Carbon dioxide positive in N.Y.

The New York Racing Association has fined trainer Deborah Bodner $2,000 as a result of one her horses having an excessive blood-gas level of total carbon dioxide after winning a race at Belmont Park on June 26.

According to Bill Nader, a NYRA senior vice president, Allison's Approval not only tested over the threshold of 37 millimoles per liter after the race, the horse also failed a three-day quarantine challenge, done to determine if the horse produces high levels of carbon dioxide naturally.

NYRA began these tests to detect the illegal administration of a prerace concoction of bicarbonate of soda, sugar, and electrolytes designed to reduce fatigue and enhance performance, often known as a milkshake. A horse given such a mixture will produce a high carbon dioxide level. Nader could not confirm, however, that tests showed Allison's Approval was given a bicarbonate mixture, only that her carbon dioxide level was high.

Bodner, reached by phone Tuesday, said she did not milkshake the horse, and was disturbed to hear the news of her penalty from a reporter, rather than NYRA stewards.

To race again at a NYRA track, Bodner would face an additional penalty of having to, at her own expense, put her New York starters in a quarantine barn for 30 days. Bodner, who was based in New Jersey, is no longer training horses, having dispersed them to other trainers while she tends to her husband, who is battling cancer.

"I did not milkshake the horse," Bodner said. "It was 100 degrees that day and it was not the same circumstances that she had when she was in quarantine."