HOT SPRINGS — A Garland County Circuit judge has affirmed a decision by the Arkansas Racing Commission concerning the disqualification of a horse in 2009 because of a medical violation.
Judge Vicki Cook reached her decision after reviewingbriefs and hearing about 50 minutes of oral arguments Tuesday afternoon in an appeal by the owner and trainer of Coyotepass, who was disqualifiedfrom a victory in a $36,000 entry-level allowance race for Arkansas-bred sprinters in after testing positive for naproxen, a nonsteroidal antiinflammatory that is sold for human use under the brand name Aleve.
Arkansas has a zerotolerance policy regarding naproxen on race day.
“I don’t have much discretion,” Cook said, when announcing her decision at the Garland County Courts Building.
The owner of Coyotepass, Dwight Sprague of Branson, said he doesn’t plan an appeal to the Arkansas Supreme Court.
“I can already tell there’s no use,” he said.
Sprague and Kenny Smith,a threetime leading trainer at Oaklawn, had asked Cook to reverse a 5-0 vote by the commission last June that upheld Oaklawn Park’s threeman board ofstewards’ disqualification of Coyotepass.
Smith, who didn’t attend Tuesday’s hearing, also was fined $500 in the ruling.
Q. Byrum Hurst of Hot Springs, the attorney for Sprague and Smith, said he isn’t sure if the trainer will appeal Tuesday’s decision.
In oral arguments, Hurst called the commission’sdecision “arbitrary and capricious,” adding the case was strange because no naproxen was found in a blood sample taken from Coyotepass immediately following theMarch 8, 2009, race.
But the gelding did test positive in a urine sample.
Hurst argued the amount was so minute - 9. 5 nanograms - that it was not performance-enhancing and Coyotepass was the victim of “external contamination,” likely when the samples were drawn in the test barn.
A nanogram is one billionth of a gram.
Byron Freeland of Little Rock, attorney for the commission, told Cook that the connections of Coyotepass didn’t contest the positive test and overturning a decision of a governmental regulatory agency is difficult to overcome in law.
Freeland also said external contamination from an employee in the test barn was questionable since only one other horse (It’s a Bird) tested positive for naproxen during the 2009 meeting.
Winners of all races at Oaklawn - 532 in 2009 - are subject to post-race testing.
“The commission had no choice in this case,” Freeland told Cook.
An appeal regarding It’s a Bird, disqualified from his 6-length victory in last year’s $500,000 Grade II Oaklawn Handicap, is scheduled to be heard Aug. 26 in Pulaski County Circuit Court.
Sports, Pages 21 on 06/23/2010