Three more Penn trainers charged with violating HISA injection rules
The Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit has charged three more trainers in its wide-ranging case involving the illegal administration of corticosteroids at Penn National Race Course, according to records posted to the unit’s website on Monday night.
The three new trainers join eight others who have been formally charged in the investigation, which regulatory officials have said will eventually lead to the disqualifications of hundreds of horses that raced in Pennsylvania and neighboring states during an 18-month period in 2023 and 2024.
The three trainers named on Monday were Dimitrios Synnefias, who was charged with four violations of the corticosteroid rule; David Geist (five violations); and Paulina Sinnefia (one violation). Also on Monday, HIWU posted a list of 47 horses who were administered corticosteroids illegally under the care of Bonnie Lucas, a Penn National trainer who was named in an initial report about the investigation and who has not started a horse since Jan. 8.
Officials for HIWU, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, and the Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission have alleged that a Penn National backstretch veterinarian, Dr. Allen Bonnell, administered hundreds of injections to horses at the track and falsified treatment records with the knowledge of the trainers. The horses were then worked or raced within a prescribed stand-down period, in violation of HISA and PSHRC rules.
The regulatory officials have said 13 trainers would be charged with participating in the scheme. So far, 11 have been charged.
Bonnell was suspended by the state racing commission shortly after investigators witnessed the veterinarian administering corticosteroids into a horse’s joint in late October of last year.
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