Evangeline Downs dermorphin rulings upheld by court

A circuit court in Louisiana has upheld the fines and suspensions the state’s racing commission issued in two separate cases involving the painkiller dermorphin that had dated back to last year’s Thoroughbred meet at Evangeline Downs.

Trainers Anthony Agilar and Kyi Lormand were each suspended three years and fined $2,500 when horses in their care tested positive for the illegal painkiller in May 2012. Their suspensions were to have started Monday.

The judge’s decision was issued by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, said Larry Munster, assistant executive director of the Louisiana Racing Commission. He said the suspensions were to run through June 23, 2016.

Lormand was cited after He’s a Slewvescent ran second in a May 16 race. He also was the owner of record of the horse. Aguilar was cited for two horses he trained, Bad John and Lapile Creek. Both won, with Bad John edging He’s a Slewvescent on May 16 and Lapile Creek winning May 31.

In other cases, the Louisiana Racing Commission on Monday suspended trainer Javier Contreras a total of a year and four months after he picked up his third, fourth, and fifth offenses in a 12-month period, Munster said. Contreras was cited for three separate horses, all of whom tested positive for the Class 4 medications phenylbutazone and flunixin after winning Quarter Horses races in March at Louisiana Downs. The commission suspended Contreras 60 days in each of the first two cases and a year for the third offense. The purses from the races were ordered redistributed, and he was fined a total of $6,000.

Trainers David Carroll and Carl Deville also had Class 4 medication violations that came before the commission Monday, with the panel upholding the $1,000 fines that stewards assessed in each of the cases and tacking on the provision that the purses in the races be redistributed, Munster said. Carroll was cited for a methocarbamol positive stemming from Silver Strike’s win in a Feb. 17 race at Fair Grounds. Deville was cited for a phenylbutazone and flunixin positive on I’m in to Happy, a maiden winner May 9 at Evangeline.

Munster said the commission’s rules committee announced plans they are moving to raise the penalties for Class 4 and 5 drug violations in Louisiana