Artie's Princess Disqualified From Grade 2 Stakes Win

The Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission has disqualified Artie's Princess  from her victory in the $400,600 Presque Isle Downs Masters Stakes (G2) Sept. 19, 2022, and has suspended her trainer, Saffie Joseph Jr., for 15 days after the mare failed a post-race drug test.

Joseph and the owners, Ken Ramsey and the estate of Sarah Ramsey, plan to appeal the decision posted Feb. 28 by the regulator. Paulick Report first reported the ruling.

The PHRC said Artie's Princess tested positive for gabapentin (trade name Neurontin), which is used in humans to control convulsions and to treat neuropathic pain and has been used in horses to control pain. Under the Uniform Classification Guidelines for Foreign Substances and Recommended Penalties Model Rule of the Association of Racing Commissioners, gabapentin is listed as a Class 3 drug in the Class B (second-most severe) penalty class.

Joseph said he not only never administered gabapentin to Artie's Princess but has never administered it to any of his horses during his 13 years of training.

"I had to look up what it was," Joseph said. "I've never given it to any of my horses."

While the official chemist for the PHRC called the positive, and that finding was backed by a split sample finding by the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory in College Station, Texas, Joseph notes that there was no such finding for gabapentin in a pre-race test conducted at 5 p.m. the day before the race (Sept. 18) at Presque Isle Downs. 

A document from the Pennsylvania Equine Toxicology and Research Laboratory submitted as part of the appeal backs Joseph's statement on the horse clearing the pre-race testing, saying all horses that received pre-race testing were "found to be negative for the presence of foreign substances." BloodHorse reached out by phone and email to the lab's acting director, Mary Robinson, to find out if pre-race tests are as comprehensive as post-race tests but did not immediately receive a response.

Joseph also hopes that through the appeal the PHRC considers the low level at which the gabapentin was discovered as evidence that the finding is a result of contamination. According to the 61-page appeal filed on behalf of Joseph and Ramsey, the PHRC's initial finding was at 20 nanograms per milliliter of urine but no finding in blood from that first sample has been reported.

"The lack of any commission report on the primary blood sample was inappropriate and the matter should have never been called a positive based on a urine analysis alone," reads the appeal.

The split sample testing from the Texas A&M lab found the same level as the Pennsylvania lab in the urine sample. In the blood split sample, Texas A&M found a level of 0.19 nanograms per milliliter. Joseph noted a study published in the October, 2022, issue of Irish Veterinary Journal found that a screening limit of detection of 8.0 nanograms per milliliter in equine plasma was reasonable to eliminate contamination findings. That limit would be more than 42-times higher than the level found in the split sample blood sample in this case.

The study believes there is a strong possibility of environmental contamination when it comes to gabapentin.

"Gabapentin is the 11th-most frequently prescribed medication in the U.S.," the study notes, later adding that a review of a number of regulatory records in several states has directly linked failed post-race tests in horses to contamination from humans.

"I'm not disputing the post-race finding—the science says it was there," Joseph said. "But we also have science not finding it in the pre-race sample and a scientific study that says the level at which this was found is well below a reasonable screening level to avoid findings from contamination."

Before the appeal was filed, the PHRC had called for Joseph's suspension to run from June 5 through June 19. He also was fined $500.

The PHRC ruling under appeal also calls for Artie's Princess to be placed last and lose all purse money while runner-up Café Society be declared the winner. The winner's purse was $240,000. Second would be Allworthy  and third would be Caravel .

Ontario-bred Artie's Princess is now a 6-year-old daughter of We Miss Artie . She also was bred by the Ramseys. Ontario-bred Café Society, now a 5-year-old daughter of Empire Maker , was saddled in the Presque Isle Downs Masters by trainer Shug McGaughey for owner Joseph Allen.