Blasi Fined for Attempting to Run Wrong Horse at Churchill

During a Nov. 20 Kentucky Horse Racing Authority meeting at the Kentucky Horse Park, the state's chief steward John Veitch announced that trainer Scott Blasi had been fined $2,500 for bringing the wrong horse to the Churchill Downs paddock before the seventh race Nov. 9.

Veitch said the horse identifier in the paddock caught the problem and the entered horse was scratched. Blasi was fined after a ruling the following day.

The horse that Blasi was supposed to run in the $23,000 claiming race was a juvenile filly named Stealth Cat. The Texas-bred daughter of Magic Cat--Dixie's Integrity was claimed for $25,000 by Blasi on behalf of J. Kirk Robinson in an Oct. 8 contest at Keeneland. She was formerly owned by Choctaw Racing Stable and trained by Lynn Whiting.

"It was clearly just a mistake," Veitch said of the Nov. 9 incident, adding that if the stewards had suspected it was intentional, Blasi would have faced much harsher penalties.