DRF: well that explains the random weight allowance Silver Dust got....

[cutchemist42]

http://classic.drf.com/news/silver-dust-dqd-louisiana-stakes-win-following-levamisole-positive

What a joke...this should be known before the race is run.

[cj]

Really, really bad look for horse racing. Not really surprising in Louisiana though.

[jay68802]

Did I read that right, 8 positive tests and only a $1,000.00 fine?

Never mind. Says fines not fine.

[PaceAdvantage]

If it's 8, I wonder if that's enough for a 10 year ban...oh wait...10 year bans are only for Dutrow...:rolleyes:

[Tom]

10 year bans should be lot more commonplace.
There should be zero tolerance for cheating.
What counts is the game's integrity, not the people in it.

Piggly Wiggly is always hiring box boys.......

[clicknow]

Utterly disgusting.

Why do these people still have licenses.

[GMB@BP]

Utterly disgusting.

Why do these people still have licenses.

why do people still bet is better question.

[Jeff P]

DRF Article --
02/16/2020 12:08 PM
Silver Dust DQ'd from Louisiana Stakes win following levamisole positive
By Marcus Hersh
http://classic.drf.com/news/silver-dust-dqd-louisiana-stakes-win-following-levamisole-positive

NEW ORLEANS – Two more horses at Fair Grounds have tested positive for the prohibited drug levamisole, one of them Silver Dust, who had his victory in the Jan. 18 Louisiana Stakes taken away because of the bad test.

Trainer Bret Calhoun agreed to pay a $1,000 fine and Silver Dust was placed last in the Louisiana after stewards notified Calhoun late afternoon this past Friday of the test result. Had Calhoun not agreed to the penalties, Silver Dust would’ve been scratched from the Mineshaft Stakes here on the Saturday, Feb. 15 card, a race he won.

The first public indication something had happened with Silver Dust was a mid-card announcement Saturday that the gelding would carry 118 pounds in the Mineshaft instead of the 122 assigned at entry time. The race was run under allowance conditions and the disqualification changed the assigned weight.

The other horse with a positive test also raced Saturday, Blackberry Wine, who pressed the pace and faded to seventh in the first division of the Risen Star Stakes. Joe Sharp trains Blackberry Wine and Sharp earlier this month paid $1,000 fines and lost purses after eight of his horses, seven of them winners, tested positive for levamisole. In overnight races at Fair Grounds, only the winner is tested after every race, though up to three so-called “special” tests are requested by stewards during a racing program.

Blackberry Wine’s bad test came after he won a Jan. 18 allowance. The other Sharp positives tests all came in December, and Blackberry Wine is the only horse from the Sharp barn since Dec. 28 to trigger a positive test. Sharp, like Calhoun, was informed of the bad test Friday, agreed to the penalty, and was permitted to start Blackberry Wine in the Risen Star.

The December tests detected levamisole in blood, but the two more recent tests found it in urine, according to Fair Grounds stewards.

Calhoun is married to Sharp’s mother, Sara Escudero. The two trainers’ barns at Fair Grounds are adjacent.

Levamisole is commercially available for use as a dewormer in cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs, according to information on the medication disseminated by the Racetrack Medication and Testing Consortium (RMTC) and is regularly used, off-label, for treatment of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM) in horses, according to the RMTC posting. The Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) classifies it as a Class 2 (b) medication, a drug “with a high potential to affect performance,” because it can metabolize in a horse into aminorex, a potent stimulant listed as a Class 1 drug by the RMTC. No trace of aminorex was found in any of the positive tests in Louisiana, according to Fair Grounds stewards.

In private hearings with Fair Grounds stewards and in public comments, Sharp said he purchased levamisole to use as a dewormer on his horses. Calhoun, reached by phone Saturday morning, declined to comment regarding Silver Dust’s positive test, but Fair Grounds stewards – which hadn’t yet published a ruling on the two horses as of Sunday morning – treated the Calhoun positive the same way as Sharp’s. No suspensions were handed to either trainer by the stewards, who declined to refer the rulings to the Louisiana Racing Commission. The ARCI recommends a 15-day suspension for a first offense in the Class 2 (b) category but stewards took mitigating circumstances presented in Sharp’s hearings into account when deciding to restrict penalties to fines and disqualifications.


Let's recap --

According to the DRF:

Levamisole is a prohibted substance. The ARCI classifies it as a Class 2 (b) medication, a drug “with a high potential to affect performance,” because it can metabolize in a horse into aminorex, a potent stimulant listed as a Class 1 drug by the RMTC.

Horses trained by Bret Calhoun and Joe Sharp tested positive for it (levamisole not aminorex.)

The first public indication something had happened with Silver Dust was a mid-card announcement Saturday that the gelding would carry 118 pounds in the Mineshaft instead of the 122 assigned at entry time. The race was run under allowance conditions and the disqualification changed the assigned weight.

No suspensions were handed to either trainer by the stewards, who declined to refer the rulings to the Louisiana Racing Commission.

For some reason, seeing the above line in the DRF article reminded about an earlier incident from 2016 --

An incident that also took place in Louisiana:
https://www.paulickreport.com/news/ray-s-paddock/jockey-excused-gingerly-handling-filly-louisiana-downs-race/

Hint: If you read the Paulick Report article about the earlier incident from 2016, feel free to read my comment beneath the article and watch the entire race replay including the full gallop out.

If I focus on the Louisiana stewards refusing to suspend trainers for the recent levamisole positives --

If I look at that as a single stand alone incident --

It's easy to have a knee jerk reaction that goes "It's Louisiana. What do you expect?"

But when I think about the two incidents together --

A pattern emerges.

In my opinion --

The Louisiana stewards are once again trying to quietly sweep things under the rug.

And yes --

That's really bad look for racing.



-jp

.

[cj]

This should have been pretty well known since it was big news when it happened in harness racing:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/sheep-wormer-takes-racetracks-by-surprise/article1073661/

Also, why are trainers out buying drugs for horses at Tractor Supply instead of going through the vet? That alone is bad enough.

[jay68802]

This should have been pretty well known since it was big news when it happened in harness racing:

Also, why are trainers out buying drugs for horses at Tractor Supply instead of going through the vet? That alone is bad enough.

"The other Sharp positives tests all came in December."

I am reading this as:

The drug is known to have the ability to enhance performance's.

The trainer bought the drug on his own, and was caught using this drug in December.

The trainer was still using it in January, after knowing about the bad tests.

And the stewards were good ole boys, and did not suspend the trainer.

None of this information was made public, and nothing was put in the past performances.

Par for the course in this business.

[clicknow]

The late Jack van Berg was always fighting these issues, he was quite outspoken about it, trained his 2 year olds at Remington w/out lasix, and testified in front of Congress, etc.........yet never saw his water/hay/oats beliefs come to fruition.

" “Back in my time, years ago, when you got a bad test, you [were sent packing] down the road. Nowadays they just get an injunction and keep racing. They don’t do anything to them; they give them a little slap on the wrist.”

I suspect that like Mr. van Berg, I will also die before anything is done about all this.

[Tom]

"The other Sharp positives tests all came in December."



This is why I 100% support Federal Regulation of the industry.
Two groups run racing - idiots and criminals.

This is also why I say keep Dutrow off the tracks the full 10 years.
I don't really care if it is fair or not. I don't involve myself with the dishwashers' problems at the local diner, I sure am not going to worry about some big mouth guy who cheated however many times.

Like the man once said...."and the horse he rode in on." :ThmbDown:

[Tom]

The late Jack van Berg was always fighting these issues, he was quite outspoken about it, trained his 2 year olds at Remington w/out lasix, and testified in front of Congress, etc.........yet never saw his water/hay/oats beliefs come to fruition.

" “Back in my time, years ago, when you got a bad test, you [were sent packing] down the road. Nowadays they just get an injunction and keep racing. They don’t do anything to them; they give them a little slap on the wrist.”

I suspect that like Mr. van Berg, I will also die before anything is done about all this.

Death, taxes, and cheating at the track....THE BIG THREE CERTAINTIES in life.

[Cholly]

new conditions for stakes races in Louisiana:

"horses proven to have been doped with prohibited substance in last 45 days, allowed 4 pounds"