HIWU

The list of trainers that have been informed by the Horse Racing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) that a horse they train has tested positive for the controversial drug Metformin has grown by two. According to postings on the HIWU website, Greg Foley and James Lawrence II have been notified that horses under their care had Metformin in their system. Lawrence's positive came from the  horse Cherished Wish (Mshawish) in a May 23 race at Penn National in which she finished second. The Foley horse to test positive was Camaro...

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...

Since the launch of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act's (HISA) drug testing program over a year ago, metformin has sucked up an awful lot of oxygen. Under HISA, there have been seven resolved cases and four pending cases involving metformin—perhaps not an especially large number on its own, until framed against the number of metformin cases adjudicated before the program went into effect. An Association of Racing Commissioners International's (ARCI) review of their database "going back decades" found five metformin cases for Thoroughbreds. All were from 2017 onwards. The...

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 Jim Lewis was suspended two years and fined a total of $20,000 (including the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Unit's arbitration costs), after his trainee Hughie's Holiday tested positive for clenbuterol after winning at Ruidoso Downs on July 8 last year. Clenbuterol is a bronchodilator with known performance enhancing properties. Clenbuterol will typically be detectable in the blood for about three to four days after administration,...

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...

When Dr. Barbara Hippie drove through the backstretch gates at Mahoning Valley Race Course last September, she knew she had some substances and medications on her truck that were banned by the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU). But she said she thought she had no reason to worry. She said she knew the banned medications were not to be used with any covered Thoroughbred racing or training at an Ohio racetrack. Hippie, part of a three-person practice based in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, has a vast practice and treats many...

Trainer Ron Moquett, a member of the HISA Horsemen's Advisory Committee, was not immune this past year from the threat of an Anti-Doping and Medication Control (ADMC) violation. Last fall after the GII Hagyard Fayette S. at Keeneland, a controlled medication called Mepivacaine, which can be used during the gelding process, was found in one of Moquett's horses named Speed Bias (Uncle Mo). The conditioner mounted a defense which resulted in a May 29 ruling by a HIWU internal adjudication panel that he would not be fined nor penalized for...

The Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) has penalized a second Parx-based trainer this week for multiple violations of the banned substance cobalt salts. Two separate May 30 "final decision" summaries were posted on the HIWU website for trainer Patricia Farro, suspending her for a total of four years and fining her $50,000 after cobalt salts were detected in two Parx winners she trained earlier this year: Deplane (He's Had Enough) on Feb. 6 and Knockout Win (Winchill) on Feb. 28. The cumulative penalties were the result of the pair...

Trainer Jonathan Wong's legal team has filed an application with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for the agency to review an April decision by an FTC chief administrative law judge affirming an earlier Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) arbitration panel ruling which suspended Wong for two years and fined him $25,000 for a 2023 post-race metformin positive. Metformin is a type 2 diabetes drug that HISA has classified as a banned substance. The application for review asks the FTC to conduct a de novo review of chief administrative law...

The Racing Medication and Testing Consortium (RMTC) has extended for another six months its accreditation suspension of the University of Kentucky's Equine Analytical Chemistry Laboratory. The RMTC initially suspended its accreditation of the laboratory back in March, following news that the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) had stopped sending samples to the lab 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 Act's (HISA) drug testing program. According to...

On May 21, the Horse Racing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) reported on its website that the filly Devil Pays in Gold (Uncle Lino) tested positive for the banned substance Metformin in a race contested on Mar. 8 at Laurel. However, the ruling does not list a trainer, and for good reason. David Howard was listed as the trainer for the race, but he passed away seven days later, dying of a heart attack at age 45. He would not have known at the time that Devil Pays in Gold...

The attorney representing trainer George Weaver has been informed by the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) that a split sample taken from the horse Anna's Wish (Dialed In) has confirmed the earlier finding that the horse raced with the banned substance metformin during the Mar. 16 Cicada S. at Aqueduct. Trainers whose horses have tested positive for what HIWU considers banned substances face suspensions of up to two years. Weaver will be allowed to run horses that have already been entered, but cannot continue to enter horses and his...