Trainers Rally Around Lukas, Laz Barrera : Report of More Positive Cocaine Tests on Horses Draws Angry Reaction

Incredulity and disbelief ran neck and neck, but outrage outstripped them both at Santa Anita Saturday as horsemen reacted angrily to the latest drug scandal to rock thoroughbred racing.

Surprised by revelations that Laz Barrera and Wayne Lukas had become the fourth and fifth trainers to be accused recently of running horses that later were found to have had cocaine in their systems, horsemen launched a bitter attack on the California Horse Racing Board and its handling of the sport’s growing drug problem.

Although inadequate security at Southern California race tracks was frequently mentioned, it was the state’s drug-testing laboratory that received near-unanimous condemnation.

Several trainers said it was possible that the tests were inaccurate and that Barrera and Lukas had been wrongly accused.

“Obviously, there’s something serious going wrong somewhere,” trainer Chris Speckert said. “Why would those two trainers do it? I mean, there’s no reason.

“I think they (state officials) were stupid to bring it out without investigating it further. Common sense tells you that men like D. Wayne Lukas and Laz Barrera didn’t get where they are today by being stupid. They wouldn’t do something like this.

“Obviously, it all boils down to the testing and the testing laboratory. We go to the Olympics and we go everywhere else and they have good laboratories and they spend a lot of money on it. But they (the CHRB) go to this one laboratory (the Truesdail Laboratory in Tustin) that every veterinarian from way back when recommended they not use, but they keep using it. . . . They’re making themselves look stupid.”

Attempts to reach spokesmen at the Truesdail Laboratory were unsuccessful.

The accusations against Barrera and Lukas followed similar claims against three other trainers: Laz’s son, Albert; Bryan Webb, and, last October, Roger Stein, who is appealing a six-month suspension and $2,000 fine imposed by the stewards and upheld by the CHRB.

On Saturday morning, the elder Barrera attended an informal hearing before the board of stewards at Santa Anita, where stewards said he appeared “crestfallen” and was quoted as saying, “I’ve never felt so hurt in my whole life.”

Steward Pete Pedersen said the three-man board had learned that Barrera’s horse Endow had failed a post-race urinalysis at Del Mar last summer, and that the positive test for cocaine had been reaffirmed by a second test performed at Ohio State University.

No date has yet been set for a formal hearing, Pedersen said, but Barrera will not be allowed to enter his horses in any race in California, pending the outcome of that hearing. Owners can switch their horses to another trainer, however.

Because written confirmation had not been received as of Saturday regarding the tests that Lukas’ horse Crown Collection allegedly failed, also after a Del Mar race last summer, no action has been taken against him. He has yet to appear before the stewards.

Albert Barrera’s formal hearing is scheduled for Feb. 23. He and Speckert both said that the sudden spate of positive tests has many trainers worried.

“All the trainers are scared,” Barrera said, “because if this happens to people like my father and Lukas, it can happen to anybody.”

The cause of this concern is not only what trainers regard as the suspect validity of the drug tests, but also the ease with which their horses could be drugged. Under racing rules, if a horse fails a drug test, the trainer is responsible regardless of the circumstances. Yet trainers cannot be at their barns 24 hours a day.

“What’s scary is that it could happen to me,” Speckert said. “It could happen to absolutely anybody. That’s what’s frightening. You’ve got to watch who you employ and who you talk to. You could annoy somebody and they can just throw something in (the horse’s feed).”

“There’s no security. There’s nothing here. I can’t lock them up. I can’t do anything.”

Added trainer Brian Sweeney: “We run into problems with security in the barn area. We have a night watchman or somebody here all the time. But if somebody wanted to do something untoward, all they have to do is just walk down a shed row. The feed tubs are all along the side.”

Trainer Ron McAnally doubts that additional security will solve the problem. Like Speckert, he believes it could just as easily originate at the laboratory.

“I don’t know if more security is the answer or not,” McAnally said. “It’s obvious that there is either something going on at the laboratory or there’s something going on in the stable area. . . . “Truthfully, I do not know which, but I do know one thing: that they should straighten it out as soon as they possibly can to clear up the bad name for racing. . . .

“It’s just knocking down everything we’ve done for the last 100 years to improve racing.”

Stein said he saw a little humor Saturday in the uproar that came after the linking of Laz Barrera’s and Lukas’ names to cocaine.

“To see the outrage of the horsemen this morning, all rallying behind two guys who they know are above reproach, it’s interesting,” he said. “Because when it was me, I guess apparently some people thought it was possible.

“But there aren’t any horsemen that I’ve met that would give a horse cocaine. No trainer, I don’t care if he’s got one horse or 50, is going to go out on a limb by using something like cocaine that they know is going to test (positive).”

Horse Racing Notes

Apprentice jockey Fernando Valenzuela rode his first stakes winner Saturday when he and Sunny Blossom crossed the line first in the $80,850 El Conejo Handicap. Trained by Eddie Gregson, the brown 4-year-old gelding covered the 5 1/2 furlongs on a muddy track in a hand-timed 1:04 3/5 to win by 2 1/2 lengths and earn $47,100. Sensational Star, with Russell Baze aboard, was second, a half-length ahead of Alex Solis on Prospector’s Gamble.