Judge throws out trainer Werre's one-year suspension

A Kentucky circuit court judge has thrown out a one-year suspension levied by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission in 2014 on trainer Daniel Werre, citing the commission’s improper reclassification of a drug found in one of Werre’s horses after a race at Turfway Park in 2012.

Judge Phillip J. Shepherd of the Franklin Circuit Court ruled that the suspension should be thrown out because the commission improperly changed the classification of the drug, Levamisole, a powerful stimulant used to treat equine protozoal myelitis in horses. Shepherd also ruled that the commission failed to take into account mitigating circumstances surrounding the positive test.

Werre, who took out his training license in 2011, had argued before the commission that the positive was due to contamination of the horse’s feed. The horse who tested positive, Voodoo Dancer, was stabled next to a horse who had received a prescription for Levamisole and was being treated with the drug.

Shepherd ruled that the commission had not provided sufficient evidence to justify reclassifying Levamisole from a Class B to a Class A drug, citing the medication’s approval by the FDA to treat EPM. Class A drugs are generally held to have no therapeutic effects on a horse and a high potential to affect a horse’s performance. Shepherd wrote that the reclassification was “arbitrary and capricious.”

Shepherd also ruled that the commission failed to take into consideration Werre’s explanation for the positive finding, writing that the KHRC had failed to demonstrate “the propriety of the one-year suspension of Mr. Werre’s trainer’s license.”

Werre has already served the suspension, which was levied in April 2014. Since returning to training, he has five starts and one win. For his career, he has four wins from 46 starts.

Dick Brown, a spokesman for the KHRC, said the commission was “discussing its options” in regard to the case and that no decision on an appeal has been made.