| Andy Asaro |
09-25-2018 07:32 PM |
Kentucky Approves Changes Allowing Trainers To Push Back On Absolute Insurer Rule
Excerpt:
The change comes in response to an ongoing legal case between the Kentucky commission and trainer H. Graham Motion over a methocarbamol positive from 2015. Last summer, Franklin Circuit Court judge Thomas Wingate said in a ruling the absolute insurer rule violates Kentucky's state constitution because it doesn't allow the trainer due process. The commission has appealed that ruling.
The absolute insurer rule, which is present in most states in one form or another, gives the trainer responsibility for any substance found inside one of his horses, even if the trainer did not administer the substance himself. The rule was designed to prevent trainers avoiding penalty for drug overages by shifting blame to their employees.
An additional rule change in the medication section specified prohibited or regulated substances include those “foreign to the horse” rather than the previous language, which described the substances as being those which had an impact on various body systems of the horse. The old language, Forgy said, stuck stewards with the confusing task of deciding what impact a given medication did or didn't have on a horse's body on race day.
|
