California Horse Racing Board to conduct hearing on Justify's Santa Anita Derby win

The California Horse Racing Board will conduct a hearing into whether 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify should have been disqualified from that year’s Santa Anita Derby as part of a settlement agreement with owner-trainer Mick Ruis, an attorney for Ruis said on Friday.

The attorney, Darrell Vienna, said that the CHRB approved the outlines of the settlement agreement at a recent closed session. Ruis, who owned and trained the runner-up in the $1 million Santa Anita Derby, Bolt d’Oro, filed a lawsuit against the board in Los Angeles County Superior Court early this year, contending that Justify should have been disqualified after he tested positive for scopolamine.

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Mike Marten, a spokesman for the CHRB, said Friday afternoon that the board considers Ruis’s lawsuit to still be active because a final agreement has not been signed, and he declined to comment.

“Because it is ongoing litigation, the CHRB has no further comment,” Marten said.

Vienna said that attorneys for Ruis and the CHRB are ironing out the final terms of the agreement, but he said it would include a provision that requires the CHRB to file a complaint against the owners of Justify and conduct a purse disqualification hearing. Justify, who was retired to stud undefeated in the summer of 2018, was owned by a large partnership.

At the time that Justify tested positive, scopolamine was listed in California regulations as a Class 3 drug.

In his lawsuit, Ruis claimed that the CHRB was required to disqualify Justify under an existing rule that states that a horse must be disqualified if the horse tests positive for any Class 1, 2, or 3 drug.

The CHRB has contended that it conducted an investigation into the positive test and determined that the horse accidentally ingested scopolamine, which can be found in jimsonweed, as part of its feed. After discussing the matter behind closed doors, the CHRB dismissed the case and never filed a complaint.