Arnold to Appeal Ractopamine Positives

Veteran trainer George "Rusty" Arnold plans to file an appeal with the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission Feb. 19, after state stewards suspended him a total of 90 days for a pair of post-race positives for the drug ractopamine in 2016.

Ractopamine is a class 2 drug—the classification of second-highest concern on the Association of Racing Commissioners International's Uniform Classification Guidelines for Foreign Substances and Recommended Penalties Model Rule. Ractopamine, commonly used as a feed additive for some livestock, is a beta agonist that encourages growth of lean muscle. It calls for the highest level penalty, Class A, in the ARCI guidelines. 

The stewards' rulings issued Thursday said the mare Prudence and colt Quality Emperor—both owned by Calumet Farm—each tested positive for ractopamine following their respective races at Kentucky Downs Sept. 10 and Sept. 15 in 2016.

Prudence won her race and Quality Emperor finished second. The sanctions call for both horses to be disqualified and purses forfeited. Arnold also was fined $1,500.

Arnold does not dispute the presence of the drug in each horse's system, but said he did not intentionally give them the substance. The Kentucky-based conditioner said he wasn't even aware what ractopamine was before these positives and believes they are a result of environmental contamination. Among the evidence Arnold offered to support a case of contamination is the fact that trainer Joe Sharp also had a horse come up with a ractopamine positive at Kentucky Downs Sept. 10, 2016.

"I can't tell you how it happened. I'm not pointing the finger. But I can tell you we didn't do it," Arnold said of his case. "You don't go 41 years (of training) and pick out two maidens at Kentucky Downs and give them ractopamine.

"The two things that stand out to me is there were three ractopamine positives in the state of Kentucky in 2016, all three at Kentucky Downs, with two of them in the test barn at the same time in back-to-back races. And two racing days before, all three cooled out in the same barn, at the same stall. And they all had almost exactly the same amount. So something happened somewhere. We have two common denominators in the whole case. They were in the test barn at the same time, cooled out in the same test barn, and the other is the tests were held together and delivered. That's the only common denominator. It's bizarre."

Arnold said he was notified of the positives 17 days after the races and that his barn was searched by commission personnel, but no traces of ractopamine or any other illegal substances were found.

There have been cases of feed found to be contaminated with ractopamine in recent years. In 2016 the Prairie Meadows Board of Stewards found trainer Kelly Von Hemel blameless after two of his horses tested positive for ractopamine, because he was able to prove that the trace amounts of the drug were the result of contamination in feed originally mixed at a South Dakota plant.

"In the hearing we said we are not contesting these horses have ractopamine in them. They do. We know we're losing the purse. But we contest how it got there," Arnold said. "That was the part we thought was extremely unfair. How it got in their feed, I don't know. But I know I didn't put it there intentionally."

Arnold counts G. Watts Humphrey Jr. and Will Farish among his longtime clients. In more than four decades of training before these positives, he had been cited for two overages of legal medication.

"I'll never forget when I got my first one. I was embarrassed. I didn't sleep. Now it's 18 years later and I'm not embarrassed. I don't feel bad. I stand defiant and mad," Arnold said. "We got no chance in the hearing to defend ourselves and maybe, if nothing else, it will change something and they'll look at these rules and say, 'What are we doing here?'" 

Arnold has saddled more than 1,700 winners during his career, including grade 1 winners Romantic Vision, Weep No More, Centre Court, Karelian, Wicked Style, and Karlovy Vary. He said if the commission denies his appeal and the ruling stands, he would not contest it further. 

"I felt like the judgment was not fair. But I trust the system. I trust this commission. ... I think there are a lot of educated people on there—a lot of fair people on there," Arnold said. "I'm hoping at the commission level—I'm hoping  better heads prevail. And if not, that will be the end of it. I won't go past that, because I feel at that time, you're driving down a road and throwing cash out of it."

If Arnold has to serve the suspension, he would have to disperse his stable "to someone acceptable" to the commission during that time. He added he would only have to serve 60 of the 90 days, as the 30-day suspension for Prudence's positive would run concurrently with the 60-day suspension handed down for Quality Emperor. The latter penalty carried increased days, as it was considered a second offense in 365 days.

"I went from what I thought was a pristine career to being one strike from being put out of the business in one day," Arnold said. "But the support I have received has been overwhelming and it makes you want to fight on."