DPMW Likely To Toss All Pending Serum Positives

The Division of Pari-Mutuel Racing entered a Final Order in an alleged serum positive case on March 24, 2017 which resulted in a finding that the Division had failed to prove its allegations as a result of improper procedures in handling serum samples in the test barn. The improper procedures involved the opening of the samples in the test barn at the end of the day after the trainers or trainers’ representatives had witnessed the samples being sealed earlier. The Division also filed an emergency rule on blood sampling, effective on March 24, 2017, which is intended to correct the improper test barn procedures for the handling of serum samples.
This Final Order should result in the dismissal of all pending positive serum tests in Florida which may number in the hundreds. Those that already agreed to a disposition with the Division on their cases may or may not have any recourse. This decision and rule change was the result of one of our trainer members stepping up and being a test case, and the fine legal work of attorney Brad Beilly who, together, won their case.
Another pending case being handled by Mr. Beilly, which the FHBPA testified at, involves the way the Division handles split samples. The improper procedure alleged in that case involves the Division sending a portion of the already tested single sample upon request as the “split sample” to another lab instead of having the samples split when drawn and sending the separate sample as a split sample to another lab for verification. This has led the Division to set a first development workshop toward rule change on April 11, 2017 in Tallahassee in advance of a final decision in that case.
If you have any questions about these matters, please contact Glen at the FHBPA office.