Grove gets six months for Charles Town medication positive

Chris Grove, a trainer based in the Mid-Atlantic, has been suspended six months by the stewards at Charles Town Races after one of his horses tested positive for a Class 1 stimulant after winning a race there in July last year.

Bubba de France, a horse trained by Grove, tested positive for nikethamide after winning a $5,000 claiming race on July 28, 2012, stewards at Charles Town said on Friday. Nikethamide is a respiratory stimulant that has been abused by human athletes for its purported ability to increase endurance. The drug is banned in racing at any level of detection.

Grove’s attorney, Gregory Bailey, did not immediately return a phone call. Grove is expected to appeal the suspension and a $5,000 fine that was also levied by the stewards. Bubba de France was disqualified from the race.

According to a database of rulings against racing licensees, Grove has been penalized three times in the past four years for medication positives. The violations included a 2010 positive for isoflupredone, a corticosteroid that is currently a subject of study by racing regulators; a late 2009 positive for fluphenazine, an anti-psychotic that is used by veterinarians as a sedative; and an early 2009 positive for pyrimethamine, an anti-malarial drug that is sometimes used in combination with another drug to treat equine protozoal myeloencephalitis.