Hearing Concludes for Stein : Judge to Rule on Trainer’s Appeal Within 30 Days

The California Horse Racing Board hearing of Santa Anita trainer Roger Stein ended after 12 hours Tuesday nightwith an administrative law judge deciding that she will make her recommendation within 30 days.

The board, which is expected to take action at its regular meeting March 29, can either accept or reject the decision of judge Amanda Behe, who presided over the hearing in Los Angeles.

Tuesday’s hearing was the second in the appeal of Stein, who was suspended for six months and fined $2,000 by Santa Anita stewards shorty after his horse, Emperor’s Turn, tested positive for cocaine after finishing second in a race at Santa Anita last October.

Stein is one of six Southern California trainers whose horses have tested positive for cocaine recently. The others include Laz Barrera and Wayne Lukas, two of racing’s biggest names.

Stein’s attorneys, who attempted to prove that cocaine was introduced into Emperor’s Turn system shortly after he ran, also accused the state testing laboratory of operating in bad faith. The attorneys charged that the entire post-race blood sample from the horse was used before they could send part of the specimen to another laboratory for analysis.

Stein’s attorneys also introduced Jay Williams, a forensic toxicologist, who said that his examination of the horse’s urine sample indicated that the animal was given the cocaine between 5 and 10 minutes before the sample was taken, or about 45 minutes after the race.

The state, however, contends that Stein would still be guilty because of racing’s absolute-insurer rule, which states that the trainer has the ultimate responsibility for the horse’s condition.

One of Stein’s attorneys, Ken Lewis, said that despite an informal agreement with Len Foote, the executive secretary of the racing board, part of the horse’s blood sample was not saved for analysis by an independent laboratory.

“If they wanted samples, they should have made the request,” Foote said. “Normally we have enough blood for that request.”

Truesdail Laboratories, the Tustin facility contracted to perform testing for the racing board, was shown to be in error again. Last month, it was reported that Truesdail, through a computer foul-up, lost much of the data pertaining to a blood test.

On Tuesday, Foote testified that Truesdail lost about 4% of 16,000 frozen urine samples because a shelf broke and the bottles shattered. The positives against four of the trainers, including Lukas and Barrera, have resulted from the testing of frozen samples.

Foote also said that as the result of suggestions from UC Davis, whose veterinary school monitors racing board activities, a state investigator has been overseeing Truesdail activities this year. The investigator has found that labels on jars of urine samples have been loose and steps have been made to use more secure labels, Foote said.

Foote also testified that the samples of two horses that tested positive for cocaine last year were disqualified by a Truesdail chemist because the chemist thought they had been contaminated.

“In our view, the one area when a horse’s sample can be contaminated is during the time when the urine is taken from the horse,” Foote said. “And that’s a real concern.”

Stein said that in the investigation after the positive for Emperor’s Turn, he fired a groom because the groom refused to submit to a urine test. Three other employees in Stein’s barn consented to urine tests.

Stein contends that he is being discriminated against after it was announced Sunday that Lukas and Barrera will be allowed to continue racing during their investigations.