New Penalties Proposed for ARCI Drug Violations

[Wandering Eyes]

The Drug Testing Standards and Practices (DTSP) Committee of the Association of Racing Commissions International (ARCI) is considering a major change to the recommended penalties for violations of the association’s drug rules to dramatically increase sanctions on those violations that can be considered “doping” or “equine endangerment”.

An ARCI workgroup has been quietly working for the past year to put together a system to increase penalties for violations categorized as “Doping of Equine Endangerment.” Penalties for such violations would be effectively doubled from the existing Class A penalties, with a first violation requiring a two to five-year suspension of the trainer and a minimum $50,000 fine, which could be increased to $100,000 with aggravating circumstances. A second violation in any jurisdiction would trigger a license revocation.

The proposal would also impose a $25,000 fine on an owner if there is a second lifetime offense in the owner’s stable in any jurisdiction. A third offense would suspend the owner for a minimum of 30 days to as much as a year and impose a minimum fine of $50,000 which could be increased to $100,000. Because of the seriousness of these violations a summary suspension would be required, pending any appeal.

Existing penalties for medication overages would remain the same and many would be re-categorized as a “Treatment Misapplication & Mismanagement.”

The proposal also contains a minimum $500 fine for a first-time failure to keep or report required treatment records. A second offense would bring a $2,500 fine, a third offense a $5,000 fine plus a referral to the commission for possible license review.

The draft documents are posted online and anyone interesting in commenting or making a related proposal may do so by emailing comments or documents to rules@arci.com.

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