Forte Hopeful med overage reporting
 

Forte's therapeutic med overage after the Hopeful was like a message in a bottle floating around the ocean. Eventually it would reach a shore and be called publicly by the NY Gaming Commission after the legal wranglings ended.

Holding the speculative reporting (using anonymous Gaming Commission sources) until after Derby reveals 2 things, one worthwhile and one thoroughly pathetic and insidious.

First is the legitimate angst and annoyance over procedural elements of regulation, something which HISA/HIWU has potential to smooth out and expedite.

Second is that the reporting outlet held the 8 month old topic hoping Forte would perform well or win Derby thereby offering the big gotcha moment to taint his performance and create an absolute conflagration for the industry.

Isn’t the real issue here that it didn’t come out for this long?

Why is everything so secretive in racing?

Should add the that the use of the word 'doping' in association with a legal therapeutic medication was a flagrant attempt to mislead and inflame.

Because participants have due process. But yes.. the procedural aspect is the legitimate complaint here and worthy of discussion. But you well know attention to that topic wasn't the intent of the published report.

Here's @DRFHegarty's piece...



Forte reportedly had positive test after Hopeful victory; stewards hearing today
Matt Hegarty | May 10, 2023

Forte, the morning-line Kentucky Derby favorite who was scratched the morning of the race, had a positive drug test after winning the Sept. 5 Hopeful Stakes last year that has yet to be adjudicated, the New York Times reported on Tuesday night.

The report quoted two anonymous sources and said that Forte tested positive for a substance “used to relieve pain and reduce inflammation.” Drugs in wide use in racing that have those effects include regulated painkillers like flunixin and phenylbutazone as well as regulated corticosteroids, such as dexamethasone and betamethasone.

Forte is owned by Mike Repole and trained by Todd Pletcher, one of the most prominent trainers in the U.S.

The report said that a stewards’ hearing to discuss the positive is scheduled for today, eight months after the Hopeful. Brad Maione, a spokesman for the New York Gaming Commission, confirmed that element of the report in response to an inquiry by Daily Racing Form on Wednesday morning. Maione declined to provide details about the violation.

“The trainer’s counsel has sought repeated postponement of the stewards’ hearing, which impeded the stewards from making a determination,” Maione said.

The connections of Forte did not immediately respond to phone calls on Wednesday morning. Pletcher’s attorney, Karen Murphy, also did not respond to a phone call.

The report is sure to generate additional controversy in a sport that has drawn widespread media coverage due to five horse deaths at Churchill Downs in the lead-up to the Kentucky Derby last Saturday and two additional deaths on the Derby undercard. The New York Times report called the positive an instance of “doping,” a highly charged term that is generally defined as a deliberate attempt to improve athletic performance with the administration of illegal drugs.

In addition, the delays in adjudicating the case are sure to lead to criticism of the sport. Despite the positive test eight months ago, Forte made four starts afterwards, winning them all, including his Derby prep, the Florida Derby.

Heightening the interest, Forte was scratched on the morning of the Derby by the state regulatory veterinarian due to lameness in his right front foot. He was then placed on the vet’s list, which will prevent the horse from starting in the second leg of the Triple Crown, the May 20 Preakness Stakes.

In 2020, the U.S. Congress passed legislation creating the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, which was given a broad mandate to enforce safety rules at U.S. tracks and create a national drug-testing program. HISA initially planned to launch both programs by July 1, 2022, but logistical difficulties and litigation filed by prominent horsemen’s groups and other opponents of HISA have delayed the start of the drug-testing program until May 22.

Under HISA’s rules, the adjudication process for positive test results for both regulated medications and prohibited drugs is designed to be completed within a month of a positive test result, even when including appeals of any initial decisions. In addition, the rules call for a horse to be disqualified in the event of any positive test, regardless of fault.

Under HISA’s “anti-doping” program, trainers are handed a “provisional suspension” that prevents them from entering horses while the case is being adjudicated. Under racing’s current system, suspensions are not issued until a ruling from the stewards, and those suspensions can often be stayed pending an appeal of the ruling. Some of those appeals, especially when filed by trainers with deep pockets, can drag on for months and even years.

I’m well aware participants have due process. I also know what Drape was doing. A bute overage is nothing.

Which is why it coming out like it did is so ridiculous. There’s no way anyone can justify it coming out 8 months later. Impossible. It should have been public knowledge when the test happened, with the caveat that they are waiting for the split sample. Instead nothing is reported and it comes out in a hit piece by the horse racing assassin Drape on the backdrop of a pretty bad week for the sport in the public eye.

The sport gets so much negative press because they operate reactively instead of proactively. So many of our problems are self inflicted.

And of course the connections don’t want to talk now. Repole can’t wait to shove his family and daughter down everyone’s throat for years and wouldn’t shut up the entire Derby week. Telling us about how bad Forte felt he couldn’t run.

Bad report comes out and no one wants to say a word.

So they finally DQ’d Forte today. Probably just a coincidence that the NYT article comes out Tuesday night and all this happens days later :rolleyes:

Meanwhile according to the connections lawyer, it took 4 months for the New York Gaming Commission to provide them with a list of labs they could send the split sample to. Apparently the split sample was sent to a lab t Texas A & M in December and it also came back positive. IN DECEMBER!!!

The whole thing is so stupid.

StopshovingGioia? Great name for a filly

In my opinion, racing and the people who care about racing get it wrong. Instead of defeating the Drape story and educating people on the process and why something took as long as it took, they worry about Drape's motivations and try to discredit him based on his bad intention. You discredit a story with facts and explanations, not with the guy is J.O. Drape's facts are what matters, not why when he wrote the piece. The piece is the piece it makes specific representations and statements, and if those are untruthful or extraordinary, it's fair play to attack them. No need to attack his motivation IMO. Who cares what motivates him?

I think you hit the nail on the head.

Side note, there is no reason it took this long though.

Pletcher suspended 10 days for meloxicam positive in Forte
Matt Hegarty | May 11, 2023

Trainer Todd Pletcher has been suspended 10 days by the New York stewards due to a positive test for meloxicam, a regulated anti-inflammatory drug, in the post-race sample of Forte after the horse won the Sept. 5 Hopeful Stakes last year at Saratoga Racecourse, the trainer and his legal representatives said.

The penalty was communicated by Pletcher and his legal team to Daily Racing Form and other industry trade outlets on Thursday afternoon, in advance of the expected release of an official stewards ruling in the case later today. Pletcher and his attorney, Karen Murphy, said they would appeal the penalty, which also included the disqualification of Forte from the Hopeful and a $1,000 fine.

Pletcher said that Forte was never prescribed or administered meloxicam, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug that is a common ingredient in human pain relievers, and that he believed that the positive was the result of accidental contamination. The presence of meloxicam was confirmed in a split sample tested at Pletcher’s request and expense.

“This horse came into our care March 25, 2022, and he was never prescribed or administered meloxicam ever under our care,” Pletcher said. For now, Pletcher said that Forte would be shipped back to his base at Belmont Park in New York, where he may target the third leg of the Triple Crown, the June 10 Belmont Stakes.

The ruling is the latest development involving Forte, last year’s 2-year-old champion, over an extraordinarily eventful seven-day period.

Last Saturday morning, Forte was scratched from the Kentucky Derby by the state veterinarian, two days after bobbling during a videotaped workout. On Tuesday night, three days after the scratch, the New York Times was the first to report that the horse had a pending medication violation in New York from last year that had yet to be adjudicated, creating widespread confusion and criticism among racing fans, the general public, and the mainstream media.

The case has drawn widespread attention due to the eight-month gap between the horse’s positive test and the initial stewards’ hearing yesterday to address the positive. In between the positive test and the hearing, Forte made four starts, winning them all, and was voted the Eclipse Award winner as champion 2-year-old male. He was the morning-line favorite for the Derby at the time he was scratched.

Pletcher said on Thursday that he was informed of the positive test on Sept. 28, on a day when Forte was expected to be entered for the Oct. 1 Champagne Stakes. When he was notified of the positive test, he was told that Forte would have to test clean for the drug before he could be entered. Since a test could not come back prior to entries being taken, Pletcher re-routed the horse to the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington on Oct. 8. Forte won the Futurity by neck.

Pletcher’s legal team made Dr. Steven Barker, a former director of a testing lab in Louisiana, available for questions during a Thursday afternoon conference call with a select number of reporters. Barker, who frequently appears as an expert witness for trainers in regulatory hearings or court cases, said that the amount found in the samples could not have produced an effect in Forte in the Hopeful.

“The level of medication gave him no advantage,” Barker said. “It didn’t endanger the horse. It didn’t endanger anyone else in the race. It didn’t do anything. It just happened to be there.”

Meloxicam is a regulated medication, meaning that is permitted to be administered to horses for therapeutic purposes provided it does not appear in post-race samples. It is not as commonly used in racing as other NSAIDs, such as phenylbutazone or flunixin, and it is not one of three NSAIDs that have been approved for equine care.

For penalty purposes, it is a Class B drug in the classification schemes of the both the Association of Racing Commissioners International, which recommends penalties to state racing commissions, and the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, which is scheduled to take over the administration of a national drug-testing and enforcement program later this month.

The ARCI recommends a minimum suspension of 15 days "absent mitigating circumstances” for a meloxicam positive. HISA recommendations also call for a 15-day suspension, and the authority’s rules call for adjudicators to consider “mitigating” and “aggravating circumstances” in consideration of all penalties. Both call for disqualification of the horse from the race.

The New York State Gaming Commission has not issued a penalty for a meloxicam positive in a Thoroughbred horse since 2013, according to its database. In that case, Dennis Lalman, an owner-trainer, was suspended for 15 days, but the penalty was reduced to seven days after he waived his right to appeal. Lalman’s horse was disqualified.

By any measure, Pletcher is one of the most successful trainers of all time and was elected to racing’s Hall of Fame in 2021 at the age of 53. In 2007, Pletcher served a 45-day suspension for a positive test for mepivacaine, a pain killer, and in 2010 served a 10-day suspension for a procaine positive after his horse Wait a While finished third in the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.

The Forte case has once again exposed an enormous vulnerability for racing at a time when the sport is drawing unwelcome coverage from the mainstream media in the wake of a spate of horse deaths at Churchill Downs and a reputation that has become tarnished over the past several years by a string of court cases revolving around the use of both legal and illegal drugs.

If Forte had started in the Derby, the colt’s positive in the Hopeful would have been reported within days of his running in the race. That would have surely resurrected strident criticisms about drug use in racing at the highest levels following the controversy surrounding the 2021 Derby, when the winner, Medina Spirit, trained by Hall of Fame member Bob Baffert, tested positive for a regulated medication.

On Wednesday, gaming commission officials cast blame on Pletcher and his legal team for the delay in hearing the case, saying that Pletcher’s attorneys had “sought repeated postponement of the stewards hearing” since the positive was reported last September. In addition, the officials said that finding a “capable” lab to conduct testing on a split sample had also delayed the adjudication.

But Murphy, Pletcher’s lawyer, sharply disputed that account, saying that the gaming commission had not provided Pletcher with a list of laboratories that could test the split sample until early in 2023. She also said that the first hearing in the case was scheduled for March, but then she asked for “one or two adjournments” of hearing dates.

“The delay is wholly on the gaming commission because they weren’t prepared to proceed with the case in a professional and orderly manner,” Murphy said. “[The perception is] somehow, Todd is gaming the system and is able to do something that others can’t. No one can proceed with anything that other can’t.”

Murphy added that “if there was any delay by Todd Pletcher it was maybe two, three, or four weeks.”

The Forte incident arose just weeks prior to the expected national launch of HISA’s Anti-Doping and Medication Control program, which is designed to create a national framework for testing of prohibited and regulated medications and the adjudication and enforcement of penalties for violations under the program’s rules. Under that system, the positive by Forte in the Hopeful would have likely been reported to the public within weeks of the finding, and the adjudication process likely would have been over within a month of the race.

HISA had hoped to launch the ADMC program last July 1, but logistical delays and litigation by horsemen’s groups and other critics of HISA delayed the launch until earlier this year. Just days after the March 27 launch, a judge delayed the implementation by 30 days, citing a violation of a requirement under the Administrative Procedures Act requiring a 30-day grace period.

Shortly thereafter, the Federal Trade Commission, which oversees HISA, extended the delay to May 22, until two days after the running of the third leg of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes. The FTC stated that the reason for the delay was to “avoid chaos and confusion” during the first two legs of the Triple Crown.

Although HISA will have jurisdiction over most positive tests that occur on May 22 and beyond, any pending cases, including Forte, will continue to be adjudicated by the regulatory authorities in the state where the case arose.

Murphy said that Pletcher “will appeal and we will go all the way and I think we will prevail.”

I love lawyers.

The delay is solely on the gaming commission…..but we asked for one or two adjournments and if there was any delay on Pletchers part it was two or three or four weeks.

Forte Disqualified From Hopeful; Connections Will Appeal
Updated: May 11, 2023 at 5:15 pm

By Sue Finley

Forte (Violence) has been disqualified from the Sept. 5, 2022 GI Hopeful S. due to the presence of meloxicam in his system, according to the horse's owner, Mike Repole; his trainer, Todd Pletcher; and their lawyer, Karen Murphy, who held a phone conference Thursday afternoon to address the suspension.

Meloxicam is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, widely prescribed to treat osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, and is sold under the brand name Mobic. It is not one of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatories that is approved in the United States for the treatment of racehorses in training.

“This horse came into our care on March 25, 2022,” said Pletcher. “He was never prescribed or administered meloxicam under our care.”

Murphy said that Braulio Baeza, the steward for the New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC), informed her Thursday afternoon that the horse would be disqualified, and that Pletcher would be fined $1,000 and suspended for 10 days. Murphy said that the decision would be appealed, and that her request for a stay “at this level” had never been denied.

Forte's connections placed the blame for the eight-month delay squarely on the shoulders of the Gaming Commission.

“One point I want to address up front is that the Gaming Commission has stated now two or three times that we somehow delayed the process,” said Murphy. “That's a little bit shocking to me because it's false. I don't like government regulators to make false statements.” In fact, said Murphy, “from day one, we were on this. This delay is wholly on the Gaming Commission. It's because they weren't prepared to proceed with the case in a professional, orderly manner.”

Pletcher said that he was informed by Baeza of the positive on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022, the day he was to enter Forte in the GI Champagne S. He said that he was told by Baeza that Dr. George Maylin, the director of New York Equine Drug Testing and Research Program in Ithaca, N.Y., had told him that the level of the drug found in Forte's blood–500 picograms–indicated environmental contamination.

As he would not be allowed to race in the Champagne without further testing and examination, he instead went to the Oct. 8 GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland, which he won.

Murphy said that they immediately informed the NYSGC that they would be requesting a split sample to confirm or rule out the presence of the medication. In these situations, the connections are required to find a lab that is capable of performing the testing, and pay for the test.

Murphy said that per standard procedure, she asked the NYSGC for the list of labs who were capable of performing the test.

“It took the Gaming Commission four months–and I'm not kidding you–to supply us with a list,” said Murphy. “They should be able to pull it out of their top drawer. And as it turns out, they did pull it out of their drawer, but it was outdated.” Murphy said the list contained labs that hadn't been authorized to conduct this kind of testing for years.

She said that once they received the list in December, they first called a lab that said they could not do the testing. They then used the lab at Texas A&M, and the split sample came back positive for meloxicam.

Also on the call Thursday was Dr. Steven A. Barker, considered one of the foremost experts in equine drug testing and research. He served as director of Louisiana State University's Equine Medication Surveillance Laboratory and State Chemist for the Louisiana State Racing Commission for 29 years until retiring from that post in 2016.

Barker said that the amount of meloxicam reported was 500 picograms per milliliter in the blood. “It's an extremely small amount,” he said, pointing to studies that any finding below 1.5 nanograms, or 1,500 picograms in the blood, is irrelevant and should not be called as a positive. “Anything above that, you need to carry on to adjudication,” he said. “So based on the science that has been published, this is environmental contamination.”

Barker took exception with the way that horse racing treats most medication positives, no matter the level of the drug found in the blood or urine. “Zero tolerance makes zero sense,” he said. “I'd say it has no effect, but actually, it has a negative effect, because it is still prosecuted as `doping' or as a violation.”

Pletcher appeared at a stewards hearing before the commission on Wednesday, and the group also expressed extreme dissatisfaction at the process and the proceedings, describing a scenario where the commission didn't send out a link for the video conference, that Repole had to create the Zoom call for the group himself, that Murphy as Pletcher's attorney wasn't allowed to speak, and that the laboratory results including the amount of the drug in the blood was not produced. They said they were also not allowed to call Dr. Maylin–whom Baeza had quoted as saying it was environmental contamination, according to Pletcher–as one of their three witnesses.

“I've never been involved in a situation like this,” said Repole. “As an owner who cares about the horses, I was on the emails with Karen and Todd and I was appalled at the simple questions that I asked the Gaming Commission that took days or weeks before they could even respond. We asked for guidelines, and they couldn't even provide guidelines. I started thinking, `if Todd Pletcher and Mike Repole and Karen Murphy can't get the simplest answers from the New York State Gaming Commission, how can anyone else?'”

Repole also took exception to the fact that the results of the test were provided to reporters, but not to the horse's connections. “It's a disgusting fashion in which they did this,” he said. “And then they leaked it to (the New York Times's) Joe Drape.”

Repole said he would fight this case as long as he had to in order to overturn this ruling.

“I spent $20 million last year on horses, I can spend $20 million fighting this case,” he said. “I think long-term this is going to be good for racing. This whole process, though sad and pathetic, has been a great learning experience for me. Todd and I have both talked about it. This is a fight for all horsemen. What about an owner who can't afford a lawyer like Karen? Or a trainer with six or seven horses who just has to accept the ruling because he can't afford to fight it. They really picked on the wrong owner.”

Forte will ship back to Belmont on Saturday where he will prepare for the June 10 GI Belmont S., said Repole.

Pletcher attorney requested Forte hearing be delayed until after Triple Crown
Matt Hegarty | May 15, 2023

The attorney for Todd Pletcher asked the New York State Gaming Commission to delay a hearing into a positive test for the horse Forte until after the Triple Crown races had been run, according to records released by the commission on Monday.

The records, which were released by the commission in reaction to statements made by Pletcher and his attorney, Karen Murphy, during a conference call with a select group of reporters last Thursday, included excerpts from a letter sent to the commission on May 9 in which Murphy requests the delay until after the Belmont Stakes on June 10, citing adverse publicity surrounding the racing industry because of a spate of horse deaths at Churchill Downs.

“The misfortune of the tragedies at Churchill Downs will only be wrongfully amplified should the board of stewards proceed at this time,” Murphy wrote. “As such, we respectfully renew our request that tomorrow’s steward’s hearing be adjourned until after the Triple Crown – an action that is certainly in the best interests of our entire racing community.”

At the time that Murphy made the request, the positive test by Forte for the regulated painkiller meloxicam after the Sept. 5 Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga Racecourse had not been made public. That night, the New York Times reported the existence of the test and a stewards’ hearing scheduled for May 10 to discuss the positive, triggering confusion and criticism from racing fans, the general public, and media over the eight-month delay between the race and the hearing.

:: Bet the races on DRF Bets! Sign up with code WINNING to get a $250 Deposit Match, $10 Free Bet, and FREE DRF Formulator.

Forte ran four times after the Hopeful Stakes and won all four of his starts. He was the morning-line favorite for the Kentucky Derby but was scratched the morning of the race by the Kentucky state veterinarian due to a foot bruise.

Murphy did not immediately return a phone call on Monday.

Last Thursday, one day after the hearing, the stewards suspended Pletcher for 10 days for the positive test. Pletcher has appealed, and in the conference call, he attributed the positive to “accidental contamination” and said that the horse had never been “administered or prescribed” the drug.

A “timeline of events” distributed by the gaming commission on Monday said that Forte’s positive test was reported to the New York stewards on Sept. 23 and communicated to Murphy on Sept. 29. The timeline then outlines a series of communications over the next two months as the two sides negotiate over a laboratory to test Forte’s split sample.

According to the commission, the split sample was received by a diagnostic lab at Texas A&M on Dec. 21. That lab confirmed the finding of meloxicam in the sample on Jan. 28, the commission said. Meloxicam is not allowed to appear in a horse at any level in New York during a race.

The timeline then says that the commission offered March 2 for a stewards’ hearing to discuss the case. Murphy declined to accept the hearing date, and the commission countered with hearing dates on March 22, 23, or 29, the commission said.

Over the next four weeks, according to the commission’s timeline, the two sides traded communications on the opportunity for a “conference in advance” of the hearing and a list of 17 witnesses that Murphy wanted to present during the hearing. On March 23, they agreed on the May 10 date, but Murphy then wrote to the board on May 8, the Monday after the Derby, that Pletcher could not appear at the hearing on that date because “unforeseen circumstances” required the trainer to remain in Kentucky.

“Accordingly, he respectfully requests an adjournment without date at this time,” Murphy wrote.

In response, the commission told Murphy that the commission had already decided that if Pletcher did not appear for the May 10 hearing, the trainer “will be deemed to have declined the opportunity” for a hearing and the stewards would issue a ruling in the case without hearing his testimony.

The following day, Murphy again asked for a delay, to the unspecified date after the Triple Crown, but the request was denied.

A moronic nonevent "pico scandal" that does absolutely nothing to deal with a genuine problem, Repo Rocks is the problem. Pletch's attorney will have a field day with this crap, which is the problem in part. I could "Rollo" this drivel; I am not a lawyer. Telling "A" true story is not telling "The" true story. IMO, this is all about trying to gin up support for HISA, especially when I see hacks like Ellis Starr employed to ferry the message.

I don’t know Freddy. What is she going to have a field day with? Everything that comes out makes them look worse and it goes against the comments she’s made.

All of this to avoid saying, “We messed up, the buck stops with me and we will be better going forward.”

What is the end game here? The damage has been done. Can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube.

Banned for 10 days and presumably can run horses in his assistant's name. What a punishment!

Two jockeys in HK just got banned for 10 & 12 months for playing a part in having a bet in one race. They don't play there when it comes to integrity.

What is a fair punishment in your opinion for a small bute overage?

Firing line or guillotine?

Racing should outsource the punishment determination to an entity in Hong Kong.