Trainer Potts allowed to run two horses at Laurel

Wayne Potts, the trainer who was banned by Maryland track operators in late August, is being allowed to start two horses at Laurel Park that are under restrictions prohibiting the horses from running anywhere but at tracks within the state, according to the track’s president.

Potts has one horse entered on Laurel’s Friday card, Confectioner, who is listed at 9-2 in the fifth race, a maiden-claiming race. Despite being banned by the track, Potts will be allowed into the saddling enclosure to prepare the horse to race, according to Sal Sinatra, the track’s president.

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Confectioner was claimed on Aug. 15 for $16,000 by Potts for owner Roger B. Sterling. Under Maryland’s so-called jail-time rules, claimed horses cannot start at any track outside of the state for 60 days after a claim, with the exception of stakes races.

“I asked the racing commission if they could release the horse from jail, but they said they couldn’t,” Sinatra said on Thursday. “I didn’t think it was fair to the owners, so I’m going to let him run.”

Sinatra said that Potts has another claimed horse in jail that will not be released from the restriction until Sept. 29. He said both horses are being stabled in the track’s security barn and will be required to ship off the grounds after the jail period expires. Confectioner will not be eligible to be released until Oct. 15.

Sinatra banned Potts from the track under the suspicion that he was acting as a program trainer for Marcus Vitali, who has been banned from Maryland’s tracks for several years. Vitali recently returned to training after serving a one-year suspension in Delaware.

Potts was banned after he shipped horses into Laurel Park that came from the Rising Sun Training Center in New Jersey, where Vitali has a small string of horses. The health certificates for the horses had been altered to obscure a field in which Vitali was listed as a trainer, according to Sinatra.

Potts has denied being a paper trainer for Vitali.