Miller given 15-day suspension for Del Mar positive

California-based trainer Peter Miller has been suspended 15 days and fined $2,500 after one of his starters tested positive for the analgesic tramadol at Del Mar last August.

The violation was found in a post-race test taken from Forgiving Spirit, who finished third in a turf sprint for $28,000 to $32,000 claimers, but was disqualified and placed sixth for causing interference.

Miller was also fined $2,500 for the infraction, according to the national Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit.

In an interview on Wednesday, Miller cited an employee who was prescribed tramadol. Miller said the positive was caused by an “accidental contamination.”

Miller said the severity of the penalty, and the circumstances that caused the positive, has left him frustrated at racing’s current system of adjudicating such cases.

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“This isn’t what I signed up for,” he said. “It makes me want to quit training.”

For the positive, a minor purse redistribution was announced in a ruling issued last Saturday by Santa Anita stewards. Forgiving Spirit earned $500 after he was disqualified for the in-race infraction. The stewards ordered owners Tom Kagele and Tom Waken, who races as Gem, Inc., Miller and jockey Reylu Gutierrez to forfeit their earnings.

Mamba On Three, who finished last of seven in the field, was promoted to sixth, while Forgiving Spirit was listed as unplaced. The revised order of finish for the third through sixth-place finishers is Mynumerouno, So I’m Told, Seismic Spirit, and Mamba On Three.

Miller, one of the leading trainers in Southern California, began his suspension on Saturday, but was allowed to start horses entered before the penalty was announced by HIWU on Feb. 6. The suspension ends on Feb. 22.

For the remainder of Miller’s suspension, horses from his barn will be trained by his former assistant, Ruben Alvarado. Alvarado has eight former Miller-trained runners entered at Santa Anita from Friday through Monday, including Game Warrior and Style Cat in Sunday’s Baffle Stakes for 3-year-old turf sprinters.

This is the second time that Forgiving Spirit has been part of a positive test. In June 2023, Forgiving Spirit finished second for Miller in an allowance race at Santa Anita, but later tested positive for the tranquilizer acepromazine.

Miller was fined $1,000 and suspended seven days for the infraction. On the day of the medication violation in June 2023, Forgiving Spirit was claimed by George Papaprodromou.

Forgiving Spirit was scratched during warmups from a race at Los Alamitos on July 9 because of unsoundness, in what would have been his first start for Papaprodromou, and later ordered by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority to be returned to Miller when the June 2023 claim was voided because of the medication violation.

Forgiving Spirit did not race again until March of 2024. The positive last August occurred in Forgiving Spirit’s fifth start that year for Miller. Forgiving Spirit was claimed in the August race by trainer Sean Williams and started once for him.

Forgiving Spirit was reacquired by Kagele last fall through an online sale and returned to Miller. Since the recent sale, Forgiving Spirit has started four times, including a win in a $16,000 claimer at Turfway Park on Jan. 29.

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