Trainer Mitchell Faces Procaine Hearing

Trainer Mike Mitchell has an Oct. 11 hearing with stewards at Santa Anita Park on a complaint filed against him by the California Horse Racing Board charging medication violations for the use of procaine on one of his horses.

The local anesthetic was found in an amount that exceeded the allowable legal threshold in a test sample taken from a horse in Mitchell's care that raced at Del Mar on Aug. 3, a CHRB statement said. The finding was made by the Maddy Laboratory at the University of California-Davis, and confirmed by Truesdail Laboratories. The horse, Scat Thief, finished third in the seventh race.

According to the CHRB, procaine is found in procaine penicillin G, a commonly administered antibiotic. For this reason, procaine is a Class 3 violation rather than a Class 2 transgression, as are most other anesthetics.