Foot Abscess Keeping Art Collector Out of Monmouth Cup

Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott's plan was to send Art Collector  to the Jersey Shore to run in the $400,000 Monmouth Cup Stakes (G3) at Monmouth Park July 22, but a foot abscess will keep the two-time grade 1 winner out of Saturday's 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds and older.

Until this minor physical setback, the race had timed up well for the 6-year-old Art Collector, who July 21 will come off a provisional suspension from the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit for violating a rule regarding intra-articular injections. Art Collector opened the year with a victory in the $2 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1) at Gulfstream Park Jan. 28.

"He was eligible to go," Mott said outside his barn on the Oklahoma Training Track at Saratoga July 20. "He had a little foot abscess three or four days ago."

Art Collector's name appeared on a list of horses released by the HIWU, which administers the rules and enforcement mechanisms of the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Authority's (HISA) Anti-Doping and Medication Control program. His listed suspension was June 21-July 21.

On June 21 Art Collector received an intra-articular injection. HISA rules, which went into effect in May, state that horses that have had an intra-articular injection cannot race within 14 days of an injection and can't have a work within seven days of such an injection.

Art Collector had a five-furlong work on the Oklahoma on June 26, according to Equibase, and landed on the provisionally suspended list for 30 days.

"I worked the horse one day early; I didn't even give it a second thought," Mott said. "I was not supposed to work him for one more day and now they are making a federal crime out of it? It's an easy mistake to make. I breezed the horse one day early. ... I am looking at the horse. I'm trying to be a horse trainer."

In late June HISA acknowledged misunderstanding about the rule on injections relative to workouts, with HISA CEO Lisa Lazarus saying some 50 trainers had violated the rule. Seeing that confusion, HISA opted to not enforce the 60-day suspensions of trainers called for when such violations occur. Citing equine safety, HISA left in place the part of the sanction that calls for 30 days of ineligibility from racing for the horse involved in such a work too close to an injection.

After allowing some time to get the word out, HISA has since gone back to fully enforcing the rule. That is to say, trainers now face a two-month suspension for an intra-articular injection too close to a workout.

"I am all for uniform rules and regulations, but uniform rules and regulations that make sense," Mott said. "All of a sudden, they throw out all this stuff that doesn't make any sense at all."

Mott said the plan for Art Collector is still to travel to West Virginia for the $1 million Charles Town Classic (G2) on Aug. 25. Art Collector won the Charles Town Classic the past two years.