Trainer Joe Sharp said Jan. 26 he will appeal a 30-day suspension issued to him this month by Kentucky stewards after five of his horses tested positive for levamisole in races at Churchill Downs in November 2019.
The test results were part of a rash of positives for Sharp in Kentucky and Louisiana that he attributes to a deworming product. He used the dewormer to treat his horses in 2019 from mid-November through mid-December. Sharp told BloodHorse his large number of positives was the result of the waiting time for test-lab results before he knew to stop using the product, and a further delay in the substance clearing his horses' systems.
Louisiana fined Sharp $1,000 per occurrence but did not issue suspensions.
BLOODHORSE: Sharp Trainees Test Positive for Levamisole
In the five rulings issued Jan. 21 and posted Jan. 25 on the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission website, Sharp was fined $500 and suspended 30 days, though stewards wrote that "due to mitigating circumstances (not notified of previous finding for levamisole), the suspension is to run concurrently." The horses involved—Street Dazzle, Chitto, Art Collector, Blackberry Wine, and Zero Gravity—were disqualified for either first- or second-place finishes, resulting in loss of purse for their owners.
Calumet Farm's Blackberry Wine, recent runner-up in the Louisiana Stakes (G3) at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots Jan. 16, has continued to race with Sharp, while others now race for other stables, either as a result of claims or transfers by their owners.
Bruce Lunsford's Art Collector was one such transfer, moved into the barn of trainer Tommy Drury last spring. He won two stakes last year, including the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G2).
According to the Association of Racing Commissioners International, levamisole is a class 2 drug with a B penalty class. Class 2 drugs are considered by ARCI to have high potential to impact performance, and ARCI's recommended first-offense penalties for class B penalty class violations are a minimum 15-day suspension and a $500 fine, absent mitigating circumstances.
Sharp's suspension issued by the KHRC is scheduled from Feb. 12-March 13, though the suspension is to be stayed pending appeal, Sharp's attorney Clark Brewster said he has been told.
The trainer said the Kentucky rulings were delayed from the first discoveries of levamisole due to a pair of brain surgeries he had last year, and once due to rescheduling by Kentucky regulators.
In his opposition to the stewards' ruling, Brewster pointed to a case involving trainer Daniel Werre, whose one-year suspension for levamisole was reversed by a Kentucky judge in 2015, with the judge citing the KHRC's improper classification of the drug at the time. The KHRC later reduced the suspension to one week and fined him $500.
During a meeting of the KHRC in the summer of 2015, the commission dropped levamisole from its classification schedule. Dr. Mary Scollay, then the equine medical director of the KHRC, explained to the commissioners that levamisole metabolizes into aminorex, making dropping a classification for levamisole appropriate.
Sharp's horses did not test positive for aminorex, Brewster said.
Barbara Borden, chief state steward for the KHRC, declined comment, citing an anticipated appeal.
Though levamisole is not within its classification schedule, Kentucky racing regulation 8:030 grants the KHRC the opportunity to establish a classification after consultation with either or both of the ARCI and the Racing and Medication Testing Consortium.
"He is a victim of the accusation, but Joe is standing up," Brewster said. "We don't want drugs in horses—we're fine with that principle. I think that's a very lofty principle. But on the other hand, this is just selective, against what they already decided, and is wrong."
