Amoss fined for naproxen positive at Fair Grounds

Trainer Tom Amoss, who is facing a 60-day suspension in Indiana for multiple medication positives over the past 12 months, was fined $500 by stewards at Fair Grounds late in February after a horse he trained tested positive for the painkiller naproxen.

The horse, Populist Politics, tested positive for the Class 4 non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication after finishing second in the $150,000 Louisiana Champions Day Classic Stakes on Dec. 10. The horse was not disqualified, and the purse was not redistributed, according to Fair Grounds chief steward Roy Wood.

The ruling adds to a spate of positives in Amoss’s barn over the past 15 months. Three horses trained by Amoss tested positive for a Class 4 muscle relaxant, methocarbamol, during the month of October, and another horse trained by Amoss tested positive for naproxen in January 2011 after a race at Fair Grounds.

Earlier this week, the Indiana Horse Racing Commission recommended that Amoss be suspended for 60 days after a methocarbamol positive at Hoosier Park in October, his third positive for the drug that month and his fourth since May. Amoss’s attorney, Maggi Moss, has contested the Indiana penalty.

Moss said that Amoss has stopped administering methocarbamol and naproxen since the positives were announced. She also has said that the drugs were administered outside of the recommended withdrawal time.