The New Jersey State Police arrested trainer Julio R. Cartagena at Monmouth Park on Thursday and charged him with possession and use of prescription drugs and possession of hypodermic needles and syringes.
Only a licensed veterinarian is allowed to possess prescription drugs and administer them to racehorses.
Cartagena was released on his own recognizance.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Minor throat surgery and a winter vacation worked wonders for Out of the Will.
Out of the Will, unbeaten in four starts this year, tops the field in The Highlands Stakes Sunday at Monmouth Park.
The Highlands, for 3-year-old fillies going one mile on the turf, is one of three $50,000 stakes on the card. The Highlands and the Jersey Breeders' Handicap are restricted to New Jersey-bred runners; the Rumson is an open six-furlong race for 3-year-olds, which was originally scheduled to be run on Saturday.
Mr. Jester might have lost the battle in his last start, but he can win the war Sunday in the $50,000 Pioneer for 2-year-olds at Louisiana Downs. The fighting, however, will be intense.
It is tough to dismiss any of the eight colts in the 5 1/2-furlong race, with the top challengers to Mr. Jester being Afternoon Charlie and Full Moons Arisin.
Mr. Jester was one of the most impressive debut winners at the meet when he rolled to a 9 1/4-length win in a five-furlong race July 3 and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 82.
COLUMBUS, Neb. - High Dice comes into Sunday's $15,000-added Amadevil Stakes in search of his fourth stakes victory this year, but he will have to carry 123 pounds, giving at least four pounds to five Nebraska-bred rivals.
High Dice has won three of his last four starts: the Big Red Mile and State Fair Breeders' handicaps at Lincoln and the Who Doctor Who Handicap at Horsemen's Park. He turns back in distance to six furlongs for Sunday's race, but the longer stretch of this five-eighths-mile oval should help him.
Two weeks after a gutsy allowance win in his seasonal debut, Count on My Word seeks his first career stakes victory in the $40,000 Buckeye Native Stakes at River Downs.
The Buckeye Native, for Ohio-sired and -bred 3-year-olds and up, is scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on the turf.
CHICAGO - In trainer Neil Drysdale's shed row lives Storming Home, the horse many consider the best turf runner in the United States. Storming Home paid 30 cents on the dollar when he won the Grade 1 Whittingham on June 14 at Hollywood Park. Drysdale has aimed him for the Arlington Million ever since.
Thursday, Drysdale had this perspective on Storming Home's push toward next Saturday's Million: "You need to talk to Saeed bin Suroor."
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Roscoe Pito displayed tremendous courage in winning the B.C. Cup Stallion Stakes at 1 1/16 miles Monday. He battled through quick fractions and then was game in holding off a determined Illusive Force. It wasn't the type of race that his trainer John Snow was looking for though.
Snow has his eyes on a bigger prize, the $250,000 B.C. Derby at 1 1/8 miles on Sept. 21, and he has been working on getting Roscoe Pito to relax.
AUBURN, Wash. - Most of the attention in Sunday's 1 1/16-mile Seattle Slew Breeders' Cup Handicap, the final prep for the $125,000 Emerald Breeders' Cup Derby on Sept. 1, will be focused on the three highweights.
Condotierri, 122 pounds, will be a deserving favorite off his 5 3/4-length victory in last month's 1 1/16-mile Tacoma Handicap, which seemed to fulfill the promise he showed in winning last season's Gottstein Futurity at the same distance.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Williams News, a high-profile visitor in the past, has quietly taken up residence here in the barn of trainer Steve Owens.
"I've had him here for about two weeks," said Owens, who took delivery of Williams News after being contacted by the gelding's owners, On Target Racing Stable. "They're trying to put his life back together, to try and get him past the $1 million mark."