A New York appellate court affirmed May 7 a ruling suspending Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher's license to participate in Thoroughbred racing for 10 days.
The decision was handed down by an unanimous panel of the Third Judicial Department of the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division.
Forte won the Hopeful Stakes (G1) by three lengths Sept. 5, 2022, at Saratoga Race Course. According to the court record, however, post-race blood and urine samples from Forte tested positive for Meloxicam, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, at the New York Drug Testing and Research Program. Split samples sent to the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory confirmed the presence of Meloxicam in the post-race samples.
The New York State Gaming Commission, through the state steward, issued a notice to Pletcher suspending him for 10 days and imposing a fine of $1,000. A hearing officer subsequently recommended that the penalties be upheld.
Stewards also disqualified Forte and elevated Gulfport to first place in the Hopeful. A legal challenge to that action is pending in a separate, and still pending, New York lawsuit brought by owner Mike Repole. A third amended complaint was recently filed in that case, which has extensive filings since its inception more than two years ago.
The Pletcher case marks the second time in recent months that a New York appellate court has dealt with a suspension imposed against the trainer. In March, a New York appellate court ruled in the case of the racehorse Capensis, a Pletcher trainee, that evidence of an overage of phenylbutazone, also known as "bute," was improperly allowed into evidence in a prior proceeding and ordered a new hearing. Pletcher had been handed a 14-day suspension before he appealed.
The appellate court in the just-decided Forte case ruled that the presence of Meloxicam in the post-race samples was enough to support the suspension. The test results were stipulated into evidence by all sides.
"Based on the foregoing, respondent's determination is supported by substantial evidence. Initially, given that the test results from the laboratory in Texas, which the parties stipulated to coming into evidence, were positive for Meloxicam in Forte's post-race samples of blood and urine, a violation … was established by substantial evidence," wrote Judge Sharon Aarons. "Moreover, (this) creates a rebuttable presumption, which petitioner failed to rebut by substantial evidence. Although petitioner's witnesses offered alternative explanations for this positive finding, these explanations were mere speculation, which does not rebut the presumption of Pletcher's responsibility."
"We are in process of reviewing the court's order and (will) proceed … with all our options," Pletcher's attorney Drew Mollica wrote in response to an inquiry from BloodHorse.
The Pletcher cases and the Forte disqualification occurred before the effective date of rule-making and enforcement powers created by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act that supplanted state-by-state regulations and regulators in medication infraction cases and other matters.
