Vazquez appeals fine for positive test

Juan Vazquez, the trainer who has been banned from tracks across the Mid-Atlantic, has been granted an appeal of a $2,000 fine for a positive drug test at Penn National for a regulated medication that has a sedative effect, according to the Pennsylvania Racing Commission.

The appeal was granted June 26, according to the commission.

Vazquez was issued the $2,000 fine by stewards at Penn National on June 17 after tests revealed an illegal concentration of the regulated tranquilizer xylazine in samples from Corinthian Luck, who had won a race at Penn National on March 25 by five lengths.

Corinthian Luck was disqualified from the race, and the purse was redistributed, according to the stewards’ ruling.

The xylazine positive is the third overage of a regulated medication for Vazquez this year, according to records.

Earlier this year, Vazquez’s assistant trainer, Hector Garcia, was banned by the Maryland Racing Commission for 13 months when horses in his care tested positive for corticosteroids and xylazine. Garcia was overseeing the stable while Vazquez was serving a 90-day suspension for being the aggressor in a fight involving a jockey at Delaware Park last year.

Last week, Delaware Park became the most recent track to ban Vazquez, who was the track’s leading trainer last year. Track officials did not provide an explanation for the ban. One day prior to the ban, Delaware stewards fined Vazquez $500 for an overage of the regulated corticosteroid methylprednisolone, the second time the trainer had an overage for a corticosteroid at the meet this year, according to commission records.

Penn National and tracks in Maryland and West Virginia also have banned Vazquez this year, though Vazquez is contesting a second ban issued by Penn National. The first ban from Penn National was overturned by the state racing commission.