Post-Kentucky Oaks test shows Gamine overage for corticosteroid

Gamine, a Grade 1-winning 3-year-old filly trained by Bob Baffert, tested positive for a regulated corticosteroid following her third-place finish in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks on Sept. 4 at Churchill Downs, Baffert’s attorney said in a statement following the publication of details of the positive test in The New York Times on Thursday night.

Craig Robertson, the attorney, said in a statement that Gamine’s post-race blood sample tested positive for 27 picograms per milliliter of blood for betamethasone, an anti-inflammatory medication that is currently not permitted to be administered within 14 days of a race in Kentucky. Robertson said in the statement that Gamine was administered the medication 18 days prior to the Oaks and that the filly’s vet “followed established medical and regulatory guidelines” when he administered the medication.

“Trainers and veterinarians must be able to rely on guidelines given them by racing officials,” the statement said. “If they are told by regulators that a medication will clear a horse’s system in 14 days, they must be able to rely on that information.”

Regulators across the country have been tightening restrictions on the administration of corticosteroids for the past several years. In Kentucky, threshold levels for corticosteroids, including betamethasone, were eliminated in late August, with any concentration of the medication in a post-race sample considered a positive. When the threshold levels were eliminated, state regulators also changed the advisory withdrawal time from seven days to 14 days, and they advised horsemen leading up to the changes that they should adjust their operations accordingly.

The previous threshold level for the seven-day withdrawal time was 10 picograms per milliliter of blood. Robertson said that the medication was administered on Aug. 18, prior to the threshold level being eliminated in Kentucky, but still well outside the seven-day withdrawal time previously recommended by the commission.

Betamethasone, which is one of the most common anti-inflammatory medications administered to horses, is a Class C medication, which generally calls for a “minimum fine of $1,000 absent mitigating circumstances” for a first offense if the trainer has not had another Class C positive in the previous calendar year, according to the Association of Racing Commissioners International.

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission confirmed in a statement that a horse had tested positive for a Class C medication on the Oaks card, but it would not name the horse, trainer, or owner, citing statutes that require a split-sample test to confirm the positive for starting the formal process of issuing a complaint. The statement also said that the KHRC is conducting a “follow-up investigation,” language that is standard for when regulators are awaiting the results of a split-sample test.

Gamine was disqualified earlier this year from an allowance race at Oaklawn Park for a positive test for lidocaine, an anaesthetic. Baffert attributed that positive test to a patch worn by his assistant trainer to treat back pain. Lidocaine is a Class B medication.

A second horse trained by Baffert that won that day in Arkansas, Charlatan, also tested positive for lidocaine. Baffert was suspended for 15 days, the standard penalty for a Class B drug, but he has appealed the ruling. Because the rulings have been appealed, they do not yet count as a violation on Baffert’s record in the past 12 months.

Gamine, who won the Grade 1 Acorn and Test Stakes earlier this year in dominating fashion, is being pointed to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on Nov. 7 at Keeneland.