KHRGC will not appeal dismissal of Asmussen acepromazine positives

The Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation will not appeal a recent court ruling throwing out two positives in horses trained by Steve Asmussen in a case dating back to 2018.

The board of the corporation voted to accept the July 3 ruling from Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phil Shepherd that cited numerous reasons to toss the positive findings, including a determination by the judge that the corporation’s predecessor, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, had “elevated a guideline” to a rule requiring penalties for violations.

Asmussen was initially issued a 30-day suspension in 2019 after stewards ruled that the findings of positives for acepromazine in two horses that raced in Kentucky in 2018 were violations of the state’s medication rules. The two horses were also disqualified.

Asmussen appealed the penalties, but an administrative law judge appointed by the KHRC upheld the decision in a ruling in January 2023. Asmussen then appealed to the Franklin Circuit Court.

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Acepromazine, a sedative, is commonly administered to racehorses prior to shipping, shoeing, or a medical procedure, but it is a regulated drug due to its ability to impact a horse’s performance.

Asmussen’s attorneys had argued that the horses had not been administered the drug within the stand-down period proscribed by Kentucky’s regulations at the time, and that findings of acepromzine’s metabolite did not constitute a regulatory positive under those rules. In his ruling, Shepherd supported the latter argument.

Speckert approved as chief operating officer of KHRGC

On Tuesday, the Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation approved the hiring of Susan Speckert, a former legal counsel with the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, as its chief operating officer.

Speckert, who is married to the retired trainer Christopher Speckert, was most recently the commissioner of law for the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government. She previously was general counsel at the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission from 2010-2016 and played a significant role in drafting the regulations governing betting on historical horse-racing machines, which have become a major revenue source for the Kentucky racing industry in the past 10 years.

A bill passed in this year’s legislative session converted the KHRC from an adjunct of a state cabinet into a state corporation, in part due to the growth in historical horse racing. The conversion took effect on July 1.

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