More Sharp Trainees Test Positive for Levamisole

After Louisiana regulators disqualified nine Joe Sharp-trained horses for the presence of the prohibited substance levamisole last month another three horses have been disqualified in Kentucky after testing positive for the drug following races at Churchill Downs last fall.

The positive tests were not unexpected. Sharp had indicated the levamisole presence was from a deworming product called Prohibit that he began using in mid-November in Kentucky and continued using through mid-December at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots in Louisiana.

Purses have been redistributed for the cases in Louisiana and Kentucky. Positive-test disqualifications do not change betting payoffs the way disqualifications for interference do.

No Kentucky penalties have yet been levied against the trainer, only the disqualifications, applied toward the earnings generated by the horses for their owners. He received $1,000 fines per each occurrence in Louisiana.

Sharp told BloodHorse in February that his large number of positive tests was the result of the waiting time for test-lab results, and a further delay in the substance clearing his horses' systems. He said he took blood samples of his horses to privately test them in laboratory work in late January to make sure treated horses no longer showed any presence of the drug.

Many of the disqualified Fair Grounds horses have competed in recent weeks, some successfully, including Midnight Fantasy, winner of the Spring Fever Stakes at Oaklawn Park Feb. 29.

Kentucky Horse Racing Commission rulings indicate the horses that were disqualified in Kentucky were Art Collector, Blackberry Wine, and Street Dazzle—coming during a late-November period during which Sharp said he was treating his horses with the dewormer.

Blackberry Wine, owned by Calumet Farm, has been disqualified at Churchill Downs and Fair Grounds from different races. The colt, who faded to the seventh as one of the favorites in the first division of the Risen Star Stakes Presented by Lamarque Ford (G2) Feb. 15 at Fair Grounds, is now eligible to run in a maiden race, having been disqualified from his two victories. He is in training at Oaklawn Park, where Sharp keeps a division of horses in the winter in addition to Fair Grounds.