Page 40 - NMHBA Summer 2017

But, he’s optimistic the problems can be solved, that the state’s racing industry can regain credibility outside its borders, and those trainers and owners who continue to break the rules can be punished and weeded out.
His current job has been a learning experience from day one.
He was shocked at the high number of drug positives-especially among Quarter Horses—they have plagued racing in New Mexico. He is troubled by the perception among bettors outside the state that racing in the state is “dirty.’’
But, he’s optimistic the problems can be solved, that the state’s racing industry can regain credibility outside its borders, and those trainers and owners who continue
to break the rules can be punished and weeded out.
“Every day I’m excited to come to work,’’ says Trejo.
New Mexico horses tested positive for illegal drugs 169 times in 2016, a number Trejo says floored him.
“The drug positives (in New Mexico) is something I never thought would happen in the United States,’’ he says. “At Charlestown, we’d maybe have 12 a year with year-round racing. This is a major problem.’’
Bettors in other states who wager through simulcasting take notice and aren’t willing to gamble on New Mexico tracks.
“I went through the handicappers of North America website and saw a lot of the New Mexico tracks are ranked down low with handicappers,’’ said Trejo. “I called a friend of mine, who is somewhat involved with them, and was told: `It’s a no-brainer. People don’t trust your product around the rest of the country. It’s why you don’t get action from other places.’”
The amount of money bet on New Mexico races within the state and through simulcasting to other tracks has remained right around $170 million to $171 million a year in the period from 2011 to 2015. In 2010, the total was $186.3 million, but Trejo notes that year the state ran eight more racing days. There was an upward spike to $176 million in 2014.
Trejo said the amount of money bet on New Mexico races is crucial to the Racing Commission because mutual handles help
Izzy and longtime girlfriend Beth Witherspoon
provide funding for drug testing.
“If we start seeing decreases, then our
testing fund will diminish,’’ he said. “We’ve got to gain the confidence of horse players around the country.’’
“The tough pill for us to swallow as
an agency is the drug positives create a burden on this agency,’’ says Trejo. “They absorb the majority of our resources and time. We’re basically just a drug positive processing agency right now. I hate to see us in that light, but the truth is that’s what we deal with mostly.’’
“It would be nice if we could work on other things and try marketing horse racing, but the unfortunate truth is we’re focused on drug positives and trying to stop them.’’
Trejo says commission investigators, along with consultant Dr. Scot Waterman, have done a lot of “brain-storming’’ and have either implemented new rules or are working on others.
Among them:
“We are one of the first jurisdictions in the country to implement a 60-day steward’s list rule,’’ he says. “What it does is, if your horse tests positive for any one of five certain types of drugs, including clenbuterol, cobalt or drug hormones, your horse automatically goes onto the steward’s list and can’t race for 60 days, no matter what. So now an owner is sitting with a commodity that he can’t make money with.’’
Trejo says owners, not just their trainers, should be held more accountable. To that end, the commission staff is looking at a possible policy that would allow individual tracks to put all horses that come from
a stable that has used so-called program trainers and has had positive drug tests on a do-not-enter list.
“This may get us to where we need to be faster than any other mechanism,’’ says Trejo. “At the current time, if you get a drug positive and your trainer gets suspended, you can just go find another trainer. But with this policy, all (of an owner’s) horses are going to be put on a
do not enter list. So as an owner, he won’t be able to enter at any track in the state. They’ll have to go out of state to run and that’s exactly what we want, to get the cheaters out of New Mexico.’’
Trejo says a rule change that went into affect last December is shortening the amount of time it takes to suspend a trainer once a positive has been confirmed through testing of split samples.
Another rule change that went in late last year allows the commission to impose tougher sanctions on trainers and owners who are repeat offenders and have a history of drugging their horses.
“In our perspective, these people are killing the New Mexico horse racing industry,’’ said Trejo. “The drug violators kill the game in a couple of ways. One, they take away all the credibility and people don’t trust horse racing. Two, the people that are playing fair can’t win a race. So attrition starts taking place. A guy who had 20 horses, now has 10 or five because his owners can’t afford to finish fifth and sixth all the time. So you lose owners and you lose trainers.’’
“This commission is trying its best
to catch these people. We probably did more testing than any other state in 2016 between out-of-competition and post-race testing. And it could be to our detriment because we catch a lot of people and it makes our numbers look high.’’
Trejo says catching the cheaters remains a “cat and mouse game.’’
“It’s something that probably continues,’’ he says. “You have a lot of very intelligent people that unfortunately don’t have a lot of integrity.’’
Looking ahead, Trejo says the testing
of a horse’s hair could become a significant tool in drug testing New Mexico horses. He says it’s an expensive process, but one that the Racing Commission’s medication committee supports and could be adopted as a rule this summer.
“A lot of drugs can be detected in hair up to six months after use,’’ said Trejo. “For example, if you gave your horse Zilpaterol in January, we should be able to detect it in May. Even if it doesn’t show up in the urine.’’
Trejo said California does hair testing and Oklahoma has done some informal testing.
All of which, says Trejo, provides plenty of reason for optimism.
“I’m more pumped up now because
we are finally starting to see results,’’ he says. A lot of dots are being connected. People may disagree, but I think we’re at a crossroads and we are headed in the right direction.’’
38 New Mexico Horse Breeder