A week after trainer Rick Dutrow filed an appeal over the 30-day suspension handed out by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission for a Clenbuterol positive in the spring of 2008, the Franklin County, Ky. Circuit Court issued him a stay.
Dutrow appealed the suspension July 15, and his attorney, Frank Becker, sent a report July 21 that confirmed his client had been granted the stay, which will permit him to continue training horses until a decision on his appeal is made.
"We were hoping to get this...we think it makes sense, because otherwise he would really lose his right to appeal," said Becker.
In his appeal, Dutrow cited a variety of claims that his client’s rights were violated. Previous reports on the matter can be read here and here.
Becker said he could not predict when a ruling would be made on Dutrow’s appeal. The trainer was initially suspended 15 days by Churchill Downs stewards for the Clenbuterol positive found in Salute the Count following his second-place finish in the Aegon Turf Sprint (gr. IIIT) May 2, 2008.
During a July 8 KHRC meeting, officials decided to double the length of Dutrow's punishment on a 6-5 vote margin.
KHRC executive director Lisa Underwood said after the ruling that the stiffer penalty was “an effort to send a message to trainers who utilize the appeal process to its fullest, even when they acknowledge that the medication positive was legitimate.”
Clenbuterol is a Class B medication violation, which permits a suspension up to 60 days, plus loss of purse. The drug is an approved medication used as a bronchial dilator, which increases lung capacity though it has steroidal properties.
The next step in the process of Dutrow's case is for each of the parties to prepare and submit to the court a briefing schedule. The case will continue in Franklin County Circuit Court.