O'Neill suspended seven days for violating vet exam rules

Trainer Doug O’Neill has been suspended seven days and fined $2,500 for violating rules pertaining to veterinary exams prior to a workout.

O’Neill was cited for failing to have Ivan the Great inspected before a workout at Santa Anita on April 20. According to a ruling published by Los Alamitos stewards on Sunday, Ivan the Great did not have a vet exam in the 90 days prior to the workout.

Ivan the Great sustained a fatal leg injury in the April 20 workout, according to California Horse Racing Board records. Ivan the Great won once in five starts. He started in three stakes as a 2-year-old in 2024, including a third in the Bashford Manor Stakes at Churchill Downs last June. Ivan the Great did not race this year.

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O’Neill’s suspension runs from July 6 to July 12 and coincides largely with a brief gap between the end of the current Los Alamitos summer meeting and the start of the Del Mar summer meeting on July 18. There is no live afternoon Thoroughbred racing in California on the weekend of July 12-13.

O’Neill recently won his 3,000th race in North America. His current stable includes the star miler, Raging Torrent, who won the Grade 1 Metropolitan Mile Handicap at Saratoga on June 7.

O’Neill acknowledged the penalties in a message published on X.com on Sunday, stating “I take full responsibility for this and have since implemented a system to avoid these oversights going forward. I respect the CHRB’s decision and I’ll continue to work on always putting our horses first.”

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