DAY ONE AT HORSE RACING APPEAL PANEL: “Unprecedented” third party appeal
*A summary of Day One of the hearing done to the best of my ability*
On Monday, the Ontario Horse Racing Appeal Panel heard an appeal by WOODBINE ENTERTAINMENT to consider a tougher penalty for DR. BRIAN AREM than the one issued by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission stewards last fall at Woodbine with regards to treating horses with extracorporeal shockwave therapy inside the ruled time.
A third-party appeal of a ruling that it was not involved in from the outset is unprecedented in Ontario.
A summary of the ruling: Woodbine Entertainment security alerted the track that Dr. Brian Van Arem was seen treating two horses of trainer Norm McKnight last July 30, 2018 at the McKnight barn. These two horses were in the entries for Wed. Aug. 1 and thus the procedure came inside the 96-hour rule (4 days).
This rule has, according to testimony heard on Monday, been in place since 2008 and in March 2018, the rule was adjusted to state that only licensed veterinarians could do such treatment on horses.
See page 4 and 5 with regards to rule 15.37:
Appeal document: https://canadianthoroughbred.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/06174723/Notice-of-Appeal-Scanned-Copy-October-172c-2018.pdf
The 2 horses, BRIGHTER IDEAS and HALO LAELIA were, according to testimony, treated with shockwave therapy at 62 hours before their scheduled race.
The panel hearing testimony was Sandra Meyrick, Stanley Sadinsky and John Hayes.
Dr. Van Arem was given a $7,500 fine and had conditions placed on his license while McKnight received a $5,000 fine.
This is a hearing de Novo (new hearing) and focused only on the penalty issued by AGCO stewards and whether it should be adjusted. It was noted that it was not a case to justify what the stewards did or did not do as far as investigations.
The AGCO counsel Aviva Herari called witnesses Troy Moffatt, investigator and inspector for the AGCO, Tyler Durand, racing investigator for AGCO and steward John Dorion.
Woodbine lawyer Deppshikha Dutt and Dr. Van Arem’s lawyer Martin Smith also questioned these witnesses.
Summary: Troy Moffatt was called to investigate the claim by Woodbine security of the shockwave treatment of the aforementioned 2 horses by Dr. Van Arem at Norm McKnight’s barn.
Dr. Van Arem told Moffatt that another horse, Constantino, had also been shockwaved and was entered that same week. All three horses were scratched.
According to testimony, Moffatt viewed Dr. Van Arem’s logbooks from May 1 through to August and noted a number of other others that had been shockwaved and then most raced two days later. Those included Scotty’s Model (May 18 – raced May 20), Constantino (June 8- raced June 10) and several who were on there a few times such as Olivia’s Uncle, Cadillac Red, etc.
“They were not aware of the 96-hour rule for the treatment,” was what was in the report filed by Moffat. The panel heard that both Norm McKnight thought the rule was within 72 hours and that this was a common belief among many other vets at Woodbine.
Tyler Durand also saw Dr. Van Arem’s logbooks but he was investigating for medications only.
John Dorion, a former trainer testified about coming up with the $7,500 pentalty noting that there were no guidelines for penalties for shockwave treatment. Stewards researched other jurisdictions and how shockwave therapy was regulated.
Dorion also emphasized that rule 15.37 was know by him as a trainer when it came out in 2008.
Further notes by Thoroughblog:
Research on extracorporeal shock wave therapy in other jurisdictions showed that Kentucky and California have 10-day restriction on horses racing following shockwave therapy. Parx Racing banned shockwave machines on the backstretch in 2015.
Interesting to note that Kentucky Derby winner I’ll have Another, before his Derby win, was immediately placed on the vet’s list for 10 days
following a shockwave therapy treatment:
https://www.paulickreport.com/news/triple-crown/i-ll-have-another-on-vet-s-list-after-undergoing-shockwave-therapy-o-neill-says-it-won-t-affect-derby-training/
