Trainer Valery gets nine-year suspension for multiple violations

Paul Valery, a trainer from Venezuela who has 11 wins from 55 starts over the past two years, has been issued a series of suspensions that will ban the trainer for the next nine years after two of his horses tested positive for multiple drugs, including synthetic anabolic steroids.

The Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit issued five rulings detailing six violations against Valery on Tuesday and said that Valery had admitted to the violations. The most serious of the rulings were two separate three-year bans after two horses that raced at Gulfstream Park last spring both tested positive for an anabolic steroid and a banned drug that is used to treat breast cancer, along with other drugs.

:: Get the Inside Track with the FREE DRF Morning Line Email Newsletter. Subscribe now.

The penalty is one of the largest doled out by HIWU since the company began enforcing the Anti-Doping and Medication Control program administered by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority in the spring of 2023. Valery was also fined a total of $75,500.

Valery was initially suspended in May of this year after being informed that the horses, Pure Speight and Quincy Cafe, returned positive tests for the anabolic steroid and the breast-cancer medication. Valery was also charged with possession of the banned substances.

Valery’s horse The Brother Slew, a Venezuela-bred, won the 2019 Clasico Internacional del Caribe Stakes at Gulfstream Park as a ship-in. Valery emigrated to the U.S. in 2023 and won seven races from 28 starts that year. Before being suspended in 2024, he had won four races from 27 starts. Two of the wins were notched by the horses that tested positive.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.