Trainer Farro serving 15-day suspension

Patricia Farro, one of the leading trainers in Pennsylvania for the past five years, began serving a 15-day suspension on Feb. 15 after one of her horses tested positive for clenbuterol, according to Pennsylvania racing commission records.

Farro did not appeal the penalty and will be suspended until March 1, the records show. The clenbuterol positive was detected in a post-race sample from Billy Lion Heart, who finished first in a $20,000 claiming race on Jan. 14 at Parx racetrack near Philadelphia. Billy Lion Heart was disqualified. Farro was also fined $500.

Farro has 12 wins from 101 starts this year, with 21 seconds and 15 thirds. Last year, she won 140 races from 972 starts, with earnings of $4.2 million. Her best year was 2015, when she won 167 races from 1,120 starts and earned $5.2 million in purses.

Clenbuterol is a bronchodilator that is a regulated medication under the Controlled Therapeutic Substance List. Trainers are advised to administer the drug no closer than 15 days prior to a race. Regulators have cracked down on the medication over the past five years under widespread suspicion that the medication is given regularly to horses in order to capitalize on its muscle-building side effects.