Hong Kong Harry disqualified from Turf Classic placing due to positive
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Hong Kong Harry has been disqualified from his second-place finish in the Grade 1 Turf Classic at Churchill Downs on May 6 due to a positive test for mofebutazone, a mild painkiller.
Phil D’Amato, Hong Kong Harry’s trainer, was fined $1,000 for the positive test but did not receive a suspension. Mofebutazone is used to treat joint and muscle pain, though it is not approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration. It is a Class 4 drug under classifications issued by the Association of Racing Commissioners International.
Darrell Vienna, the attorney who represented D’Amato in the case, said that Hong Kong Harry was not administered mofebutazone and that the stewards arrived at a “fair and appropriate conclusion” in not issuing a suspension. He said that the drug was found in an extremely low concentration and that it would have had “no pharmacological effect” on Hong Kong Harry at the time of the race.
“It’s just illogical, given the ease of detection and the fact that it would have had no performance-enhancing effect, that there was a willful or knowledgeable administration,” Vienna said.
Rulings from the stewards say that both D’Amato and the horse’s owners – Scott Anastasi, Jimmy Ukegawa, and Tony Valezza – declined a formal hearing in the case. Hong Kong Harry, a multiple graded stakes winner, had earned $194,000 for the second-place finish in the Turf Classic.
The positive test occurred in a race that was run approximately two weeks prior to the May 22 implementation of new rules enforced by the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit that would have treated mofebutazone as a “banned substance,” with a recommended penalty of two years.
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