Forte Disqualified From Hopeful; Connections Will Appeal

[Wandering Eyes]

Forte (Violence) has been disqualified from the Sept. 5, 2022 Hopeful S. due to the presence of meloxicam in his system, according to the horse's owner, Mike Repole; his trainer, Todd Pletcher; and their lawyer, Karen Murphy, who held a phone conference Thursday afternoon to address the suspension.

Meloxicam is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, widely prescribed to treat osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and is sold under the brand name Mobic.

“This horse came into our care on March 25, 2022,” said Pletcher. “He was never prescribed or administered meloxicam under our care.”

Murphy said that Braulio Baeza, the steward for the New York State Gaming Commission, had informed her Thursday afternoon that the horse would be disqualified, and that Pletcher would be fined $1,000 and suspended for 10 days. Murphy said that decision would be appealed, and that her request for a stay “at this level” had never been denied.

Forte's connections placed the blame for the eight-month delay squarely on the shoulders of the Gaming Commission.

“One point I want to address up front is that the Gaming Commission has stated now two or three times that we somehow delayed the process,” said Murphy. “That's a little bit shocking to me because it's false. I don't like government regulators to make false statements.” In fact, said Murphy, “from day one, we were on this.”

Murphy said that when they were informed of the positive several weeks after the race, they informed the NYSGC that they would be requesting that a split sample confirm or rule out the presence of the medication.

“I asked for a list of labs we could send the split to,” she said. “It took the Gaming Commission four months—and I'm not kidding you—to supply us with a list. They should be able to pull it out of their top drawer. And as it turns out, they did, but it was outdated.” Murphy said the list contained labs that hadn't been authorized to conduct this kind of testing for years.

In December, they chose the lab at Texas A&M, and the split sample came back positive for meloxicam.

Also on the call was Dr. Steven A. Barker, considered one of the foremost experts in equine drug testing and research. He served as director of Louisiana State University's Equine Medication Surveillance Laboratory and State Chemist for the Louisiana State Racing Commission for 29 years until retiring from that post in 2016.

Barker said that the amount of meloxicam reported was 500 picograms per millileter in the blood. “It's an extremely small amount,” he said, pointing to studies that any finding below 1.5 nanograms, or 1,500 picograms in the blood, is irrelevant and should not be called as a positive. “Anything above that, you need to carry on to adjudication,” he said. “So based on the science that has been published, this is environmental contamination.”

Wednesday, Todd Pletcher appeared at a stewards hearing before the commission, and the group also expressed dissatisfaction at the process, describing a scenario where the commission didn't send out a link for the video conference, Repole had to create the Zoom for the group, that Murphy as Pletcher's attorney wasn't allowed to speak, and that the amount of the drug in the blood was not revealed.

 

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