Weaver notified of positive metformin test

George Weaver, a trainer based in New York, has been notified that a horse he trains, Anna’s Wish, tested positive for the banned drug metformin after finishing third in the Cicada Stakes on March 16 at Aqueduct, according to a notice posted on the website of the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit on Thursday.

Anna’s Wish was entered in an allowance race on Wednesday at Keeneland but was required to be scratched because of the positive test. Weaver has not been issued a provisional suspension because confirmatory tests have yet to be completed on the post-race sample from Anna’s Wish.

On Friday morning in Florida, Weaver said that “it’s obvious, at least to me, that I’m not using metformin to get my horses to perform better.” He said the groom for the horse is diabetic.

“We’ll let the system play out,” said Weaver, who has hired the attorney Drew Mollica to represent him in the adjudication process. “The process is just in the beginning. Hopefully, I’ll get treated fairly and will be exonerated, but it’s going to be a distraction for what I’m really trying to do, which is to do the best for my horses.”

Metformin is a drug found in medications commonly prescribed to treat diabetes in humans by increasing the metabolic rate, but it has cropped up in horse racing periodically over the past three years. The drug has been studied in horses as a treatment for overweight mares.

Under the rules of the Anti-Doping and Medication Program enforced by HIWU, positives for banned substances are publicly disclosed. If the split sample does not confirm the presence of the drug, the case is dropped. If the split sample confirms the initial test result, the trainer is provisionally suspended while the case the being adjudicated.

HIWU recently suspended trainer Jonathan Wong for two years after one of his horses tested positive for metformin. Wong had argued that the horse had tested positive due to accidental contamination, but the hearing officer in the case ruled that Wong had not presented any credible evidence to suggest contamination. The ruling also cited Wong for providing “demonstrably false” statements during the hearing.

Two months prior to the Wong ruling, HIWU suspended trainer Michael Lauer for 75 days for a metformin positive in one of his horses. During Lauer’s hearing, the trainer provided evidence showing that his groom had a prescription for a drug containing metformin and that he had taken the drug on the day the horse tested positive.

“We’re hard-working people,” Weaver said. “I’ve loved racehorses my whole life. To have something come up like this is unsettling to say the least.”

- additional reporting by Mike Welsch