McAnally horse tests positive for cannabidiol

A horse trained by Ron McAnally, the Hall of Fame trainer based in California, tested positive for cannabidiol after winning a starter-allowance race in late November at Del Mar last year, according to a complaint posted to the website of the California Horse Racing Board on Monday afternoon. A separate complaint names the jockey of the horse as well.

Because cannabidiol, an ingredient in cannabis compounds, is not yet classified under CHRB rules, the complaint states that the positive is being treated as a “prohibited substance,” which is considered a Class 1 violation, requiring the harshest penalties in the rule book. Cannibidiol is also known as CBD, an ingredient in a number of over-the-counter human products promoting pain relief, and it does not contain THC, the psychoactive component of cannabis.

However, Mike Marten, a spokesman for the CHRB, said that the board’s executive director has recommended that stewards consider the substance a Class 3, given that the board is in the process of adding cannabidiol to its rules in that classification. Both violations require a disqualification of the horse.

“They can’t order the stewards to do that,” Marten said. “However, they are allowed to recommend it.”

McAnally, 88, is one of the most respected horsemen in the sport. He has trained some of the most recognizable names in the history of the sport, including John Henry, Bayakoa, and Paseana, and he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1990.

On Monday, McAnally’s wife, Deborah, said that Geovanni Franco, the rider of the horse that tested positive, had admitted to using a substance containing cannabidiol on the day he rode the horse. Franco is the rider listed in the separate complaint.

“It’s stuff I guess they're allowed to use in the jock’s room,” Deborah said. “It was on his hands, I guess. But we’re the ones who get the positive. Dan [Landers, McAnally’s longtime assistant] asked about 18 people who could have been in contact with the horse and the jockey said he used it. I know they’re going to take the purse away, but that's the least of my concern compared to the reputation of my husband.”

The horse that tested posted, Roses and Candy, is owned by the McAnallys. The positive test came after a win by Roses and Candy in a Nov. 22 race at Del Mar at odds of 3-1.

Though McAnally is the listed trainer of Roses and Candy, the day-to-day care of the horses in the barn is overseen by Landers, who said on Monday that after the CHRB informed him of the first positive test in December, he canvassed the backstretch for the people he had concluded could have had any contact with the horse. But “nobody knew what it was,” Landers said.

“A couple days later, Franco pulled me aside and said he used the product,” Landers said. “That speaks volumes about what kind of guy he is. He could have not said a word, but he was man enough to come up and say something.”

Marten said that investigators at the CHRB have completed a report that will be given to the stewards regarding the complaint, but he said he could not comment on its contents. [Last week, the CHRB denied a request by DRF to see an investigative report in another complaint, citing privileged information.]

“The stewards will see the report and they will take into account the testimony and evidence at the hearing,” Marten said. “They will base the penalty on that.”

Marten also said that CHRB records do not show a medication violation for McAnally since 1998, a methocarbamol overage.

The CHRB began posting complaints publicly last year, as a result of its adjudication of a post-race positive for scopolamine, a known environmental contaminant, in the horse Justify after the 2018 Santa Anita Derby. The CHRB dismissed the violation after investigators determined that the horse accidentally ingested the substance, but the process was criticized by some for a lack of transparency, leading to its decision to post the complaints prior to the hearing process.

--additional reporting by Jay Privman