Arrossa handed 15-year suspension by CHRB for medication positives

Monty Arrossa, one of the nation’s most prominent Quarter Horse trainers earlier this decade, was given a 15-year suspension and fined $567,200 after three Quarter Horses in his care tested positive for the banned medication carmoterol on five occasions in out-of-competition and post-race tests taken at Los Alamitos in October and November of 2024.

The penalty was announced by the California Horse Racing Board on Friday, two days after the sanctions were ratified by board members in a closed session of their monthly meeting.

Arrossa was given five three-year suspensions for the infractions, which the board ordered to be served consecutively.

Carmoterol is a bronchodilator not permitted to appear in post-race tests.

Arrossa was cited for out-of-competition positives taken from American Dreamin on Oct. 10, 2024, and Nov. 30, 2024, and Blood Viper on Oct. 20, 2024. The tests were taken days after those horses raced in time trials for major futurities. Arrossa was fined a combined $100,000 for those positives.

The board issued more severe fines for post-race positives taken from American Dreamin on Oct. 27, 2024, following his win in the $1,073,800 Golden State Million Futurity, one of the track’s leading races; and for a post-race test taken from AB Seis Corazones on Nov. 10, 2024, after a second-place finish in the $795,000 Los Alamitos Super Derby, the track’s leading race for 3-year-olds.

Arrossa was fined $268,450 for the positive detected after the Golden State Million and $198,750 for the positive found after the Super Derby. Both fines represent 25 percent of the purse.

Arrossa did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment. He was the nation’s leading Quarter Horse trainer in earnings in 2020 and 2021 and was in the top five from 2022-24.

Arrossa has not had a starter since March 2025. Later that month, Arrossa was banned from training at Los Alamitos by track management after the racing board announced that AB Seis Corazones, American Dreamin, and Blood Viper had tested positive for carmoterol.

The three horses at the time of the positives were owned by the Oklahoma-based Dunn Ranch of Matt and Bendi Dunn.

Dunn Ranch announced in February that it was taking a hiatus from racing at Los Alamitos, the only Quarter Horse track in California.

The announcement occurred less than three weeks after the racing board issued a complaint against Dunn Ranch regarding medication violations found in tests taken from three of their runners in fall 2024.

That case has not been finalized.

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