Persaud's horses not permitted to run amid unspecified investigation

ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Randi Persaud is under investigation by the New York State Gaming Commission and the New York Racing Association and will not be permitted to run or enter his horses at NYRA tracks for the foreseeable future, racing officials said Saturday.

“His entries have been stopped and his horses have been scratched,” Steve Lewandowski, the steward for the Gaming Commission, said Saturday. “There’s an investigation going on with him.”

Lewandowski would not say what the investigation is about. However, Persaud said Saturday afternoon that a box of injectable medication was found in his Belmont Park barn earlier this week. Persaud said that the box was delivered by Winston John, an assistant to one of the track-based veterinarians, by mistake.

“It was not supposed to be for me, he dropped it off by mistake, I don’t have anything to do with it,” Persaud said. “I’m shocked by this.”

Persaud, who turned 44 on Thursday, said he wasn’t at his barn when the package was delivered or when the boxes were found.

While not confirming boxes of injectables had been found at Persaud's barn, Lewandowski did say that it is illegal for any trainer to have injectables in their possession at any time.

Persaud said the state drew blood on all of his horses Saturday morning at Belmont Park.

Persaud is permitted to train during the ongoing investigation.

During his training career, Persaud has not been suspended in New York, though he’s been fined multiple times for failure to tend to business in a proper manner.

Persaud had Reyana Reya Delite scratched from Friday’s fourth race at Belmont. His two entrants on Saturday, Impazible Creek in race 7 and Reyana Reya Dreams in the 10th, were scratched. Golden Sequence, entered in Sunday’s ninth race, will also be scratched.

Persaud has three wins from 39 starters at the current Belmont Park meet. Through Thursday, he was in line to earn a $9,000 bonus from NYRA’s Under-20 Claiming Challenge for trainers whose stable consists of 20 horses or less.

Since beginning his training career in 2008, Persaud has won 224 races from 3,485 starters. In 2010, he won the Queens County Stakes at Aqueduct with More Than a Reason.

Prior to training, Persaud won 99 races as a jockey from 1994 thru 2006. In 1996, he won 66 races, riding primarily at Parx Racing.