Three Penn National trainers suspended for violating HISA injection rules
The Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit has issued 30-day suspensions to three trainers and disqualified 79 horses from performances in 2023 and 2024 in the first of its rulings related to an investigation into the administrations of corticosteroids at Penn National Race Course in Grantville, Penn.
Kimberly Graci, Erin Carpio, and Marlin Arthur Miller were each suspended 30 days for multiple violations of a rule requiring stand-down periods after horses are given intra-articular administrations of corticosteroids, which are long-lasting anti-inflammatory and painkilling drugs. The multiple violations were treated as one offense for each trainer.
Graci, one of the leading trainers at Penn National over the past several years, had 66 horses disqualified from races due to violations of the stand-down rules, according to records posted by HIWU. The horses raced from October 2023 until the summer of 2024.
Graci was summarily suspended by the Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission shortly after it began an investigation into the practice of Dr. Allen Bonnell. Bonnell, who has also been summarily suspended, was accused of administering the injections to hundreds of horses on the Penn National backstretch over an 18-month stretch spanning 2023 and 2024 and then covering up the treatments.
Carpio was charged with seven violations, all involving horses who ran during a stand-down period. Those horses were disqualified.
Miller, who was summarily suspended by the Pennsylvania commission in November, was charged with nine violations, with six involving horses who ran during a stand-down period. All six were disqualified.
All told, HIWU and the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority have identified 13 trainers who were involved with Bonnell’s practice and violated the corticosteroid rules.
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