Kentucky Derby Winning Trainer Suspended 10 Years for Drug Related Violations

by Steve Davidowitz | Oct 13 2011

Fifty-two-year-old horse racing trainer Rick Dutrow Jr., a highly successful winner of major stakes races in America - including the 2008 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes with BIG BROWN - will have to find another line of work for at least the next 10 years.

Dutrow, who has been frequently fined and suspended for a long list of minor and major drug related violations in several states, will have his license formally revoked on Oct. 18 by the New York State Racing and Wagering Board for several New York incidents dating back to 2010 and beyond.

The announcement made on Wednesday, Oct. 12 by the Racing and Wagering Board states that they have unanimously have voted to take Dutrow's license away and barred him from reapplying for a new license until at least 2021.

As expected, Dutrow's attorney, Michael Koenig, instantly filed a motion seeking to stay the SRWB's ruling, pending arguments to be made in an upstate New York court on Monday Oct. 17.

The presiding New York state judge is expected to review the case and issue a decision on the motion that same day, said Koenig. Of course, as Koenig admitted to Daily Racing Form, this is just the first step that Dutrow and his lawyers will be following to appeal the ruling, a process that could take years to complete.

"The decision is vindictive," Koenig said on Wednesday. "It goes against the facts and is contrary to any notion of fundamental fairness or due process."

While Judges tend to issue stays in cases involving the authority of racing commissions to suspend or revoke a training license, they do so primarily because the law often sides with the suspended party to give him a chance to earn a living while the offending trainer's appeals are pursued.

There is some doubt, however, that this judge will follow that approach. Without a stay, Dutrow will not be allowed on any New York track beginning Oct. 18 and we can be nearly 100 percent sure that every other American racing jurisdiction will honor the ruling, whatever it states.

So what is this suspension really all about?
What is its impact on thoroughbred racing in America?

Does it have any impact on the way horseplayers play the game?

All three questions can be answered simultaneously...

As I see it, taking away Dutrow's training license is long overdue. While he has won more than 100 stakes races during his high profile career, Dutrow also has accumulated 64 separate rule violations; from the most minor infractions imaginable to serious violations that involve the way a horse may or may not perform at its very best.

Fact is, he has gotten away with way too many violations without the required equal measure of punishment, suffering only reprimands and relatively small fines for his action until this blockbuster decision came down on him.

Of course Dutrow's shaky defense is that he never deliberately administered a banned drug to a horse. Yet, he also has admitted to many acts of poor judgment in highly publicized battles with drugs and alcohol throughout his career.

The ruling against him may also have some impact of the way racing is perceived in America and what officials in the US Congress do about it - if anything.

While the frequency of his infractions was becoming public knowledge, Dutrow has been attacked by national politicians and cited by the mainstream media as an example of how racing tends to treat too lightly those who repeatedly flaunt its drug rules. Indeed, several high profile racetrack executives have hinted often that barring Dutrow might help the sport demonstrate that it finally is addressing its drug problem and making efforts to preserve the integrity of the game.

Factually, the investigative arm of the New York racing board recommended a life ban, but the board felt 10 years will prove to be more defensible when the appeals come.

"New York's racing industry has no place or patience for Mr. Dutrow," said John Sabini, a former New York legislator and current Chairman of the New York State Racing and Wagering Board. "His repeated violations and disregard of the rules of racing has eroded confidence in the betting public and caused an embarrassment throughout the industry."

Prior to the New York ruling this week, Dutrow already had been banned from racing in Kentucky. Similarly, Dutrow decided against pursuing a renewal of his New Jersey training license because he knew that the Kentucky ruling would lead New Jersey officials to bar his presence.

Regulators in New York and several other states intensified efforts into Dutrow's training methods and history of violations when New York SRWB investigators found three syringes filled with Xylazine, a painkiller and muscle relaxer, during a search of Dutrow' Aqueduct barn on Nov. 3. Trainers are not permitted to possess hypodermic needles on the backstretch, and both drugs are strictly prohibited.
Three weeks later, on Nov. 20, the drug Butorphanol (another powerful painkiller) was discovered in the post race urine sample of a Dutrow trained horse.

All this says quite strongly that Rick Dutrow has run out of excuses. He's exhausted all possible explanations and reasons why he had horses racing on an illegal drug, either by accident or by proxy or by any known means on earth.

Frankly, the son of the late Dick Dutrow and brother to Anthony Dutrow (all winning trainers during their respectively successful careers) should realize that his presence at the track will not be seen as a loss - particularly not in this game that is struggling to maintain and improve its reputation as a good place for professional players to be involved.

The public deserves a fair game with which to make their wagers. And so long as violators who take such liberties are allowed to distort the playing field into their own private pinball machine, the game will collapse.

At the end of the day, as stated by one of the investigators, "Dutrow's involvement in New York simply is inconsistent with the best interests of racing."

Sadly, I must agree with that assessment; Rick Dutrow simply has run out of chances.

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