According to Breeders' Cup Ltd., Francois Parisel will be listed as the official trainer of the seven horses pre-entered by trainer Patrick Biancone in the Breeder's Cup World Championships Oct. 26-27.
"It is not unusual for us to make an adjustment to the owner or trainer lines between the pre-entry and entry process," said Pam Blatz-Murff, Breeders' Cup senior vice president of operations. "As long as it is done before the entry stage, that is perfectly acceptable."
Any of Biancone's horses entered in races on the Breeders' Cup undercard will also run in Parisel's name.
"I am transferring my horses in training on the East Coast to my assistant Francois Parisel and my horses in training on the West Coast to Chris Crow," Biancone said in a statement released by his attorney Oct. 18. "All of my horses, wherever located, will be transferred out of my barns and into the hands of another trainer(s) prior to the commencement of my suspension."
In early October, the Kentucky stewards suspended Biancone for one year for the possession of cobra venom, a prohibited substance and Class A drug under Kentucky's medication rules. The Kentucky Horse Racing Authority reached a settlement agreement Oct. 17 with Biancone barring him from training horses for six months and preventing him from applying for a trainer's license for an additional six months. The suspension begins Nov. 1, but Biancone agreed to withdraw as the trainer of record for the horses he had pre-entered in the Breeders' Cup.
"It is now time to move on," Biancone said. "I offered and accepted the settlement because I wanted to do what is best for racing, a sport that I love. Most importantly, I wanted to resolve this matter before Breeders' Cup... a celebration of our sport's greatest athletes - the horses - and their breeders and owners. It does not deserve the distraction that my situation would create. I do not want to cast a cloud over racing's most important day."
The horses Biancone pre-entered in the Breeders' Cup are: Nownownow in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf; Baroness Thatcher and La Traviata in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint; Irish Smoke in the Grey Goose Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (gr. I); Slew's Tiznow in the Bessemer Trust Breeders' Cup Juvenile (gr. I); Danzon in the Emirates Airline Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf (gr. IT); and Cosmonaut in the NetJets Breeders' Cup Mile (gr. IT). La Traviata is also entered in the TVG Breeders' Cup Sprint (gr. I).
