§ 183.357. Responsibility of a trainer.
A trainer shall be responsible for the condition of the horses trained by him. No trainer shall start a horse or permit a horse in his custody to be started if he knows or if by the exercise of reasonable care he might have known or have cause to believe, that the horse has received a drug, stimulant, sedative, depressant, medicine or other substance that could result in a positive test. Every trainer shall guard or cause to be guarded each horse trained by him in a manner and for a period of time prior to racing the horse so as to prevent a person from administering a drug, stimulant, sedative, depressant or other substance resulting in a positive test.
Notes of Decisions The Commission is not bound to accept its hearing officer’s finding regarding whether horse trainer had administered narcotic to race horse. The Commission did not abuse its discretion by suspending the trainer’s license for 2 years based on the administration of a narcotic to one of her horses. Delker v. Harness Racing Commission, 581 A.2d 258 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1990); affirmed 590 A.2d 1360 (Pa. 1991).
The fact that a horse trainer has a duty to guard against drug administration, 58 Pa. Code § 183.357, and that a veterinarian has a duty to prevent a drugged horse from racing, 58 Pa. Code § 183.356, does not relieve an owner of responsibility for administration of medication that resulted in a positive test since the regulations clearly also provide that fine or suspension may be imposed on ‘‘any person,’’ 58 Pa. Code 183.351(a), a licensed owner, 58 Pa. Code § 183.268, or the ‘‘person or persons having control or custody,’’ 58 Pa. Code § 183.352(b). Reichard v. Harness Racing Commission, 499 A.2d 727 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1985).
A trainer’s argument that he could not be punished for merely failing to guard his horse without proof that he knew his horse had been drugged was without merit. Marusco v. Harness Racing Commission, 448 A.2d 662 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1982).
Cross References This section cited in 58 Pa. Code § 183.361 (relating to winnings when rule is violated).
No part of the information on this site may be reproduced for profit or sold for profit.
This material has been drawn directly from the official Pennsylvania Code full text database. Due to the limitations of HTML or differences in display capabilities of different browsers, this version may differ slightly from the official printed version.
