Atras fined and suspended for phenylbutazone overage in one of his horses
Trainer Rob Atras was suspended 10 calendar days and fined $1,000 for the finding of an overage of the therapeutic medication phenylbutazone in the post-race sample of Market Alert taken after the gelding finished fourth in the seventh race at Aqueduct on Feb. 20.
According to the stewards ruling, Market Alert had in excess of the threshold of 0.3 micrograms per milliliter in violation of commission rule 4043.4 (a), which stipulates the threshold for medication.
Market Alert’s connections at the time have to forfeit the $5,280 the horse earned for finishing fourth in that race.
Market Alert won his next start for Atras on March 4 and was claimed out of that race by Orlando Noda.
Atras waived his right of appeal and will serve the days June 11-20, which encompasses five racing days.
The positive for phenylbutazone is the ninth, involving eight trainers, for that regulated medication in a little more than a year’s time. The list of trainers who have been penalized for phenylbutazone positives since the start of 2022 include Jeffrey Englehart (twice) Linda Rice, Michelle Giangiulio, Gustavo Rodriguez, Kieran Magee, Eduardo Jones and Tom Morley.
In other rulings posted on the commission’s website this week:
* Chris Camac, the assistant racing secretary for the New York Racing Association, was fined $2,000 by the New York State Gaming Commission for allowing the horse Georgie’s Ladies to run in four races as a New York-bred despite the fact the horse was not fully registered as such. The dates of those races were Jan. 8, 2022, and March 12, March 24 and April 16 of 2023.
* The commission fined Dr. Steven Lascher $8,000 for failure to follow proper Lasix procedures, which necessitated the scratch of four horses from the third race at Belmont on May 19.
Lascher failed to administer Lasix to four horses in the required timeframe and the race in question scratched down to two horses.
Lascher, who has since lost his job as a Lasix veterinarian at the New York Racing Association, was fined $4,000 for the same infraction last June.
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