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#2
05-12-2023, 09:05 AM
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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.
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All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind. ~ Joseph Conrad A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right. ~ Thomas Paine Don't let anyone tell you that your dreams can't come true. They are only afraid that theirs won't and yours will. ~ Robert Evans The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. ~ George Orwell, 1984. 
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#3
05-16-2023, 05:28 AM
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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.
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All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind. ~ Joseph Conrad A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right. ~ Thomas Paine Don't let anyone tell you that your dreams can't come true. They are only afraid that theirs won't and yours will. ~ Robert Evans The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. ~ George Orwell, 1984.
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#4
05-16-2023, 07:29 AM
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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.
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#5
05-16-2023, 08:06 AM
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Quote:
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.
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#6
05-17-2023, 11:56 AM
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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.
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#7
05-17-2023, 12:51 PM
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Quote:
Firing line or guillotine?
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Hybrid Mode
