Already Suspended, Cobb Must Again Face Delaware Stewards

Amber Cobb, the Delaware Park-based trainer who last month won a Delaware Racing Commission appeal that cut a two-year stewards' suspension for “improper or inhumane treatment” of a horse to just 60 days, is once again facing sanctioning, this time in the form of a suspension issued summarily by Delaware stewards Sept. 10.

The Paulick Report broke the news late Friday afternoon, noting that the genesis of the original suspension that is in effect through Sept. 20 involved a video recorded by a stable employee back in February in which “a woman shouts obscenities at the horse and strikes at the animal with a plastic pitchfork until the horse, a 2-year-old unraced filly, rears and stumbles, then falls to the ground with the wall tie still attached to either her bit or her halter.”

The Paulick Report also stated that at her subsequent stewards' hearing, Cobb admitted that she was the person in the video.

The text of the Sept. 10 ruling posted on the Association of Racing Commissioners International website cites 12 different applicable rules that are allegedly grounds for the suspension, but does not state specifically if this new ruling is related to the original incident or involves new allegations.

Among the applicable rules cited are line items that list “past or contemplated conduct or utterance” and “cruelty to a horse or neglect of a horse.”