Trainer Dutrow suspended 30 days by Kentucky stewards for violating drug rules over a year ago

Dutrow suspended 30 days for drug violation

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky Derby- and Preakness-winning trainer Rick Dutrow was suspended for 30 days on Tuesday for violating doping rules.

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission issued the suspension Tuesday, more than a year after tests revealed that Salute the Count had an excessive amount of Clenbuterol in his blood after finishing second in a race at Churchill Downs the day before he won the Derby with Big Brown.

Clenbuterol allows horses to breathe easier while exercising. It’s only legal at low dosages.

Besides imposing the 30-day suspension, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission ordered Dutrow to return the purse money won by the horse. In a rare split vote, the commission voted 6-5 to suspend Dutrow for 30 days moments after voting 6-5 against approving the 15-day ban proposed by both the stewards at Churchill and an officer who heard Dutrow’s appeal.

That officer had initially rejected the suspension altogether due to questions about the drug testing that was used, but the racing commission later asked him to take another look.

Commission executive director Lisa Underwood explained the harsher penalty was due in part because they felt he was dragging out the process.

“He flagrantly worked the system,” Underwood said. “I think a lot of what was going through the commissioners’ minds was to protect the integrity of racing. Frankly, it’s offensive for the betting public to see trainers still out there who have a violation, who have admitted they have a violation.”

Dutrow did not return a call by The Associated Press. His attorney, Frank Becker represented him in the closed session and said afterward the case would almost certainly be appealed to Franklin Circuit Court.

Dutrow has 10 days to file the appeal. If suspended by one state, he wouldn’t be allowed to train horses in any others during that period.

Becker said he was puzzled as to why the commissioners increased the penalty.

“They didn’t reveal it to us,” he said.

Big Brown never violated a drug rule, but Dutrow was widely criticized when he acknowledged the horse had the then-legal steroid stanozolol in his bloodstream during his 2008 Derby and Preakness victories. Kentucky and most other states have since banned stanozolol and other anabolic steroids.

In an October interview with The Associated Press, Dutrow said he abides by drug rules and that if there are occasional overages for legal drugs, it’s because he doesn’t have day-to-day oversight of all his horses.

“I think we run a pretty clean outfit,” Dutrow said. “I don’t use stuff you’re not allowed to use.”

The Dutrow suspension was handed down at the same meeting where the University of Florida lab that conducts Kentucky’s drug testing presented a glowing report about Kentucky’s adherence to new drug rules.

From March through May, there wasn’t a single anabolic steroid violation detected in any Kentucky racehorse, said Rick Sams, director of the Florida racing lab.

Out of the nearly 1,500 thoroughbred blood and urine samples sent to the lab in that period, 119 were subjected to further scrutiny, and 23 generated violations. Almost all the drugs that broke rules were being used for therapeutic reasons but at doses that were too high.

John Ward, a trainer and racing commission member, said the report was encouraging because it showed almost all trainers in Kentucky were abiding by the rules.

“The transparency of these reports is, in my opinion, groundbreaking in the industry,” Ward said. “Finally everyone is starting to understand there are a certain number of management problems, but on the outside we are running a clean show.”