Suffused scratched from Dick Memorial after missing Lasix dose

Suffused, the 5-2 second choice in the Grade 3 Robert Dick Memorial at Delaware Park on Saturday, was scratched after First Equine, the third-party administrator of Lasix, or Salix, at Delaware Park, did not treat her with the anti-bleeding medication.

Suffused, trained by Bill Mott and owned and bred by Juddmonte Farms, was shipped from Belmont Park to Delaware Park for the $200,000 Dick Memorial, a 1 3/8-mile turf race for fillies and mares.

"First Equine, our third-party Salix administrator, was mistakenly under the impression the horse was scratched and did not administer Salix to her during the required time window," said John Wayne, executive director of the Delaware Racing Commission. "When the stewards were alerted, they scratched the horse."

Wayne said Mott and Juddmonte would be financially compensated by First Equine for expenses incurred in shipping Suffused to Delaware.

John Mooney, the executive director of racing at Delaware Park, said there was no excuse for the oversight.

"It shouldn't have happened." Mooney said. "The horse was here. Its papers were here."

Jay Baldwin, the chief veterinarian for First Equine, was at Delaware on Saturday but was investigating exactly what transpired.

"We are still looking into what happened," Baldwin said. "It's a very rare mistake. It's awful."

Mott was not pleased that Suffused was unable to compete.

"It's disappointing," Mott said. "It's out of our control. We even called the racing office to tell them that nobody came by."

Mott had another horse, Belisarius, entered in the Cape Henlopen Stakes at Delaware on Saturday, but that horse did not make the trip to Delaware and was scratched. Belisarius was scheduled to race at Belmont Park on Sunday.

– additional reporting by David Grening