Amoss suspended seven days, fined for lidocaine overage

Tom Amoss, a leading trainer based in the Midwest and Louisiana, has accepted a seven-day suspension from the Indiana Horse Racing Commission after a horse he trained tested positive for a “permissible medication” after a race at Horseshoe Indianapolis this summer, Amoss said.

Amoss, writing on social media, said that the horse, Catwings, tested over a regulated limit for an unidentified medication. In a text message in response to a phone call seeking information on the incident, Amoss said that he didn’t have “any additional comment” beyond the post.

Catwings won the sixth race on June 23 at Horseshoe Indianapolis by two lengths as the even-money favorite. The race was a six-furlong maiden special weight with a $23,000 purse.

“I take full responsibility, and I apologize for my mistake,” Amoss wrote in the social media post. “I am grateful to the stewards for independently recognizing this as a possible accidental cross-contamination, and [for] reducing my suspension from 15 days to 7 days. We will work to ensure this will not happen again.”

A copy of the ruling provided by the Indiana Horse Racing Commission on Monday afternoon says that Catwings tested positive for a lidocaine, a pain reliever, at a concentration greater than permitted levels. The ruling said that Amoss “waived his right to a formal hearing” and was issued the seven-day suspension and fined $5,000. Catwings was also disqualified from the race.

The suspension will be enforced Nov. 13 through Nov. 19, the ruling said.

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Lidocaine is a common ingredient in human pain-relief products, typically in local ointments. Several trainers who have had horses test positive for the drug – notably Bob Baffert, in two cases in Arkansas in 2020 – have argued that the drug had gotten into their horses’ systems through cross-contamination from human products.

Amoss, who is a familiar presence in racing because of his work as a television analyst, has a record of 84 wins from 450 starts this year, a 19 percent strike rate. A native of Louisiana, he is frequently among the top trainers each year at Fair Grounds in New Orleans, where he bases his horses in the winter. He has been training since 1987.

Amoss has a handful of medication violations in his long career, all for regulated medications.

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