'Punishing The Wrong People': Owner John Fanelli Frustrated By HISA Claiming Rules
Editor's Note: A previous version of this story indicated that Fanelli would not be allowed to keep the purse money Deplane earned on Feb. 14; HIWU contacted the Paulick Report after the publication of this story to explain that a rule had been inadvertently misapplied and that Fanelli would be able to keep the purse Deplane earned in his Feb. 14 race.
Thoroughbred owner John Fanelli spoke with bloodhorse.com this week to express his frustration with the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority's claiming rules, following a positive test with a horse he claimed at Parx Racing.
Fanelli claimed Deplane for $7,500 on Feb. 6 at Parx. The horse won that day, but was later disqualified when a post-race test returned a positive result for cobalt, a banned substance.
However, that test took 17 days to come back. Fanelli and new trainer Harold Wyner were not aware of those positive test results until after they'd already run the horse again: Deplane ran third in a Feb. 14 race at Parx, earning $4,928.
Due to the presence of a banned substance in Deplane's system on Feb. 6, HISA is enforcing a six-month ban on the horse.
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Fanelli could have returned Deplane to his former connections, owner Luis Orantes and trainer Patricia Farro, but said he did not choose to do so. (Farro's provisional suspension has not yet been enforced under HISA rules, which means the B sample test has not yet come back.)
Instead, Fanelli plans to take the 5-year-old gelding to race in West Virginia, which is outside the scope of HISA regulation due to ongoing legal disputes.
"Here you are punishing the wrong people. You are hurting people who are doing things the proper way," Fanelli told bloodhorse.com. "The penalties should only impact the people who did something wrong. People think all owners are rich, but we can't take all the risks in this sport. It's not fair. It's an enormous amount of money to care for a horse for six months. We need a better rule than this. One with more flexibility given the circumstances, that's for sure."
Dr. Mary Scollay, HIWU's chief of science, told bloodhorse.com that the six-month ban is not meant to be punitive to the new owner. Instead, it protects both racing integrity and the individual horse's welfare, since cobalt increases red blood cell production and thus stamina, but also carries significant risk of heart attack.
Marc Guilfoil, HISA's director of stewarding and state racing commission relations, told bloodhorse.com that a new claiming rule being proposed will warn owners that if they run a horse before the runner's previous test returns, they must keep the horse even if it tests positive in the previous race.
