Tommy Simon’s Vinery Stable has moved 21 horses from the barn of trainer Steve Asmussen, not long after an allegation of a positive test for traces of the therapeutic anesthetic lidocaine from an Asmussen-trained horse that won a maiden race at Lone Star Park in Texas May 10.
Tom Ludt, general manager of Vinery, confirmed the move to the Paulick Report but would not comment on why the change was made. Ludt said the horses have been distributed among the half-dozen other trainers Vinery employs: Josie Carroll, Larry Jones, Doug O’Neill, Todd Pletcher, Michael Stidham and Michael Trombetta.
Jones is currently awaiting results of a split sample in the wake of an alleged positive test in one of his horses that raced in Delaware for the therapeutic bronchodilator clenbuterol, a Class 3 drug according to the Association of Racing Commissioners International.
Asmussen received notice from the Texas Racing Commission late last month that Timber Trick, a 2-year-old filly owned by Gainesway Stable, tested positive for lidocaine, a Class 2 drug that can be used as a “blocker” but also is found in many non-pharmaceutical products. Texas prohibits any trace of the drug in test samples and is classified as a "zero tolerance" state. Asmussen has retained the legal services of prominent owner Maggi Moss, a trial attorney who put her law practice on hold several years ago to concentrate on her racing stable.
According to the Association of Racing Commissioners International database, Asmussen has a total of 74 rulings involving him, including a number of medication violations, dating back to 1990. He served a six-month suspension in late 2006-early 2007 for a mepivacaine positive in one of his horses racing in Louisiana.
Asmussen, the leading North American trainer by wins and earnings in 2008, is also the conditioner for 2007 Horse of the Year Curlin.
By Ray Paulick
Copyright ©2008, The Paulick Report
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Tags: association of racing commissioners international, clenbuterol, Curlin, doug o'neill, gainesway, Horse Racing, josie carroll, larry jones, lidocaine, maggi moss, mepivacaine, michael stidham, michael trombetta, Paulick Report, Ray Paulick, RCI, steve asmussen, texas racing commission, todd pletcher, tom ludt, tommy simon, vinery
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on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 at 2:50 pm and is filed under Curlin, Medication, People.
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July 8th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
More than half of those 74 rulings are ridiculous. Do the work and sort the real ones out.
July 8th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Hey Ranger how many rulings did Whittingham have?
July 8th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Ridiculus or not, they are fines and/or suspensions.
The bottom line, this ASSmussen is a joke, bad for the sport and should be sitting in the unemployment line along with Jayne Vaders and others…
July 8th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Congratulations to Vinery for a pre-emptive strike. Innocent until proven guilty but parsing 74 violations is no excuse. If this was the NFL, Assumussen would be out of the sport and mucking stalls, if that.
July 8th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Please God, rid us of this jackal. And thank you Vinery for leading the way.
July 9th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
With the way the game is currently played, taking money out of the pockets of the trainers who have a track record of popping positives may be more of a deterrent than the mostly weak suspensions and fines meted out by the state racing commissions.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:49 am
Did Vinery not realize Doug O’Neills horses have been running out of ” protection barn” (for what the third time.) Give me a break.
July 10th, 2008 at 5:50 am
It’s amusing that the Courier Journal gives a slightly different version of some of the points of Paulick’s story:
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Vinery Stables confirmed it has relocated 19 horses it had with Asmussen — including multiple stakes winner Lantana Mob — to other trainers it employs.
“It was just time for us to go in a different direction,” said Vinery general manager Tom Ludt, who added that the Lexington farm could send horses to Asmussen in the future. He also said the timing of the switch was unrelated to the recent announcement of a positive postrace test for the local anesthetic lidocaine in a horse trained by Asmussen in Texas, a finding the trainer is fighting.
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and from the Bloodhorse:
After July 10, Vinery will no longer have horses with trainer Steve Asmussen. But Tom Ludt, general manager of the farm, said it is likely the stable will have horses with Asmussen again at some point in the future.
“We certainly could have horses with Steve again in the future,†Ludt said. “It has been a great ride. We just wanted to go a different direction.â€
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Either Ray isn’t privy to the infromation that legitimate sources are, or he just wants to put a negative slant on things.
July 10th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Everglades, I guess you are easily amused, which is a good thing.
My story did not say that the change was due to the recent allegation against Steve Asmussen, only that it came after the lidocaine positive test was made public. Please re-read.
As I clearly wrote, I spoke with Vinery GM Tom Ludt, who confirmed that Asmussen was fired but would not go on the record with me on a reason for the change. I can only suspect that Steve Asmussen was bombarded with questions from the trade press and mainstream media after the Paulick Report broke the story, and he may (or may not have) asked Mr. Ludt to clarify that the decision was not related to the test result. Who knows why the change was made. Certainly, Steve Asmussen knows how to win races.
Seems to me that the inclusion in our story of the fact Larry Jones also faces a possible suspension on a medication positive would suggest that the decision might not have been based on the bad test in Texas.