Dutrow goes for appeal in federal court Monday

Trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. will be back in federal court Monday in Manhattan in a last-ditch effort to have his appeal of a 10-year banishment handed him by New York racing regulators heard.

Dutrow will appear before Judge Robert A. Katzmann, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second District, seeking to have a suit he filed in Feb. 2013 against the New York State Gaming Commission (formerly the New York State Racing and Wagering Board) and the Association of Racing Commissioners International heard.

Last July, Judge Sandra Townes of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District dismissed Dutrow’s suit, contending that Dutrow did not have cause to argue his case in a matter that had already been decided by state courts.

In Oct. 2011, the then New York State Racing and Wagering Board announced it had banned Dutrow for 10 years and fined him $50,000 for a history of rules violations that included a medication violation and the finding of three unlabeled syringes containing an illegal drug in his barn in Nov. 2010.

Dutrow exhausted all his appeals over the next 15 months and began serving his suspension on Jan. 17, 2013.

Dutrow’s attorney Mitch Elman will have 10 minutes to give his oral arguments while attorneys for the Gaming Commission and ARCI will have five minutes of rebuttal.

Asked if this is Dutrow’s last opportunity to have his case heard, Elman, said, “Pretty much, man.”

Dutrow is best known as the trainer of Big Brown, winner of the 2008 Kentucky Derby and Preakness, and Saint Liam, the 2005 Horse of the Year.