Three Joe Sharp runners disqualified at Churchill for levamisole positives

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Three horses trained by Joe Sharp have been disqualified from races in Kentucky last year after testing positive for levamisole, a de-worming agent that has already cost Sharp eight wins in Louisiana.

The three horses tested positive for levamisole after wins at Churchill Downs the last week of November, according to Kentucky Horse Racing Commission records. The owners of the horses agreed to forfeit the purses for the races after waiving their rights to have a split sample tested, according to the records.

Sharp said on Tuesday that he has been notified of the positives but that he has not yet been called in for a hearing in front of the stewards, who are likely to hand down penalties to the trainer as a result of the positive tests. He said that the three positives all stemmed from a brief practice of administering levamisole to horses in his barn starting in mid-November. He stopped administering the medication a month later after a slew of horses in Louisiana and Kentucky began testing positive for the medication.

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“There are no more surprises,” Sharp said. “At least none to my knowledge, for god’s sake.”

Sharp said that the Kentucky stewards may have fast-tracked the disqualifications so that the horses that tested positive could return to racing under the proper conditions. All three had different owners.

Barbara Borden, the chief state steward in Kentucky, said she could not comment on Sharp’s adjudication because the case is still pending, but she said that stewards expedited the adjudication of the disqualifications in order to clear up the horses’ eligibility for future races.

“The owners all agreed not to appeal and they weren’t looking for a drawn-out process,” Borden said. “So we felt this was fair to them.”

Levamisole is a problematic drug to regulate because it has a legitimate therapeutic use in horses but can also metabolize into aminorex, a stimulant. Levamisole is also used off-label to treat equine protozoal myeloencephalitis.

Although the Association of Racing Commissioners International recommends a 15-day suspension for a first offense “absent mitigating circumstances,” stewards in Louisiana in early February fined Sharp $1,000 for each of eight positives after the trainer admitted to administering the medication and said he wouldn’t appeal the rulings. Those horses were all disqualified as well.

According to KHRC records, the horses that tested positive and were disqualified in Kentucky were Street Dazzle, who won the fourth race at Churchill on Nov. 23, owned by Diane Connell; Blackberry Wine, who won the fifth race at Churchill on Nov. 30, owned by Brad Kelley; and Art Collector, who won the sixth race at Churchill on Nov. 30, owned by W. Bruce Lunsford.