1/ST Officials: Joseph Horses Pass Tests Before Racing

Officials with Gulfstream Park owner Stronach Group (1/ST) said May 18 that embattled trainer Saffie Joseph Jr.'s horses entered at the South Florida track have faced additional testing that they've passed, which has allowed the trainer to continue to race there.

Churchill Downs Inc. banned the South Florida-based conditioner from its tracks after two of his horses suffered sudden deaths during or soon after races on the first two days of the spring-summer meet this year at the Louisville, Ky., track. The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission forced the scratch of Joseph's Kentucky Derby (G1) hopeful Lord Miles  and other horses he planned to start that weekend, but issued no sanctions against the trainer.

As the only suspension in place was made by a track owner, as opposed to a regulatory body, the sanction, listed by CDI as an indefinite suspension, is not honored from state to state and from track to track.

Since CDI announced its suspension May 4, Joseph has started 20 horses—19 at Gulfstream and one at Woodbine. He has six wins from those 20 starts and leads the current Gulfstream meeting in wins, with 18, and in earnings, at $562,910. His 61 starts are second-most at the meet.

Aidan Butler, CEO of Stronach Group (1/ST), noted the difference in suspensions or bans by tracks and those of regulatory bodies. 

"As you may remember from years gone by, tracks are allowed to unilaterally make a decision but that doesn't have any legal aspect on his ability to run with us," Butler said.

Attorney Craig Robertson, on behalf of Joseph, told BloodHorse May 17 that he's confident that testing will clear the trainer.

"I'm confident that ultimately the results of the necropsies and everything are going to show there certainly wasn't anything improper done by Mr. Joseph," Robertson said.

KHRC's Joseph Investigation Includes Necropsies, Videos

Dionne Benson, chief veterinary officer for Stronach Group (1/ST), said Thursday that Gulfstream doesn't have specific protocols in place if another track sanctions a license holder but it addresses each case individually. 

"There isn't a cookie-cutter approach to any of these," Benson said. "You kind of have to look and see what has occurred.

"In the case of Mr. Joseph with the sudden deaths we looked at all of his horses that were coming from Kentucky and we did several things. We required Mr. Joseph to do several different blood tests including selenium and cardiac troponin, which is a marker of heart health. We had him do what's called PT and PTT, which is basically clotting time, rodenticide screening, and general chemistry and CBC testing.

"Additionally, at his expense, there was a board-certified internal medicine specialist who came in and performed echocardiograms, resting ECGs, and exercise ECGs—both had a gallop and a breeze. We had eyes on all of the results of that. 

"In addition several of the horses were required to wear what's called a Holter monitor overnight, just to make sure there were no irregularities in heart rate or rhythm overnight when we weren't watching the horses," Benson said. "Mr. Joseph was very cooperative with all of that and, like I said, we've had eyes on everything and the reports we've gotten back from the specialists, the cardiac specialist, were that the horses did not have any increased risk of having heart issues based on the testing that was performed."

According to Florida regulatory records, Joseph has had one horse die while racing or training in that state this year. The record lists the "incident date" as April 13 and the "disposition date" as May 6.