Arabian horse trainer banned for life in ringer case at Delaware

Delaware Park stewards have barred a trainer of Arabian horses for life after he was found to have run at least one ringer at the track last year.

Mark Powell, the trainer, was barred after DNA tests on one of his horses “revealed no match to established DNA.” The horse, So Big Boy, won three races at Delaware Park last year, including the Grade 2 Delaware Park Arabian Derby by 6 ½ lengths.

John Wayne, the executive director of the Delaware Horse Racing Commission, said on Tuesday morning that Arabian horses are both lip-tattooed and microchipped, but that suspicions about So Big Boy and another horse in Powell’s stable led commission personnel to seek DNA tests on the horses.

“These horses were just so dominant,” Wayne said.

The stewards’ ruling says that the lifetime ban was based in part on “aggravating circumstances.” Wayne said that Powell barred racing commission personnel from his barn after they first sought to pull hairs on the horses for DNA testing, and that he then attempted to load the horses onto a trailer and leave the track before the samples could be taken.

Running ringers is very rare in racing, in part because of procedures established to positively identify horses prior to their races through lip tattoos and, in recent years, the implantation of radio-frequency ID microchips. However, mix-ups have happened in the past, but in most cases those incidents have largely been held to be accidental.

Wayne said that investigators have not determined yet how Powell was able to skirt or fool the checks that are used to positively identify horses prior to racing. He was ruled off last year and had not returned to the sport after that ban, Wayne said.

Wayne also said that the DNA did not indicate the breed of So Big Boy, but said that investigators believed that the horse was “at least half Thoroughbred.” Thoroughbreds are generally faster than Arabians.