A federal judge has granted trainer Tito Moreno a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction preventing Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course from excluding the trainer from entering horses at the track and from carrying out a demand that he remove his horses from the track property.
In the order, U.S. District Judge Sylvia H. Rambo also enjoined Penn National from excluding Moreno from participation at Penn National and preventing him from transferring his horses to another trainer. Rambo set an Aug. 16 hearing date in the case.
According to a lawsuit filed by attorney Alan Pincus, the order from Penn National director of racing Mark Loewe preventing Moreno from entering horses and excluding him from participation in racing at the track violated the trainer’s due process because he was not afforded a hearing and because he had no charges filed against him by state regulators.
One of the exhibits in the court record is the memo from Penn National that states Moreno was caught by state investigators Aug. 1 with hypodermic needles and syringes in his possession while on the backstretch at Penn National. The order said no entries would be taken from Moreno, no horses trained by Moreno could be transferred to other trainers without approval of the racing office, and all horses under Moreno’s care were to be removed from the track by noon Aug. 13.
According to Equibase, Moreno has trained 92 lifetime winners from 1,411 starters, with stable earnings of $1.5 million. Moreno has been represented by eight winners from 71 starters in 2012.