After appeal, veterinarian Perez gets 14-month suspension

Dr. Jorge Perez, a racetrack practitioner who has worked on the backsides of New York tracks since 2018, has been handed a 14-month suspension after he appealed a two-year suspension related to his possession of a banned substance that regulates thyroid function, according to a ruling posted on the website of the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit, which began regulating medication use at most U.S. racetracks beginning last May.

Perez, who has been a racetrack practitioner since 2011, had his suspension reduced by an arbitrator who ruled that his case “falls into the moderate or middle range of objective fault” due to uncertainty over whether a veterinarian could possess the banned substance, thyroxine, in order to administer the drug to stable ponies at tracks, which are not under the jurisdiction of HIWU.

Because Perez was provisionally suspended on June 13, four days after two tubs of thyroxine were found in his trailer, the suspension will run through Aug.13, 2024. Perez has been unable to practice at facilities under HIWU’s jurisdiction since the June 13 date.

According to a 26-page report produced by the arbitrator, a New York Racing Association investigator conducted a search of Perez’s veterinary truck on the backstretch of Belmont Park on June 9 and found two one-pound tubs of thyroxine, a drug that began to be more strictly regulated in Thoroughbred racing 10 years ago after several investigations revealed that it was being administered to horses with no history of thyroid dysfunction and without a diagnosis or prescription.

Perez acknowledged that he had purchased the tubs, but he said he did so in January of 2023, prior to the advent of HIWU’s jurisdiction. He also said that he occasionally treated stable ponies on the backstretch.

Perez also acknowledged that he had attended a seminar at Belmont Park in March 2023, in which HIWU’s Chief of Science, Dr. Mary Scollay, explicitly communicated that possession of thyroxine would be treated as a violation. Perez said that he “completely forgot” to clean out his trainer after attending the seminar, according to the arbitrator’s report.

However, at a seminar two days later in Oklahoma, according to the arbitrator’s report, an unidentified attendee asked Dr. Scollay whether a veterinarian could possess banned substances if their practice “includes non-covered horses” such as stable ponies, and Scollay had answered that “the regulation addresses if there is a justification for [veterinarians] to be in possession of a banned substance.”

“HIWU did not explain that the regulation requires a ‘compelling justification,’ including evidence that the veterinarian is using the [thyroxine] to currently treat non-covered horses,” the arbitrator, Barbara A. Reeves, wrote in her report. She cited the uncertainty over the regulation as a mitigating factor in Perez’s case.

But Reeves also found “exacerbating circumstances” justifying a lengthy suspension, including a finding during the search of his truck of “hundreds of injection needles lying on the floor of his trailers,” the improper storage of drugs, and violations of NYRA regulations regarding the disposal of medical waste.

“These factors not only demonstrate a failure to act with utmost caution, they suggest improper professional practice that represent a departure from an ordinary standard of care expected of a veterinarian," Reeves wrote.

Reeves was also ordered to pay a $5,000 fine, reduced from the initial penalty of $25,000. He was also excused from paying HIWU’s side of the arbitration costs.

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