Flagstaff DQ'ed from September's Santa Anita Sprint Championship for medication violation

Flagstaff, second in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship on Sept. 27 2020, tested positive for the banned medication clodronic acid, a bisphosphonate, after the race, according to two complaints posted on Wednesday by the California Horse Racing Board on its website.

The complaints were filed against trainer John Sadler and the owners of Flagstaff – Hronis Racing and Lane’s End Racing.

The complaints state the positive was found in post-race urine tests for the bisphosphonate clodronic acid, which is listed as a class 1 medication and is not allowed to appear in post-race tests.

Bisphosphonates are part of a class of drugs used to stimulate the repair of bone material, and they have been at the forefront of regulatory discussions nationwide in recent years. Bisphosphonates are approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat navicular disease in horses 4 years old or older. The racing industry began to ban the use of the drugs in horses younger than 4 late in 2019 over concerns that the drug could be abused in younger horses.

Darrell Vienna, the attorney for Sadler, said that Flagstaff was administered the drug in 2019, when bisphosphonates were not banned and Flagstaff was 5 years old. He said that the regulation of the drugs is extremely problematic, citing research that shows that the substances can reside in bone for years and be released into the bloodstream only when a horse’s bone is in need of repair.

"Mr. Sadler has cooperated fully with the California Horse Racing Board’s investigation, and there is no evidence of malfeasance by Mr. Sadler," Vienna said. "The complaint is based solely on the trainer insurer rule and not on a violation of the newly adopted bisphosphonate regulation."

Vienna said he did not know if the substance was administered to treat navicular disease, a degenerative condition in a horse’s foot named after a small bone in the heel.

Trainer Jeff Metz and the racing board are in the midst of discussions regarding a settlement on a complaint for a similar positive found in the post-race test of one of his runners – Camino de Estrella – that raced on the same day at Santa Anita as the Sprint Championship last year. Vienna also represents Metz, and he has said that a bisphosphonate was administered to the Metz-trained horse before the horse joined the trainer’s stable, in 2019.

In the Metz case, the board recommended to stewards that the bisphosphonate finding be adjudicated as a Class 3 substance, considering that the board is in the process of adding bisphosphonates to its list of classified substances.

Flagstaff finished second by a head as the 2-1 second choice in the $200,000 Santa Anita Sprint Championship and earned $40,000. Flagstaff was ordered disqualified from purse earnings in a complaint issued Wednesday. Such action would lead to a redistribution of prize money to the third through fifth-place finishers – Collusion Illusion, Desert Law, and Giant Expectations.

Sadler could face a possible fine or suspension for the positive, pending a hearing.

Flagstaff has won 7 of 19 starts and earned $991,585 for Hronis Racing and Lane’s End Racing. This spring, Flagstaff has won two stakes – the Grade 3 Commonwealth Stakes at Keeneland on April 3 and the Grade 1 Churchill Downs Stakes on May 1.

A 7-year-old, Flagstaff is considered by Sadler to be a contender in the leading sprints of the summer and fall.

–additional reporting by Matt Hegarty