“I'm Mad And Angry”: Puype Case Raises Key Points In HIWU Enforcement

In 2024, maintaining a racing stable in California has become a shaky endeavor for license holders both large and small, prolific and select. But for California trainer Mike Puype, this year has been especially fraught.

For much of this year, Puype had hanging over his head the threat of a possible four-year ban and $50,000 fine after investigators found Isoxsuprine tablets and Levothyroxine powder–two once relatively common substances in horse racing now banned under HISA–during a routine barn search in April of this year.

Last week, an independent arbitrator who presided over a November hearing in the case issued Puype a three-month and 17-day suspension (time served during a prior provisional suspension period) along with a $1,000 fine.

For the trainer, the outcome was probably the best he could have hoped for. “I can tell you that it's brutal to know the game you love–a game all you know–can be taken away from you,” said Puype Wednesday morning during the middle of training.

The journey to this point raises several key questions about the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit's (HIWU) approach to policing the industry.

When the charges were first issued, HISA's rules required Puype to be issued a provisional suspension. This meant he was barred from training before he had a chance to argue his case in a formal hearing.

HISA has since recommended that provisional suspensions be issued only in limited circumstances, including when the violation “presents a substantial risk to the integrity of racing and/or the welfare of horses,” a move that illustrates HISA's ability and willingness to adapt and evolve.

At the same time, HIWU sought maximum penalties against Puype that, if successful, would have effectively ended his career. But how warranted was this?

Independent arbitrator Barbara Reeves described Puype's fault in the case as being at the lowest end of the “light” range; this, also, for a trainer who can boast both rare respect amongst his peers and near blemish-free drug record.

With nearly 5,500 starts under his belt, Puype has had only two minor medication infractions over the last 18 years. One for a methocarbamol overage, and one overage for stomach ulcer medication omeprazole (otherwise known as GastroGard). As Reeves put it in her final decision, “it is not clear to the Arbitrator what HIWU was attempting to accomplish in the way it prosecuted this matter.”

A key practical and philosophical question that arises from the case, therefore, is this: If HIWU's ultimate mission is to catch the cheats who impugn the sport, what responsibility does it also have to protect racing's honest players from injustice?

For their part, HIWU stands by its legal approach in the case. But Puype is an under-the-radar type of character, and the near eight-month ordeal has had a profound effect on him, both professionally (he reckons he's lost as much as 30% of his horses during this time), and psychologically.

“I'm mad and angry,” he said. “I'm going to absolutely need counselling to find out how to get rid of this anger in my body.”

The Case

On Apr. 24 this year, four HIWU investigators descended upon Puype's barn at Santa Anita, combed through the barn area and the tack room and unearthed two containers of Isoxsuprine tablets and two containers of Levothyroxine (more commonly known as ThyroL) powder.

The Isoxsuprine tablets were found in a blue portable cooler, with expiration dates of 2012 and 2013. Pupye and his two assistants swore that the cooler and the tablets belonged to a former employee who had left in 2022, and that they weren't aware of the cooler's contents. One of Puype's assistants attested that the blue cooler “has been in a corner with boots and other things piled on it for many years and has always remained at Santa Anita,” according to a pre-hearing brief.

The Levothyroxine powders were in a locked cabinet, the combination to which it strongly appears was known only by Puype's assistants and not the trainer himself, according to case documents. One canister of Thyro-L dated March 2021 was unopened and unused. The other cannister dated February 2016 was mostly empty.

At the time these medications were prescribed, the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) deemed them legal for use. The arbitrator determined that both substances were likely prescribed by veterinarian Jeff Blea (now the CHRB equine medical director), who between 2014 and 2019 performed veterinary work for Puype. Blea couldn't prove this as veterinarians are only required to maintain three years of records.

Both substances are now on HISA's banned substances list. Thyro-L, used in the treatment of hypothyroidism in horses, has become especially controversial, ever since a CHRB report into the sudden deaths of seven Bob Baffert-trained horses between 2011 and 2013 suggested widespread thyroxine use in the barn could have been a contributing factor.

Throughout, Puype insisted that he would never administer expired medications. Nor did HIWU allege that he had. This was always a case of “possession.”

Arbitrator Barbara Reeves called Puype out for not properly searching and removing from his barn these banned substances. “There was no indication of any intention or wrongdoing by Mr. Puype, other than the imperfect 'search and purge,'” wrote Reeves, in her final decision.

Indeed, before HISA's anti-doping and medication control program went into effect in May of last year, representatives from HISA and HIWU repeatedly warned stakeholders of the consequences of both possessing and administering banned substances.

For his part, Puype doesn't dispute the fact that he screwed up, and that he deserved some kind of punishment for not properly giving his barn a thorough sweep.

“It's that simple–I deserved a penalty for bad housekeeping,” said Puype. “But I didn't deserve to have my livelihood threatened, of possibly having to sell my house and ruining my financial future.”

A few weeks before the formal hearing on Nov. 22, HIWU attempted to settle the case, said Puype, offering him as a compromise a one-year suspension and a fine of $12,500. A week later, they offered him a 10-month ban, he said. Puype declined both through fear of what that would do to his training career.

“I turned it down,” said Puype. “I told my lawyer, 'yes, a year is less than four years. But here's the thing. A year is still termination of your business, too. My owners aren't going to stay with my assistant for that long.'”

After that, HIWU in their pre-hearing brief sought a possible maximum penalty against Puype, constituting two banned substance possession charges–a maximum two-year ban and $25,000 fine each-placed back-to-back.

Puype contends that such consecutive sentencing would have gone against the World Anti-Doping Code (WADA) which is applicable in these cases, and against the language in HISA's own rules for first-time offenders.

Reeves obviously agreed. In her final decision, she wrote that the four-year ban would have been career ending. In an unusual move, she took pointed aim at HIWU's punitive approach to the trainer, and for their own sloppy legal work.

“It is not clear to the Arbitrator what HIWU was attempting to accomplish in the way it prosecuted this matter. Although the facts established nothing more than an imperfect search, HIWU filed its standard “Possession” charges and brief (labelled 'HIWU's Pre- Hearing Brief (Possession)') and negligently failed to remove the name of the prior trainer against whom the brief had been filed ('Trainer Valery,') from the text,” Reeves wrote.

Compared to other HIWU-related cases involving the possession of banned substances, however, Puype was lucky.

“To date, HIWU has pursued Possession violations for Banned Substances against 20 other Covered Persons, of which 14 involved the Possession of levothyroxine and/or isoxsuprine. Twelve were public before the date of Mr. Puype's search, and the shortest final suspension issued from those cases was 14 months,” HIWU wrote, in response to a list of questions.

And so, now the case is essentially closed, what lessons can be gleaned?

Moving Forward

On the one hand, his case illustrates HISA's ability and willingness to adapt.

When HIWU first issued its charges against Puype, the case circumstances meant that a provisional suspension was a formality. Puype then agreed to a provisional hearing, at which an independent arbitrator (different from Reeves) determined that his provisional suspension should not be lifted.

In November, however, HISA announced that HIWU should only impose provisional suspensions in very specific circumstances, at which time, most active provisional suspensions were lifted, including Puype's.

The Breeders' Cup-winning Puype–a highly respected trainer in California and someone whose case garnered the attention and support of several influential figures–suspects his circumstances helped move this needle on provisional suspensions.

“It wasn't just my case–there's a little more,” he said. “But a big part of it was my case.”

And he also hopes his case moves the needle in other ways, including when it comes to the extreme financial toll a legal defense against HIWU can take–especially for those small-time trainers lacking the same stable of influential supporters to champion their cause.

Puype said that originally, he wasn't going to hire an attorney until he was threatened with a possible four-year ban, and the gravity of his situation set in. Puype declined to say how much he has spent on attorney's fees. Defendants in other cases have said that it can soon grow into the six-figure mark.

Furthermore, HIWU sought for Puype to cover their attorney's fees. Though HIWU was ultimately unsuccessful, Puype estimates this alone could have set him back by more than $100,000.

HISA offers certain financially strapped trainers pro-bono legal representation. According to HIWU, 15 individuals have to date used this service.

“They go for the heavy penalties, the heavy fines,” said Puype. “Many good guys, they have no chance to challenge them.”

Puype also urges HIWU's prosecutors to use more discretion and “common sense” in the way they pursue cases. Punishments could better fit the crime, he said. A trainer's broader record should also matter, he urged.

“I'm not a guy that lived off cheating. Past records mean everything. And for them to sit and say, 'your past means nothing,' it means everything in this industry,” said Puype.

HIWU stands by its approach. “HIWU believes the final decision issued by the arbitrator to be inconsistent with the facts of the case, prior ADMC Program decisions (e.g., Perez), and the language of the ADMC Program Rules themselves,” HIWU wrote, in response to the TDN's request for a statement. “For example, the decision ignores the trainer responsibility rule and the number of substances that were possessed when determining Mr. Puype's sanctions.

“That said, the ADMC Program's adjudication system worked as intended, and HIWU respects the outcome reached. Both parties had the opportunity to fully present their case before a neutral arbitrator appointed by a third party who rendered her own independent decision in this matter.”

For his part, Puype says he has mixed emotions about HISA. On the one hand, he understands why racing desperately needs a uniform regulator. “I don't disagree with their existence at all–

the game needs to be governed,” he said. But he said he has been badly burned by events from the last eight months.

“I have other issues to still be dealt with going forward. It's not just a case of 'okay, you're released because the arbitrator says so.' It gets deeper than that. There are a lot of problems that are in my head that I've got to clear,” said Puype, who said he has lost several owners this year.

“This gets deeper than the money. You can always overcome money. It's the psyche, the mental [damage], and everything that's happened here to me as a human being. I'm a guy that that shoots from hip. Shoots straight with my owners. I've been that way my whole life,” he said. “I've always lived my life with honesty.”