WORTH SEE’N (Straight Man), the first horse to exceed the 37
millimoles limit in the New York Racing Association’s (NYRA) new blood gas
testing program, has been cleared through a second set of tests over a three-day
quarantine period. All fines and penalties against Richard Violette Jr., trainer
of the sophomore, have been dismissed.
“Worth See’n underwent a quarantine challenge and demonstrated an exaggerated
physiological response to Lasix administration, elevating his blood gas level
over the permitted threshold,” said Dr. Celeste Kunz, NYRA’s chief examining
veterinarian.
Worth See’n ran eighth in the 8TH race at Belmont Park on June 18 and
preliminary blood gas test results revealed a higher than allowed number.
However, NYRA rules allow for a quarantine challenge, where the horse is run
through three days worth of testing to confirm the original results. The
three-day challenge concluded Friday and final test results became available
Saturday.
“When we established our blood gas testing program and our race day security
barns, we wanted to be very certain that we were doing everything possible to
protect and preserve the integrity of racing,” said Charlie Hayward, president
and CEO of NYRA. “The effectiveness of our protocol showed that the system
works. The quarantine challenge provided us all the back-up documentation that
we believed necessary and any horse initially suspected of exceeding the blood
gas level gets a fair opportunity to be re-tested in a high-security
environment.”