Dan Ross

Every week, the TDN posts a roundup of the relevant Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) related rulings from around the country. Among this week's rulings, Ohio-based veterinarian Scott Shell has been suspended for two years, fined $25,000 and ordered to pay $10,000 in arbitration costs for administering a substance called "Hemo 15" 228 times to 37 horses in his care between May 29, 2023 and Oct. 19, 2023. His suspension started on Jan. 8, 2024 According to the final decision, Shell submitted a letter prior to the May 28 evidentiary hearing outlining...

Every week, the TDN posts a roundup of the relevant Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) related rulings from around the country. Among this week's rulings, trainer Adolfo Macias has been suspended 18-months and fined $12,500 for the possession of levothyroxine, a banned substance under HISA. Levothyroxine is a synthetic thyroid hormone used to treat ailments like hypothyroidism. Due to its metabolic properties, levothyroxine is believed to aid recovery in performance horses and help weight loss. There is also a possible link between levothyroxine and equine sudden cardiac death. There is currently no detailed...

GOLDEN GATE FIELDS, CA -- On bright June mornings at the end of training when a cool breeze is skimmed from the top of San Francisco Bay, Golden Gate Fields suspends in midair. The remaining horses gallop by almost silently, save for a sound like the ripple of a kite tugging at a string. Behind them, the infield water fountains shiver and hiss while above, western gulls turn and wheel on invisible wires. It's a world contained--its shoulder braced against the whirring cogs of time, straining against the pull. Then...

by Suzi Pritchard-Jones In recent weeks. this publication has printed two articles by Dan Ross about Thoroughbred racehorses who are falling through the aftercare net, ending up in kill pens for export to either Mexico or Canada for slaughter. Owner Jack Wolf responded with a possible solution in a letter to the editor in last Friday's TDN. Mr. Wolf is not a lone owner.  There are many people who are heavily invested in this industry. In today's world when racing's social license to operate is wafer- thin, our industry is...

Back in March, a pre-race exam at Turf Paradise led to Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Bernie "Chip" Woolley accusing a regulatory veterinarian who had scratched his 10-year-old mare of furnishing him with the name of a horse trader who he suspected of being a "kill-buyer." This is someone who purchases horses for export into the slaughter pipeline. The incident triggered formal investigations by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) and the Arizona Department of Gaming (ADG). HISA shared its findings with the ADG, which ultimately cleared the state veterinarian, Victoria...

With session topics from computer-assisted wagering to fixed odds to a status report on the Horseracing Integrity & Safety Act (HISA), the 2024 National HBPA Conference is set of July 23-26 at Prairie Meadows, the horsemen's group said in a Friday release. "A lot is changing in our industry at breakneck speed," said Eric Hamelback, CEO of the National Horsemen's Benevolent & Protective Association. "The objective of the National HBPA Conference is to get straight talk from industry experts and to start dialogue where we can come together to begin...

Every week, the TDN posts a roundup of the relevant Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) related rulings from around the country. Among this week's rulings, trainer Candelario Villamar has been suspended 15-days and fined $1,000 after his trainee, Olivia's Choice, tested positive for capsaicin when finishing third at Turf Paradise on Feb. 26. A Class B controlled medication under HISA, capsaicin is the active ingredient in chilli peppers causing burning and irritation, and can be found in topical analgesics. Trainer Valorie Lund has been banned seven days and fined...

It has been two months since the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) stopped sending samples to the University of Kentucky's Equine Analytical Chemistry Laboratory due to "concerns with the performance" of the facility. Prior to that, the laboratory had been one of six drug testing facilities used under The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority's (HISA) drug testing program. Since then, several key developments have unfurled amid limited public explanations. HISA and HIWU announced that they have opened an investigation into the UK Laboratory's performance, alongside the university's own investigation...

Every week, the TDN posts a roundup of the relevant Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) related rulings from around the country. Among this week's rulings, trainer Lorenzo Ruiz was issued a combined 7-year suspension and charged a total of $95,000 in fines for three separate post-race positives for Diisopropylamine, a banned substance under HISA. The Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) classifies Diisopropylamine as a vasodilator, which is a substance that dilates the blood vessels to allow blood to flow more freely through them. Diisopropylamine is also found in...

Every week, the TDN posts a roundup of the relevant Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) related rulings from around the country. Among this week's rulings, trainer Carlos Mancilla has been suspended for 15 days for a post-race Gabapentin positive from Sept. 10, and fined $1,000. Gabapentin, a Class B controlled medication, is an anti-seizure medicine for humans that is also used to treat complications from shingles. According to the final ruling by an internal adjudication panel, Mancilla said that the positive probably came about because of the horse, Cara...

On the surface, the case against trainer Jeffrey Englehart seems pretty cut and dried. He had a horse test positive for Clenbuterol, the bronchodilator that is on the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit's (HIWU) list of banned substances. Trainers found using banned substances can be suspended for up to two years. But Englehart, who races at the NYRA tracks and at Finger Lakes, is adamant that he never gave the drug to the horse in question. "We don't use Clenbuterol. Period," Englehart said. So is there more to this story?...

Nearly seventy years ago, Sports Illustrated turf writer, Jim Murray, penned a love-letter to Santa Anita, and its opening day sonata of sun and sport unmatched by any East Coast oval stunned into icy retreat by the "fierce howlings of blue northers spun across finish lines." Santa Anita, Murray wrote, was an "extravagance of beauty." It was also a well-oiled money-spinner. Huge purses lured the best horses to Los Angeles, and the best horses lured the biggest crowds, their pockets brimming with the spoils of a post-war industrial boom transforming...