Trainer Sadler fined $5,000 in banned medication case from 2020

Trainer John Sadler has been fined $5,000 by the California Horse Racing Board after Flagstaff tested positive for the banned medication clodronic acid, a bisphosphonate, following the Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship in September 2020.

The penalty was part of a settlement agreement with the racing board and was announced in a ruling issued on Friday by Del Mar stewards Grant Baker, Luis Jauregui and Kim Sawyer. The ruling cited that Sadler “knowingly brought a horse into (a) CHRB enclosure that had been administered bisphosphonates within previous six months.”

Flagstaff, owned by Hronis Racing and Lane’s End Racing, was disqualified from the Santa Anita Sprint Championship in June, leading to the forfeiture of $40,000.

Clodronic acid is a class 1 medication and is not allowed to appear in post-race tests. Bisphosphonates are part of a class of drugs used to stimulate the repair of bone material, and have been at the forefront of regulatory discussion nationwide in recent years.