Two Correas Trainees Disqualified for Drug Violations

In rulings posted this week on the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission website, two horses trained by Ignacio Correas that raced at Keeneland last month were disqualified after testing positive for tranexamic acid and Correas was issued one fine for $500.

Kentucky permitted tranexamic acid as an adjunct bleeder medication for many years before banning it on race day in 2012. It is now classified as a Class C drug. Class C violations result in penalties not as severe for a trainer as those in Class A and Class B.

Disqualified from their starts at Keeneland are La Nora's Joy Epifora , who had finished a close second in an allowance April 14, and Bloom Racing Stable and I. C. Racing's Fantasioso , fourth in the Elkhorn Stakes (G2T) April 17. Correas heads I. C. Racing.

Stewards ordered the purses for the two races redistributed in rulings dated May 12.

Joy Epifora raced in his allowance race with Lasix, a diuretic used to control respiratory bleeding, according to Equibase. Fantasioso, competing in a stakes, a class of race where Lasix is prohibited in Kentucky, did not.

Stewards treated the two tranexamic acid positives as one case for Correas, citing a Kentucky regulation. That rule allows for such action "if the person demonstrates that he or she was not aware that overages were being administered because the positive test results showing the overages were unavailable." Three days separated the two races.

In other rulings, Kentucky stewards fined veterinarian Dr. Joseph Morgan $500 and issued a warning to trainer William Morey for not having a detailed prescription for clenbuterol listed on a veterinary report for Hush of a Storm  earlier this spring. An out-of-competition test taken from Hush of a Storm March 16 contained clenbuterol (Class B) in his blood, confirmed by a split sample, according to a ruling dated May 15.

Joseph P. Morey Jr. Revocable Trust's Hush of a Storm won the John Battaglia Memorial Stakes at Turfway Park Feb. 26 before next running seventh in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G2) at Keeneland April 3. 

Clenbuterol is a medication that can be used therapeutically to assist horses with respiratory difficulties but it is widely criticized as performance-enhancing due to muscle-development properties. As a result, many regulators have implemented restrictions meant to curb its use beyond treating horses with lower airway disease.

In December, the KHRC passed a regulation prohibiting clenbuterol without a prescription for a specific diagnosis for a horse, the transfer of its treatment records to the corresponding track equine medical director, and the horse going on the veterinarian's list for a minimum of 21 days before their removal from it. Horses on the veterinarian's list are not allowed to compete.