CHRB Fines O'Neill $5K for Stall Sign Violations

Trainer Doug O'Neill has been fined $5,000 for not posting five detention stall signs for entered horses July 5 at Los Alamitos Race Course, according to a California Horse Racing Board ruling. 

The Dec. 31 ruling, made pursuant to a settlement agreement, cited O'Neill for a violation of CHRB rule #1845(c)(2)(A) in a section related to the treatment of authorized bleeder medication.

Specifically, the rule requires that any horse scheduled to receive Lasix shall be assigned a pre-race security stall before scheduled post time and have a detention stall sign posted. 

The brief stewards' ruling did not specifically address some of the allegations in an original CHRB complaint, issued Oct. 22. That document claimed that on July 5 "investigators received information from Los Alamitos track security steward, Michael Kilpack, regarding seeing someone at trainer Doug O'Neill's barn possibly giving an illegal substance to a horse that had already been entered in a race at LARC (Los Alamitos). Investigators conducted a barn inspection at trainer Doug O'Neill's barn, #14W (stalls 20- 25), at LARC.

"During the barn inspection, investigators did not observe any pre-race 'Detention Stall Sign' posted on any of the stalls prior to the post time of the race for which the horses were entered.

"Investigators interviewed assistant trainer Sabas Rivera. Rivera stated he had given 'Bleeder Shield' and 'Un-Lock' to the horses yesterday, which was 24 hours prior to race."

Online websites advertise Bleeder Shield as a respiratory bleeding preventative for horses and Un-Lock as an amino acid muscle supplement that reduces lactic acid and prevents horses from tying up.

Mike Marten, a spokesperson for the CHRB, said their office had not received the most recent stewards' minutes, which at times describe rulings and other stewards' actions in more detail. The minutes also had not been posted online as of Jan. 4. The investigator's report can only be obtained by an open records request, Marten said, and was unavailable at press time.

In a statement issued this fall shortly after the complaint, O'Neill said in part: "I always take responsibility for the horses in my care, and if there has been any rule infraction, the buck stops here."

O'Neill ran five horses at Los Alamitos July 5, none of whom won. He was 1-for-21 during last summer's Los Alamitos Thoroughbred meet.

The 53-year-old trainer is a two-time winner of the Kentucky Derby (G1), now presented by Woodford Reserve, capturing it first in 2012 with I'll Have Another  and then in 2016 with Nyquist  . He was the 18th leading trainer by earnings in North America last year when his stable won 92 races from 676 starts with earnings of over $7 million.