The California Horse Racing Board has issued a grievance in opposition to coach Doug O’Neill, alleging that one in every of his runners was presumably “given an unlawful substance to a horse that had been entered in a race” by somebody at Los Alamitos Race Course this summer season.
The grievance, dated Oct. 22 and posted this week on the CHRB web site, states that on July 5 “investigators obtained data from Los Alamitos monitor safety steward, Michael Kilpack, relating to seeing somebody at coach Doug O’Neill’s barn presumably giving an unlawful substance to a horse that had already been entered in a race at LARC (Los Alamitos). Investigators carried out a barn inspection at coach Doug O’Neill’s barn, #14W (stalls 20- 25), at LARC.
“In the course of the barn inspection, investigators didn’t observe any pre-race ‘Detention Stall Signal’ posted on any of the stalls previous to the submit time of the race for which the horses have been entered. Investigators interviewed assistant coach Sabas Rivera. Rivera said he had given ‘Bleeder Protect’ and ‘Un-Lock’ to the horses yesterday, which was 24 hours previous to race.”
On-line web sites promote Bleeder Protect as a respiratory bleeding preventative for horses and Un-Lock as an amino acid muscle complement that reduces lactic acid and prevents horses from tying up.
O’Neill, on-site Nov. 2 at Del Mar, the place he’s getting ready Sizzling Rod Charlie for the Longines Breeders’ Cup Traditional (G1) Nov. 5, issued a press release, saying: “I’ve solely simply realized of this matter, which is alleged to have occurred 4 months in the past. I all the time take accountability for the horses in my care, and if there was any rule infraction, the buck stops right here.”
The grievance didn’t establish the horse, nor does the grievance state whether or not the horse competed or was scratched. O’Neill ran 5 horses at Los Alamitos July 5, none of whom gained.
In contrast to most different regulators within the U.S., the CHRB at the moment studies complaints on its web site, whereas others largely report solely rulings after hearings. Complaints haven’t been adjudicated by monitor stewards, and a ruling solely follows a proper listening to. Some complaints are dismissed.
On March 6, the CHRB suspended O’Neill for 10 days and fined him $7,500 after one in every of his trainees examined optimistic for lidocaine within the fall of 2020 at Santa Anita Park. The CHRB stayed an extra 20 days of suspension supplied O’Neill doesn’t have class 1, 2, or 3 remedy violations inside a yr of the ruling.
The 53-year-old coach is a two-time winner of the Kentucky Derby Offered by Yum! Manufacturers (G1), first in 2012 with I’ll Have Another and then in 2016 with Nyquist . He has won five Breeders’ Cup races, most recently with Nyquist in the 2015 Sentient Jet Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1).
