Horse Racing News is the source of thoroughbred racing information with horse racing odds, betting tips, racing picks, race results, and handicapping. Latest news and articles on top horse racing contenders, jockeys, trainers, three-year-olds, race tracks, and major stakes races such as the Triple Crown races: the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes as well as the Breeders' Cup horse races.Race Horse Trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. Suspended
Posted on Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP)–Kentucky Derby and Preakness-winning race horse trainer Richard Dutrow, Jr. 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 Kentucky Derby with Big Brown.
Clenbuterol allows horses to breathe easier while exercising. It’s only legal at low dosages.
In addition to the 30-day suspension, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission ordered Rick Dutrow to return the purse money won by the race horse Salute the Count. 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 Kentucky Horse Racing Commission later asked him to take another look.
Kentucky Horse Racing 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’s 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.
“They didn’t reveal it to us,” Becker said puzzled as to why the commissioners increased the penalty.
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 Kentucky Derby and Preakness victories. Kentucky and most other states have since banned stanozolol and other anabolic steroids.
Tags: Salute the Count
"Race Horse Trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. Suspended" was posted on Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 at 10:57 pm and is filed under Horse Racing Industry, Horses, Trainers, USA Horse Racing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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Saturday, December 26th, 2009 6:37 pm By Linda Scheihing
I think it is absolutely ludicrous that not only is Ricky Dutrow suspended in one state, but the racing authority has the ability to state that he can not train in ANY state? Like no one else has EVER drugged a horse before; please! Jockeys throw so many electric shock machines into the infield that you could walk through the infield and pick up enough to earn a daily living. Everyone drugs their horses, themselves, AND WHATEVER they can do to get the edge on making some money. Yet, Football players, THEY make MILLIONS of dollars on draft picks, yet this poor man gets caught and now he cannot support his family for a WHOLE MONTH because the racing commission THINKS he dragged out the process, but it is fine when the Racing Commission takes its good old time when they have a decision to make. Also, who is Lisa Underwood and what gives her the judicial right to just randomly ASSUME without prejudice, that Dutrow is intentionally dragging anything out? Is she a sorcerer, or maybe a tarot card reader? Justice is not about assuming anything without absolute proof! Well, I assume she takes too long to get ready for work in the mornings so I think she should be given off a month without pay, and I guarantee as much as she makes she would not even feel the pinch! It is not like Trainers make the money other sports like football and baseball make and take for granted. Trust me, Dutrow and his family will feel the pinch of lack of funds for a whole month. They are not going to be just sitting back and living off their million dollar bonus money. He got caught, just like Clinton, Pete Rose and Raphael Palmero. Where does the Racing Commission get the nerve to make one man suffer for what he did, while other Sports figures, which make hundreds of millions of dollars, in other sports, get off, while they throw the preverbal book at one lone man, punishing Dutrow so harshly in a sport that is slowly losing patrons? Why do they have so much power to hurt one man in a sport that is slowly dying away, partly because of the Racing Commission?s unconventional and lack of consistency in rule setting and making, thus giving them the right to put the nail in the coffin by granting them absolute authority to destroy one man, Ricky Dutrow? Is the Racing Commission going to pay his salary while he is off a month? And, support his daughter and family, while richer more prominent athletes get away with barely a slap on their hand while they rest on their millions and wait it out. Baseball Players make millions, yet when they do something wrong; they are fined $25,000, which is a drop in the bucket to them, they actually laugh about it, because they can afford to with all their money. Has the Racing Commission been to Laurel or Pimlico, in Maryland lately? Tell those poor trainers who cannot even afford to live month to month in that morgue type atmosphere, to stop drugging their horses so we can back up the Welfare and unemployment system even more than it already is now. THIS IS HORSE RACING, NOT FOOTBALL OR BASEBALL. Get a clue; we are losing this sport due to the stupid penalties that are chasing all of the trainers and jockeys away, to other occupations, because of the audacity and over due diligence of the Racing Commission?s intolerable abuse of it?s absolute authority. A better punishment would have been 100 community hours in teaching other potential trainers how to perform their job as well as Dutrow did when he turned out some of the best trained horses in the East Coast!