom why Florida seems intent on dismantling its billion-dollar horse racing industry in this manner,” said Kent Stirling, executive director of the Florida Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (FHBPA).  “As lawmakers deliberate the importance of funds for the State Budget this week, the loss of horse racing's substantial economic and job creation engine is something taxpayers can ill afford.”

Because Florida law provides no definition of “horse racing,” regulators have continued to issue licenses to some pari-mutuel permitholders for various contrived activities that skirt the State's requirement for live horse racing in order to hold cardrooms or slot machines.  The activities dramatically curtail the amount of horses (and thus businesses and employees) that would normally be needed to conduct a legitimate race meeting and corresponding breeding industry.

In a last-ditch effort to educate the Marion County Commission that gambling would be expanding in the heart of Florida's internationally-acclaimed racehorse breeding industry to the detriment of their own constituents, longstanding Florida horsemen described “Oxford Downs” as a “mockery” and a “Trojan Horse.”  To read their letters to the editor in today's Ocala Star-Banner, click here.

National and regional organizations opposing the “South Marion/Oxford Downs” project have included the American Quarter Horse Association, the Jockey's Guild, FHBPA, Florida Quarter Horse Racing Association, Florida Quarter Horse Breeders' and Owners' Association, Florida Thoroughbred Breeders' and Owners' Association and Ocala Breeders' Sales.  Membership in these organizations totals nearly 400,000 horsemen–accredited racehorse owners, trainers, jockeys and breeders worldwide.

After reportedly being physically intimidated with vehicles, and verbally menaced with arrest and other threats, officials from a major Florida horse racing industry group attempting to attend today's public “South Marion/Oxford Downs” events were ordered to leave.

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A day of racing at Oxford Downs near The Villages retirement community in South Marion County in Florida would be funny if it weren't so sad. But sad, indeed, is the state of pari-mutuel regulations in Florida under Gov. Rick Scott and his director of the Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering, Leon Biegalski. Slick lawyers and opportunists are making a sham and a mockery of the rules that regulate horse racing and pari-mutuel wagering along with the sport itself.

It's not just at Oxford Downs, but this dumpy, dusty outpost in Summerfield, Fla., is where I found myself on Tuesday, July 1, the first day of Florida's 2014-15 fiscal year. It was opening day of a 10-day “season” designed to qualify Oxford Downs owner Anthony Mendola for permits to operate a year-round card room and simulcasting on Thoroughbreds. Two “performances,” each consisting of eight individual Quarter horse “match races,” were conducted on this 95-degree afternoon under a blazing summer Florida sun. Horses were required to be saddled up twice and go out onto the track and compete, so to speak. The same schedule is planned for the next nine days.

There was pari-mutuel wagering ­– usually about $40 was bet on each race ­­– through a United Tote machine set up in a cricket-filled portable shed. There was a starting gate, located about 110 yards from a finish line on a straightaway portion of the oval-shaped track, lined on each side by wooden plank fencing that has drawn the ire of the Jockeys' Guild and its national manager, Terry Meyocks. The track itself is undulating with sharp turns, no banking, and no safety rails.

There were Quarter horses – apparently registered with the American Quarter Horse Association, which is not officially sanctioning the Oxford Downs activity and has written a letter to Marion County Commissioners saying allowing the track to operate sets a “dangerous precedent.” Three stewards, including track owner Mendola and his teenaged son, Joshua, oversaw the proceedings.

There was a smattering of people in attendance, perhaps a dozen who weren't working for Oxford Downs or for the state of Florida's Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering. There were no bathroom facilities nearby, no running or bottled water or refreshments. An ambulance and local sheriff were on hand in case of emergencies.

Everything, I was assured by owner Mendola, was in full compliance with state and local regulations.

That goes for a required “clubhouse,” a construction trailer located a couple hundred yards from the track. “You can go in there and cool off,” Mendola told me. When I did, however, Mendola sent Edward Schwartz, the track's director of security, to run up the hill to the clubhouse and chase me out.

“You can't be in here,” Schwartz told me. I repeated to him what Mendola had told me not five minutes earlier. “You can't be in here,” he said.

Schwartz was one of the only “racing officials” whose last name wasn't Mendola or Oliver.

So Mendola owns the track and he also incorporated the horsemen's association. Isn't that convenient?

Mendola's multiple roles include that of a steward, supervising the races (alongside his teenaged son, Joshua, who has apparently been accredited by the state), a majority of which involve horses owned by Rebecca Mendola, who is Anthony Mendola's wife and Joshua Mendola's mother. She was listed as owner of six of 16 horses competing on Tuesday. Other horses that performed were owned by Elizabeth McLain and trained by Janet Erwin, both of whom the Paulick Report was told were blood relatives of track veterinarian Cara Oliver, who is married to director of racing Terry Oliver.

So we have a teenaged son and husband as stewards judging races owned by the teen's mother and track owner's wife. There is a track veterinarian, who is to determine whether horses are sound enough to compete, judging the soundness of her direct family's horses. It is a situation so convoluted that I can only repeat what the Woody Allen character, Fielding Mellish, said in the movie “Bananas” about a courtroom trial: “It's a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham.”

United Florida Horsemen, representing Florida owners and breeders, wrote a letter to Biegalski at the Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering, referring to the whole affair as a make-believe Potemkin Village and outlining the numerous legal and regulatory problems they see with Oxford Downs and similar businesses. Two officials with the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co., president Tom Ventura and director of sales Tod Wojciechowski, also oppose the permit and were on hand to witness the July 1 performances.

A horse is saddled up for a ‘race' at Oxford Downs

Of course, sham racing wasn't invented at Oxford Downs. We first learned of attorneys and opportunists gaming the system with Quarter Horse barrel racing in Gretna, in the state's panhandle. A ruling shot down barrel racing as a legitimate form of horse racing, so “flag drop” events replaced the barrel runners. Hamilton Downs, affiliated with a jai-alai business and card room in Jasper near the state line just south of Valdosta, Ga., allegedly ran a race meeting with horses barely going faster than a jog.

It is disgraceful and shameful that Scott and Biegalski allow this charade to continue.

But even legitimate pari-mutuel operators, like Peter Berube, the general manager of Tampa Bay Downs, have gotten into the act of finding and exploiting legal loopholes. Tampa Bay Downs ran a two-day summer festival – albeit with real horses, real jockeys and trainers, and real fans betting $2.8 million over two days – on June 30 and July 1, the closing and opening days of separate fiscal years. By doing so, Tampa Bay Downs claims to run year-round and qualifies as a simulcast host 12 months a year. Host status, selling imported simulcast signals to dog tracks and jai-alai frontons throughout the state, adds money to the bottom line. Berube estimates it provided $20,000 a day to daily overnight purses during the 2013-14 race meeting.

“You have to be creative in this day and age,” Berube said.

No kidding. And people like Anthony Mendola are taking creativity to a whole new level.

The really sad thing is they are probably going to get away with it.

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Many fans have been asking if and when Hialeah Park might have Thoroughbreds leaving its gates again–especially now that Gulfstream and Calder have worked out a deal to coordinate meets. According a recent article in The Blood-Horse, Gulfstream Park officials don't necessarily oppose the return of Thoroughbreds to Hialeah in the coming years.

Tim Ritvo, president of Gulfstream Park, told writer Jim Freer that the track needs all of the 190 race dates it has scheduled in the next year to fund future expansion but that he would “like to find some ways to work with John [Brunetti, Hialeah Park owner] on his goals.”

The relationship between the tracks has remained cordial in recent years, with each side supporting the other or remaining neutral on legislative and legal issues.

Brunetti might be able to lease a few dates from Gulfstream with the permission of the state's Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering. Hialeah supporters in the Florida legislature plan to lobby for a bill that would grant the track a new Thoroughbred permit and license (it's currently allowed to run up to half its Quarter Horse dates as Thoroughbred), or the return of the pre-2002 system in which regulators assigned dates to the state's tracks. Given legislators' relative disinterest in most racing topics, the lease option might be Hialeah's best bet.

Read more at The Blood-Horse

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According to a Daily Racing Form report, 2015 top Gulfstream Park trainer Kirk Ziadie may not be able to continue training in Florida this summer because of a license issue.

Per an email to the Paulick Report from the Florida Division of Parimutuel Wagering, Ziadie applied for a license May 29 of this year, and the division has 90 days to review the request–the trouble is, his current license expires before that grace period is up.

“Pursuant to section 550.105, Florida Statute, Kirk Ziadie's license is set to meet the statutory maximum allowance of three years and expires June 30, 2015,” said Chelsea Eagle, spokeswoman for the division.

A section of Florida law allows the division to deny license to an applicant that has had past rule violations. Ziadie had five positives for clenbuterol in 2013 and has nine more pending, according to the Form, all of which he is contesting based on procedural issues with the blood sample collections.

An attorney for Ziadie alleged that the trainer was being singled out for refusing to settle the latest clenbuterol overages, as other trainers with clenbuterol violations have had no difficulty getting their licenses renewed.

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Trainer Kirk Ziadie is fighting an Aug. 26 decision by the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering to deny his occupational license application because of what the regulatory agency said were three medication violations – two overages of phenylbutazone and one clenbuterol positive – earlier this year.

Ziadie, who won at a 49 percent clip (22 wins from 45 starts) to be leading trainer at the 2015 spring Gulfstream Park meeting, was notified of the license denial by letter from Jonathan R. Zachem, director of the Department of Business and Professional Regulations' Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering. Zachem cited the three alleged positives, all at Gulfstream Park: Acclaimed Racing Stable's Get Creative, winner of the third race on Feb. 6, was found to have a concentration of phenylbutazone at 3.4 micrograms per milliliter, compared with a threshold of 2 micrograms per milliliter; Averill Racing LLC's At Large, winner of the first race April 24, tested at 2.3 micrograms per milliliter for phenylbutazone; and Averill Racing LLC's Creative License, winner of the seventh race May 9, was found to have a concentration of 8.9 picograms per milliliter of clenbuterol. Phenylbutazone is a class 4 drug and clenbuterol class 3 drug under the Association of Racing Commissioners International's Uniform Classification Guidelines.

Under Chapter 550 of Florida statute, “and the rules promulgated thereto,” Zachem wrote, “the division may deny … any occupational license if the applicant for or holder thereof has violated the provisions of this chapter or the rules of the division…”

Ziadie has five other pending clenbuterol positives and one phenylbutazone overage in 2012 filed against him that his attorney, Bradford Beilly, is contesting on his behalf. In addition, Ziadie has been charged with 13 clenbuterol positives in 2013 and three phenylbutazone overages in 2014, according to an administrative complaint.

An administrative hearing on those cases, which began in August, is scheduled to continue this week in a Broward County courtroom. According to court records, Drs. Thomas Tobin and David Barker were to testify as expert witnesses on Ziadie's behalf.

Beilly has petitioned the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings for an evidentiary hearing on the license denial. Beilly said that on May 29, 2015, Ziadie submitted a “fully complete license renewal application” that was due to expire on June 30. The Pari-Mutuel Division took no action on the renewal and allowed the license to expire, Beilly said, waiting nearly three months after his renewal application was filed to deny him a license.

“The denial affects petitioner's substantial interests as he cannot earn a living as a horse trainer without an occupational license issued by the Division,” Beilly wrote.

Beilly said Ziadie is disputing “the alleged fact that the blood samples tested actually came from horses trained by petitioner Ziadie. Petitioner Ziadie also disputes the implicitly alleged fact that the blood samples were properly collected, stored and tested” in accordance with the rules.

Furthermore, Ziadie is alleging, the regulators are relying on a 28-page document from 2010, titled “Equine Detention Barn Manual,” that was never properly adopted by the Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering.”

“Accordingly … the alleged test results from Feb. 6, 2015, April 24, 2015, and May 9, 2015, are not violations of Fla. Statu. 550.2415(1)(a) and the Division should therefore grant Petitioner Ziadie's application for a pari-mutuel professional individual occupational license.

Ziadie, who has been training since 2002, has 762 career wins from 2,716 starts, and his horses have earned nearly $14.5 million. He's won training titles at Tampa Bay Downs, Calder Race Course and Gulfstream. He's also had  numerous medication violations and was banned by Calder race course from 2009-11.

Sally Mitchelhill, a former exercise rider for Ziadie who was a full-time jockey in 2007, winning 58 races from 603 mounts, has taken over Ziadie's stable. She has won four races, with nine seconds and seven thirds, from 42 starts since July 1.

The post Ziadie Fighting Denial of License in Florida appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

An administrative law judge has recommended that trainer Kirk Ziadie's license renewal – which was denied in August by the Florida Department of Business Regulation's Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering as a result of several medication violations – be granted because  chain of custody procedures in post-race test sample collection were contrary to existing rules.

F. Scott Boyd, administrative law judge for Florida's Division of Administrative Hearings, ruled that three positive test results reported earlier this year by the University of Florida Racing Laboratory – two Butazolidan overages and a positive test for clenbuterol – were not valid because the 2010 Equine Detention Barn Procedures Manual used by Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering employees at all Florida tracks does not comply with a 2001 Florida pari-mutuel rule. The rule states that the owner or a representative shall witness and sign off on the collection and sealing of post-race samples.

Specifically at issue are the blood samples that are taken and identified by number in the presence of a representative for the horse owner (trainer, groom or designated person). The samples are then set aside until the end of each day's racing program, at which time – in accordance with the 2010 Equine Detention Barn Procedures Manual – they are spun on a centrifuge to separate the serum from the whole blood. The serum is then poured into a sample collection tube and sealed with a number that corresponds with the horse from which it came.

When the centrifuging procedure takes place, only test barn employees are present, often without the direct supervision of the veterinary manager. That, Boyd ruled, invalidates the positive tests because a representative for the owner was not present when the samples were sealed. The 2001 rule trumps the 2010 Procedures Manual, which Boyd said qualifies as an “unadopted rule…contrary to the adopted rule.”

Dr. Steven Barker, a drug-testing expert who has led the Louisiana State University drug testing lab, provided a deposition on behalf of Ziadie. Barker said Florida's chain of custody procedures were a “concern” because “there's apparently some unsupervised activity that is critical to the integrity of the sample being conducted by someone other than the responsible person, which would be the veterinarian.”

Barker said it is at this point in the chain of custody that test samples are “most vulnerable to potential contamination, potential misidentification, to potential tampering.”

No one, apparently, other than Ziadie's attorney, Bradford J. Beilly, was aware that the 2010 Procedures Manual was never adopted as an official rule. Kent Stirling, the Florida Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association's executive director, testified that he has attended virtually every workshop in Florida related to medication and testing procedures over the last 20 years. Stirling said the centrifuging, extraction of serum and sealing of samples were never discussed at a rule-making hearing.

Boyd wrote in his recommendation: “Failing to follow the procedures set forth in rule 61D-6.005(3) for collecting and sealing the blood specimen, and instead relying upon an unadopted rule, Respondent (the Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering) is foreclosed from reliance on the test results, and failed to prove, even by a preponderance of the evidence, that Petitioner (Ziadie) violated” medication rules.

Ziadie, who has been training since 2002, has 762 career wins from 2,716 starts, and his horses have earned nearly $14.5 million. He's won training titles at Tampa Bay Downs, Calder Race Course and Gulfstream. He's also had  numerous medication violations and was banned by Calder race course from 2009-11.

A bigger question beyond Ziadie's licensing is the enforceability of any positive drug tests going forward, until such time as the procedures are changed to comply with the 2001 Florida rule, or the 2010 Procedures Manual is made official.

It wasn't immediately clear if the state will appeal the administrative law judge's recommended order.

Recommended order

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An administrative law judge in Florida has recommended trainer Kirk Ziadie be suspended six years and fined $18,000 for 18 medication violations over a 2 1/2-year period from July 2012 to December 2014.

Two consolidated complaints for multiple positive tests for clenbuterol against Ziadie came before administrative law judge F. Scott Boyd, who recently issued a recommendation in a parallel hearing – not directly related to this case – that Ziadie should not be denied a license renewal by the Department of Business Regulations Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering. In the latter case, Boyd ruled that chain of custody procedures of blood samples by DPMW employees in the post-race test barn did not comply with state law.

In this case, however, even with blood samples ruled inadmissible, the state was able to rely on frozen urine samples that were re-tested by the Racing Laboratory at the University of Florida to prove that horses raced for Ziadie with clenbuterol in their system.

Attorneys for Ziadie argued that the laboratory and DPMW officials changed the level at which clenbuterol positives were called, something officials acknowledged while saying that any presence of clenbuterol on raceday was a violation of the state's drug rules. There was a huge spike in positives for the drug in 2012 and '13. Ziadie also argued he was the subject of “selective and discriminatory prosecution” motivated by a 2012 investigative article in Miami New Times entitled “Cheaters Prosper at Calder” that mentioned Ziadie specifically and was critical of the DPMW.

Boyd was not persuaded by those arguments.

“The number of repetitions of offenses was significant and indicates a pattern or practice rather than an occasional oversight,” Boyd wrote in the Dec. 15 recommended order. “Repeated drug offenses have a direct impact on the integrity of the pari-mutuel industry.

“Clenbuterol, while a drug with therapeutic value, also has adverse effects, and excessive use presents a danger to racing thoroughbreds.”

Ziadie has been leading trainer at all of South Florida's racetracks but has not started a horse since June 2015, when his trainer's license expired and he was denied a renewal by the DPMW. From 2002-15, he's trained 762 winners from 2,716 starters for earnings of $14.4 million, mostly in Florida. He was banned from Calder by track officials from 2009-11.

Bradford Beilly, attorney for Ziadie, could not be reached for comment.

The post Kirk Ziadie Faces Six-Year Ban For Multiple Clenbuterol Positives appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Dr. Patricia Marquis, the attending track veterinarian for Gulfstream Park, has been fined $250 for failure to fully cooperate with investigative staff employed by the Department of Business & Professional Regulation, Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering. The staff members were routinely investigating the deaths of Thoroughbreds injured while racing at the South Florida track in 2014 and 2015.

The Consent Order was filed with the Department of Business and Professional Regulation on March 11. It is the result of an Administrative Complaint filed Nov. 23, 2015, alleging six instances where Marquis “repeatedly showed an unwillingness to comply with the requests of (the division's) employees that were essential for the completion of their investigations.”

Section 550.0251 (9) of Florida Statutes states that “The division may conduct investigations.” Rule 61D-2.003, Florida Administrative Code, states: “No person shall knowingly engage in conduct that resists, obstructs, or opposes a division employee in the performance of his or her duties and responsibilities on the permitholder's premises.”

The Administrative Complaint said Marquis “asserted privileged communication and stated she would not release any information regarding the death of the racing animal without written authorization from the racing animal's owner or trainer. … When the investigator obtained a copy of a release from the racing animal's trainer and indicated same, (Marquis) still would not produce relevant information.”

In another case, when investigators wanted to interview a security guard who witnessed the late administration of race-day Salix (furosemide), Marquis allegedly gave the security guard “specific instructions not to provide any information to the investigators with regard to the matter without an attorney or supervisor present. Unable to complete the interview,” the complaint said, “the investigators left the facility's premises.”

The Consent Order states that it “was entered into in consideration of mitigation relating to (Marquis') willingness to fully comply and cooperate with any and all requests made by (the division) or its employee in the performance of statutorily divisional duties and responsibilities going forward.”

Marquis succeeded Dr. Mary Scollay as attending veterinarian at South Florida Thoroughbred tracks in 2008 when the latter became Equine Medical Director for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. Her license remains in good standing.

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Embattled trainer Kirk Ziadie has been granted a stay of a six-year suspension that had been given in December by the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering.

The Daily Racing Form reports that a Florida appellate court granted the stay on April 21. Ziadie's attorney, Brad Beilly, told the Form that the stay would likely remain until the court rules on Ziadie's appeal, which could take from six months to a year.

Ziadie was suspended after the Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering had proven that the trainer had 18 medication positives in the prior four years. The violations were for positives for overages of phenylbutazone and clenbuterol.

Ziadie told the DRF that he had not yet determined when he will return to training, but he said that when he does, he will “start small.”

“I just want to come back real slow, make it a small stable at first,” Ziadie said. “I just hope everything can work its way out.”

Read more in the Daily Racing Form

The post ‘I Just Hope Everything Can Work Its Way Out’: Ziadie Granted Stay Of Six-Year Suspension appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

It's time for the Congressional Horse Caucus members to go on a field trip. May I suggest they take a break today from their hard work at the U.S. Capitol and make the short drive up the Baltimore-Washington Parkway to spend an afternoon at Laurel Park in Maryland? They can see first-hand how badly the current structure for regulating medication policies in horse racing is broken.

Members of the Horse Caucus heard on Thursday the same old arguments about why federal legislation to create an independent, non-governmental organization to establish and enforce national medication rules is a good thing – or not, depending on who was testifying. If you want to read about who spoke and what they said, go here, here, here or here. You've probably heard it all before, so I'm not going to regurgitate.

Instead, let me tell you a story about Marcus J. Vitali. He was the third-leading trainer at one of American racing's premier meetings – the Gulfstream Park championship season – this past winter in South Florida.

Vitali, according to MyFloridaLicense.com, has been charged with 24 medication violations since 2011, including nine in 2015 and two so far in 2016.

Vitali is saddling a horse named Hudson Miracle in Laurel Park's fifth race on Friday. He's got another horse in on Saturday and four more at Laurel on Sunday.

How can this be?

Isn't Maryland one of the states that adopted the national uniform medication program? That's the voluntary initiative that the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association and Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association say makes federal legislation – in the form of the Thoroughbred Horseracing Integrity Act of 2015 (H.R. 3084, also known as the Barr-Tonko Bill) – unnecessary. The NUMP, as this acronym-crazed industry likes to call it, is designed to solve the problems created by the patchwork quilt regulatory system that has 38 sets of rules in 38 racing states. The current system was designed long before interstate simulcasting, which now accounts for more than 80 percent of wagering in the United States.

Before he moved his operation to Maryland, Vitali was facing possible consequences in Florida because of the number of alleged medication violations in horses he trained.

Florida's Department of Business and Professional Regulation and its Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering have the authority to suspend the occupational license of a trainer. Apparently it can't, however, suspend someone who isn't licensed.

Vitali voluntarily relinquished his Florida license before Florida regulators could sanction him for seven alleged medication violations from October 2015 through January 2016. The Maryland Racing Commission has no reason to take action against him or deny him a license because his license has not been suspended in Florida

Trainer Marcus Vitali voluntarily relinquished his trainer's license in Florida and moved his stable to Maryland

An April 12 order dismissing the charges in Florida against Vitali reads: “Although the factual allegations contained in the Administrative Complaints, if true, present violations of Section 550.2415, Fla Stat., the Division is unable to prosecute Respondent because he is no longer licensed and the above style cases should therefore be DISMISSED. However, an alert will be placed on Respondent's file and if he is ever to re-apply for licensure in this state the above styled cases shall be re-opened and he shall be held responsible for the allegations contained in these administrative complaints.”

In other words, as long as Vitali doesn't apply for a license in Florida, none of the pending medication charges against him in 2015 and '16 are on his record in any other state. And if he happens to pick up a positive test in Maryland or wherever else he runs horses, it might be treated as a first offense in that jurisdiction.

I don't blame Vitali or his lawyer, Daniel Russell. They are just taking advantage of a deeply flawed system. Russell, with the powerful Jones Walker law firm in Tallahassee, is a former general counsel for Gulfstream Park. His associate, Marc Dunbar, a partner in Jones Walker, currently works for Gulfstream and previously helped convince Florida regulators that barrel races are a legitimate form of pari-mutuel horse racing. Dunbar and his partners in the Gretna “racetrack” are hoping to cash in with the pari-mutuel license they acquired by opening a casino. They know the loopholes in Florida's gambling laws as well as anyone.

I said I wasn't going to regurgitate anything said at Thursday's Congressional Horse Caucus hearing, but this comment by Eric Hamelback, the CEO of the National HBPA, sticks in my craw – especially in light of the Vitali situation. “As this caucus is aware,” Hamelback told lawmakers, “Thoroughbred racing and our industry is one of the most highly regulated industries and sports in the world. The regulation of horse racing is in place at a much more comprehensive level than we see in any other sport today.”

Except in Florida (where, incidentally, Vitali was a member of the HBPA's board of directors until yesterday) … and Maryland … and who knows where else.

A national regulatory structure is desperately needed. The current system is broken. Anyone who says otherwise is delusional.

The post Vitali Case Gives Congressional Horse Caucus Real-Life Example Of Broken System appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

According to a published report, trainer Marcus Vitali will not be permitted to race horses at Laurel Park in Maryland after voluntarily relinquishing his occupational license in Florida, which allowed him to avoid sanctions after multiple medication violation complaints were filed against him by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation's Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering.

Bill Finley, writing in the Thoroughbred Daily News, said upper management of the Stronach Group – owner of Maryland Jockey Club tracks Laurel Park and Pimlico, along with Gulfstream Park in Florida, where Vitali was third leading trainer this winter – instructed the Laurel racing office not to accept entries from Vitali, pending further investigation.

It was reported here yesterday that Vitali, who has been charged with 24 medication violations in Florida since 2011, including nine in 2015 and two in 2016, avoided any penalties for the seven most recent complaints stemming from medication violations after voluntarily relinquishing his license and moving his stable from Gulfstream Park to Laurel Park.

Trainer Marcus Vitali voluntarily relinquished his trainer's license in Florida

The April 12 order dismissing the cases, signed by Jonathan Zachem, deputy secretary of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation and director of the Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering, read: “Although the factual allegations contained in the Administrative Complaints, if true, present violations of Section 550.2415, Fla Stat., the Division is unable to prosecute Respondent because he is no longer licensed and the above style cases should therefore be DISMISSED. However, an alert will be placed on Respondent's file and if he is ever to re-apply for licensure in this state the above styled cases shall be re-opened and he shall be held responsible for the allegations contained in these administrative complaints.”

However, Florida statute would in fact appear to permit the state regulatory body to sanction anyone who was licensed when alleged violations occurred. According to Section 2(e) of Florida Statute's Chapter 550.105 (Occupational licenses of racetrack employees; fees; denial, suspension, and revocation of license; penalties and fines), the division “may bring administrative charges against any person not holding a current license for violations of statutes or rules which occurred while such person held an occupational license, and the division may declare such person ineligible to hold a license for a period of time.”

Florida statute would appear to permit officials to pursue charges against individuals who may no longer be licensed

Division director Zachem did not return phone calls or respond to an email asking why, in light of the statute, the administrative complaints against Vitali were dismissed.

Vitali was represented by Daniel Russell, former general counsel for Gulfstream Park and part of the powerful Jones Walker law firm in Tallahassee. A partner in Jones Walker is Marc Dunbar, who currently represents Gulfstream Park on legislative affairs and is part of a group that convinced the Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering to license a barrel racing operation in Gretna as a legitimate racetrack in order to pursue a casino license.

According to the Thoroughbred Daily News article, horses already entered in Laurel races on Saturday and Sunday will be permitted to race.

The post Report: Vitali Can’t Run His Horses At Maryland Jockey Club Tracks appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

The Maryland Jockey Club has begun accepting entries again from Marcus Vitali after the trainer began the process of reapplying for the Florida license he voluntarily relinquished last month, a move that allowed him to temporarily dodge administrative complaints filed against him for seven alleged medication violations at Gulfstream Park.

Vitali has four horses entered Saturday at Laurel Park, a track owned by The Stronach Group, which earlier in the week said it would not permit Vitali to race there after learning of his status in Florida.

Sal Sinatra, president and general manager of the Maryland Jockey Club, said it is his understanding that Vitali has reapplied for his Florida license, paving the way for the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering to pursue the administrative complaints filed against Vitali for seven medication violations: one in October, four in November and two in January. The complaints were dismissed in a ruling that said the Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering could not pursue the charges because Vitali was no longer licensed in Florida. However, the ruling stated: “If he is ever to re-apply for licensure in this state the… cases shall be re-opened and he shall be held responsible for the allegations contained in these administrative complaints.”

The Maryland Jockey Club will honor any suspensions that come out of that process, Sinatra said.

New, more restrictive medication rules aligned with the National Uniform Medication Program were signed into law last year by Florida Gov. Rick Scott. Those rules (explained here by the Florida Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association) went into effect in January 2016. Since then, there has been a spike in the number of violations for overages of therapeutic medications. Two of the seven complaints filed against Vitali fall under those new rules.

Using the MyFloridaLicense.com website, a review of 50 trainers with the most starters during the Gulfstream Park championship meet (Dec. 5, 2015-April 3, 2016), showed that 14 trainers have been notified of violations under the new rules. Ten of the 14 trainers were notified of one violation each. There are two administrative complaints against Vitali, three against trainer Martin Wolfson four against William Kaplan and nine against Oscar Gonzalez, bringing the total to 28 administrative complaints for the 50 trainers with the most starters at Gulfstream Park. All but one are for Class 4 drugs, the other being a Class 3 drug.

Because of either a backlog at the University of Florida drug-testing laboratory or in the administrative handling of the results, the violations do not include races run at Gulfstream Park after early March, so the number of medication violations likely will increase. Another byproduct of the delays is that some trainers may have compiled multiple violations before being notified of the first overage.

The five alleged Class 4 violations by Vitali horses in the fall of 2015, for example, occurred within a month of each other: one was on Oct. 25, two were on Nov. 13, one on Nov. 14 and one on Nov. 15. In some racing states, if the violations are for the same medication and the trainer was not notified of the first overage before the subsequent violations occurred, that would be considered a mitigating circumstance in adjudicating the case.

It isn't known what substances were involved in these cases or when Vitali was notified.

As of May 2, the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering has a new director. Tony Glover was appointed to the position to replace Jonathan Zachem, who signed the order dismissing the charges against Vitali. Glover, an attorney, previously served as deputy director of the Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco within the state's Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

Florida has no racing commission and is regulated by the state bureau based in Tallahassee.

The post Maryland Gives Vitali Green Light After Trainer Reapplies For Florida License appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Twenty-one of the 50 trainers with the most starts at the 2015-16 Gulfstream Park championship meeting were served with administrative complaints for medication violations since new regulations went into effect in January.

The new regulations for therapeutic medications, signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott in June 2015, follow the drug schedule, threshold levels and withdrawal guidelines that are part of the National Uniform Medication Program (NUMP). The NUMP, which has been adopted in part by at least 20 states, was developed by the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium and recommended as a model rule by the Association of Racing Commissioners International.

Florida legislators did not adopt the Multiple Medication Violation Penalty System that is part of the program. The new law also does not recognize evolving changes to threshold levels or withdrawal guidelines as recommended by RMTC and ARCI.

Based on research by the Paulick Report using Equibase.com and MyFloridaLicense.com, the 21 trainers have been charged with a total of 47 medication violations – including one Class 2, seven Class 3 and 39 Class 4 – during the 2016 portion of the meeting that began Dec. 5 and ended April 3. Those 21 trainers were responsible for 1,925 starts, so the 47 administrative complaints represent 2.4 percent of their total starts or 1.1 percent of the 4,141 starts from the 50 trainers with the highest number of starts during the meeting. According to several industry organizations, 99.5 percent of horses tested nationally are in compliance with medication regulations, so the alleged Gulfstream Park violations have come at a rate twice the national average.

One trainer, Oscar Gonzalez, was notified of nine alleged Class 4 violations from 69 starts. William Kaplan, who at the end of the Gulfstream Park meeting announced his retirement, was served with seven administrative complaints for Class 4 violations from 64 starts. Martin Wolfson received five administrative complaints for Class 4 violations from 50 starts.

Multiple Eclipse Award winner and Gulfstream's leading trainer Todd Pletcher, whose 253 starts and 62 wins were the most of any trainer during the championship meeting, received one administrative complaint for a Class 3 violation and three for Class 4. Marcus Vitali received three complaints for Class 4 violations from 148 starts, and Kathleen O'Connell (72 starts) and Aubrey Maragh (54 starts) received two each.

The MyFloridaLicense.com website used to research the administrative complaints does not provide details other than the class of drug.

Glen Berman, executive director of the Florida Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, said many of the violations were either for overages of “stacked” non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (if using more than one, the threshold levels were significantly lower than prior regulations) or for xylazine. The latter, a sedative/analgesic medication, had its recommended threshold level increased by RMTC and ARCI from 10 picograms/milliliter of plasma or serum to 200 pg/ml after Florida legislators passed the new law. The law does not recognize changes in RMTC recommendations. Florida has no racing commission but pari-mutuel licensees are regulated by the Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering, a section of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

“We have spoken to the division about the application and implementation of the law,” said Berman. “Anything we are unable to work out with the division we would have to address statutorily. So we hope to fix what we see as inconsistencies of unintended outcomes of the law as drafted currently, such as having the ARCI threshold medication schedule changed in the law as the ARCI puts out new versions. We also would like them to adopt the ARCI penalty schedule.”

Berman said the administrative complaints bypass track stewards, who in most states would conduct a hearing with the trainer to determine any aggravating or mitigating circumstances.

“There are no stewards involved,” he said. “The options are: take the offer sent to you by the state or to dispute it – either disputing the allegations and requesting a split sample or raise mitigating circumstances.”

While some of the cases have been closed, the majority of the administrative complaints remain unresolved.

The post After Spike In Violations, Florida HBPA Seeking ‘Fix’ Of New Medication Rules appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Trainer Marcus Vitali, currently serving a 120-day suspension for multiple medication violations in Florida, has been told by officials with The Stronach Group – owners of Gulfstream Park in Florida, Laurel Park and Pimlico in Maryland and Santa Anita Park and Golden Gate Fields in California – that they will not take entries from him in the future and asked Vitali to leave the Gulfstream Park property.

Trainer Allan Hunter, in whose name Vitali's horses have been running over the last two months, has also been told his entries will not be accepted by Stronach Group tracks. Hunter has been given 10 days to remove all of the horses currently under his care from Gulfstream Park. Hunter has one former Vitali horse entered on Friday's Gulfstream Park program that will be allowed to run, according to Tim Ritvo, chief operating officer of The Stronach Group's racing division.

The action came one day after a Paulick Report article by Natalie Voss examining licensing questions surrounding Vitali, who voluntarily relinquished his Florida occupational license earlier this year to avoid a possible suspension, then moved his stable to Maryland. He returned to Florida later this summer to seek reinstatement of his license. As part of a consent order from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation's Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering reinstating his license in September, Vitali was suspended 120 days and fined $7,000. The suspension began retroactive to July 1, when VItali was not licensed.

“We called in Vitali and Hunter and said to Hunter, ‘Are these your horses or are they Marcus's horses,'” said Ritvo. “Allan Hunter was cooperative. He did not deny it (being a program trainer for Vitali), said he was doing the guy a favor and didn't want any trouble. We made it clear we could have done an audit to find out who was paying worker's compensation and who is paying the bills.”

He added that all Stronach Group tracks are going to make a “much more exerted effort” to prevent program trainers taking over a stable when trainers are suspended for a prolonged period.

Vitali was third-leading trainer during Gulfstream Park's 2015-16 championship meet, winning 25 races from 148 starts. Hunter, who won a total of 11 races from 2011-15, is sixth in the current Gulfstream Park standings, winning 12 of 66 starts, primarily with horses that previously ran under Vitali's name.

Ritvo also disputed a point in the Paulick Report article on Vitali, based on a state investigative report, that said he told Jay Stone, then the racing manager for Frank Calabrese, not to talk about or delay filing a complaint against Vitali in March 2013 until after that year's Florida Derby. Stone's complaint said Vitali ran a filly knowing she had a slab fracture in her knee and that Vitali supplied him X-rays after the race showing the broken leg. Stone had claimed the horse on behalf of Calabrese. She finished 45 lengths back as the 6-5 favorite and never raced again.

“Jay came up to Mike Rogers (Stronach Group racing division president) and me at the party the night before the Florida Derby,” Ritvo said. “Rogers and I were furious at Vitali and told Jay Stone, ‘Send everything to the state.' No one was ever told to wait until after the Florida Derby. The state didn't do anything. We should have acted upon it ourselves, but after that we hired Dr. (Robert) O'Neil to look at this kind of issue.”

O'Neil was hired in July 2014 as the company's Equine Health and Safety Director.

The post Ritvo: Stronach Tracks Bar Vitali, Hunter From Entry Box appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Traditional horsemen's organizations, along with the spirit of the Interstate Horseracing Act of 1978 – which gives horse owners approval rights on the export of simulcast signals – are under fire in two states, Massachusetts and Florida.

Last week, United States District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor dismissed a lawsuit filed by the New England Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (NEHBPA) against the Massachusetts Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, (MassTHA) which claimed to be the representative horsemen's organization in negotiating a contract with a group that had hoped to have race meetings at the dormant Brockton Fairgrounds.

(The MassTHA is not affiliated with the National Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, which has sent cease-and-desist letters to the Massachusetts group demanding they not use that name. The National THA has local affiliates in Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.)

The lawsuit turned out to be a moot point, since Brockton did not race in 2016 and failed to apply for racing dates in 2017. But the language in portions of the judge's ruling may be cited in future litigation.

In Florida, where some cunning entrepreneurs have made a mockery of the state's regulatory oversight of horse racing by getting licensed as pari-mutuel tracks through the staging of farcical races, track owners are contracting with “captive” horsemen's organizations and setting revenue sharing deals on their own terms. Pari-mutuel license approval has led to simulcast and poker rooms and, in the future, the operators of these farcical racetracks hope, slot machines. This practice may now be spreading to Hialeah Park, which until this year has operated legitimate Quarter Horse racing by contracting with a recognized horseman's organization. Hialeah Park's very profitable casino is contingent upon operating a minimum number of live racing dates.

Let's look at the Massachusetts case first.

Some disgruntled NEHBPA members who failed to win election to the organization's board of directors in 2015 formed the MassTHA. Led by William Lagorio, who Judge Saylor describes as the “self appointed president,” the MassTHA has not held any elections and has few members, according to the NEHBPA's complaint.

That same year, the Middleborough Agricultural Society (MAS) submitted an application to run a 2016 live meeting at Brockton and entered in a purse agreement with the MassTHA. According to a stall application, anyone wishing to race at Brockton must sign an agreement designating the MassTHA as their exclusive representative to negotiate any and all contracts. The agreement MAS reached with the MassTHA, according to the complaint, said horsemen would receive no payments from the organization operating the race meeting.

“Thus,” Saylor wrote in his order dismissing the NEHBPA's lawsuit, “all profits derived from any simulcasting and off-track wagering are to be retained by MAS.”

Saylor, who said the Interstate Horseracing Act “is no paragon of clarity,” declared the MassTHA “is the representative ‘horsemen's group' as defined in the Act.”

He wrote: “Section 3002 (12) defines ‘horsemen's group' as the group which represents the majority of owners and trainers racing (at a particular track), for the races subject to interstate off-track wagers on any racing day.' The statute thus defines ‘horsemen's group' in terms of who represents the majority of those racing on a particular track on a particular day. … Under the IHA, it does not matter who represents the majority of horsemen in the state; for the purposes of this case, it matters only who represents the majority of those racing (1) at the Brockton Fairgrounds (2) in a race subject to interstate off-track wagering (3) on a particular race day. Because the stall application of MAS requires horsemen to consent to be represented by MassTHA with respect to the races held at Brockton Fairgrounds, MassTHA appears to be ‘the horsemen's group' as defined in the IHA.”

More importantly, Saylor wrote, there was no violation of the IHA because no interstate wagers were accepted, since Brockton never opened for racing. Nevertheless, had Brockton opened for live racing, his ruling saw nothing wrong with a racetrack requiring participants to become members of horseman's organization of the track's choosing. This would be akin to a collective bargaining agreement between management and a union that was formed by management.

The “make up your own horseman's organization” ploy has been used successfully in Florida to convince the state's Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering to license minimum-investment operations offering barrel, flag-drop or match race. These operations fulfill the state's minimum requirements, including having a written contract with horsemen.

‘Nothing About Hamilton Downs Is Real'
One such operation is Hamilton Downs in Jasper, a small town near the Georgia border and just east of Interstate 75. Hamilton Downs was given a pari-mutuel license for Quarter Horse barrel racing, but then had to switch to flag-drop races after a judge ruled barrel racing illegal.

The Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering apparently had second thoughts about licensing Hamilton Downs as a racetrack and filed a complaint against the association, saying it violated several regulations. Hamilton Downs conducted a “race meeting” in 2014 that consisted of 160 races over five days. Each day consisted of four performances, with each performance consisting of eight “races.” Horses were supplied by the “Hamilton Downs Quarter Horse Association,” which cobbled together 19 horses, aged 7 to 23, including a 20-year-old Thoroughbred named Heaven's Trick that had never raced.

A hearing on the matter was conducted earlier this year. E. Gary Early, the administrative law judge who heard the case, wrote, among other things that:

“Flag drop racing as performed at Hamilton Downs involved two horses racing simultaneously on a crude dirt ‘track' approximately 110 yards in length. … The race was started by a person who waved a red cloth tied to a stick whenever it appeared that both horses were in the general vicinity of what the starter perceived to be the ‘starting line.' There was no starting box or gate.

“The track was in the middle of an open field. There was no grandstand, though there was a covered viewing area on ‘stilts' from which the states steward and track stewards could observe the races. The track had one betting window and tote machine in an on-site shed. The only window in the shed, was mercifully, occupied by a window-unit air conditioner. As stated by (state steward Louis Haskell Jr.), ‘nothing about Hamilton Downs is real in terms of racetrack standards.

“The races must be seen to be believed. The 14 events for which video evidence was received show a series of races involving – as a rule – tired, reluctant, skittish or disinterested horses moving at a slow pace down the dust-choked path. … the gait of the ‘racing' horses ranged between a slow walk and a canter. Horses often simply stood at the starting line before slowly plodding down the track. In one instance, a horse actually backed up, until a bystander took it by the lead, thereafter giving the horse a congratulatory slap on the rump when it began to move in a forward direction.

“(The state steward) described numerous races, aptly, as non-competitive because one or both of the entrants walked, including one race (day 3, card 3, race 5) in which the racing steed took 1 minute and 45 seconds to cover the 110-yard course. The overall quality of the videotaped races was about what one would expect of an entry-level campers' horse show held at the conclusion of a two-week YMCA summer camp.

“Over the course of the 160-race meet, a total of 10 bets were placed, with two of those reportedly placed by a representative of a competing facility in an effort to substantiate wrongdoing on the part of Hamilton Downs. Given the competitive level of the races, a $20 handle seems about right.

“(The state steward) testified that the same horses just kept racing over and over.”

All this, yet the administrative law judge ruled in favor of Hamilton Downs because Florida's regulations and definitions regarding what constitutes a horse “race” are so vague.

Hialeah Park has contracted with the Florida Quarter Horse Racing Association (FQHRA) since 2009 to conduct what most would consider traditional Quarter Horse racing. Earlier this year, Hialeah signed an agreement with the South Florida Quarter Horse Association (SFQHA) – a new group described by the FQHRA as a “captive” organization. According to the contract between Hialeah and this new group, “only horses owned by members of the SFQHA will be eligible to participate in races during the race meet.”

That means Hialeah Park, which has a very profitable casino, may be joining with tracks like Hamilton Downs, Gretna in the Florida panhandle and Oxford Downs near Ocala – all of which offer racing that makes a mockery of the sport.

The FQHRA – the horsemen's organization that formerly had a contract with Hialeah – has challenged the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering, saying the agreement between Hialeah and the SFQHA is a violation of state regulations. A hearing is scheduled on the matter later this month, and the ruling in Massachusetts has given further ammunition to those who would like put traditional horsemen's organizations out of business.

Order dismissing New England HBPA lawsuit

Order dismissing complaint against Hamilton Downs

(The Paulick Report visited Oxford Downs when it conducted its first “race meet” in 2014. The video below details that visit.)

The post When Is A Horsemen’s Organization Not Really A Horsemen’s Organization? appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Trainer Jamie Ness began serving a 100-day suspension on Feb. 19 for multiple Class 3 medication violations in Florida from December 2012 through April 2014. The suspension and $4,800 fine were for 12 clenbuterol positives that were part of a negotiated settlement with the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering, the state's regulatory agency. Four additional complaints for overages of clenbuterol were dismissed.

The consent order was confirmed by Bradford Beilly, attorney for Ness.

Kathleen Keenan, deputy director of communications for the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which oversees the Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering, said the department “does not have a final order” on the matter.

Ness is currently second in the Tampa Bay Downs trainer standings behind Gerald Bennett with 22 wins from 72 starts (a 31 percent strike rate). Horses at Tampa Bay Downs are now running in the name of his wife, Mandy. An additional string at Laurel Park, where Ness has won with four of 22 starts during the current meet, is being handled by his assistant, Cory Jensen.

The clenbuterol violations occurred during a run when Ness won seven consecutive training titles at Tampa Bay Downs. An unannounced change in testing ordered by the Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering at the University of Florida laboratory – the level of detection was reduced from 25 picograms and the testing lab used urine instead of blood serum – led to a spike in clenbuterol positives throughout the state, from about nine per year to more than 150. Most of those cases were settled with the state with trainers paying a $500 fine.

Ness has had no further medication violations in Florida since April 2014, according to MyFloridaLicense.com. His last medication violation, according to ThoroughbredRulings.com, was a methylprednisolone positive at Pimlico May 15, 2015, that led to a $1,000 fine and disqualification of the horse Thisdanseistaken from a win.

Ness began training in 1999 and has won 2,611 races from 10,247 starts, according to Equibase.

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