Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit allows three trainers to withdraw admissions of guilt
The Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit has allowed three trainers who were issued multi-year violations to withdraw their admissions of guilt and enter the organization’s arbitration process, according to rulings posted this week on HIWU’s website.
The trainers – Milton Pineda, Luis Ruiz, and Joseph Taylor – all signed admissions of guilt for the violations in September or October. With the admissions withdrawn, the three will be granted hearings in front of an arbitrator in which they will be able to present evidence that could mitigate the penalties.
Pineda was banned for 12 years after eight of his horses tested positive for diisopropylamine, a vasodilator. Ruiz had three horses test positive for the same substance, and he was banned 4 1/2 years. Both trainers were based at Los Alamitos.
Taylor had two horses test positive for clenbuterol and methylphenidate after races at Parx outside of Philadelphia. Clenbuterol is a strictly regulated bronchial dilator that can build muscle when used regularly in horses, and methylphenidate is a stimulant. He was banned six years.
Reed Saldana, a trainer at Los Alamitos, also has a case pending before HIWU for a diisopropylamine positive in a horse. Saldana had said in interviews following the positive that the drug was an ingredient in a supplement that he had administered to his horse without the knowledge of its precise ingredients.
The three trainers remain provisionally suspended while their cases proceed to arbitration. Alexa Ravit, a spokeswoman for HIWU, said that the arbitration hearings will “typically” be held within 60 days of the trainers withdrawing their admissions of guilt.
In mid-September, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, which oversees HIWU, created an “ombudsman” position to help horsemen facing alleged violations with legal advice and guidance, in large part to address concerns raised by some horsemen and racing attorneys about a general sense of confusion and a lack of familiarity with HIWU’s rules and processes up to that point.
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