Denial of Second-Place Purse Upset : Racing: Lousiana judge overturns panel’s decision withholding $200,000 from Big Earl in Super Derby.

A state judge has overturned a Louisiana State Racing Commission decision denying the second-place $200,000 purse apparently won by owner-trainer Jerry Cart’s Big Earl in the Super Derby won by Sunday Silence last September.

Civil District Judge Louis A. Dirosa ruled Monday that the commission acted improperly last January in upholding a ruling by Louisiana Downs stewards that denied Cart the purse at the Bossier City track. Cart also was fined $200.

The stewards’ ruling came after a post-race blood sample from Big Earl tested positive for having more phenylbutazone than racing rules allow. The anti-inflammatory drug has the trade name Butazolidan.

DiRosa said racing rules distinguish “two classes of drugs (prohibited and permitted)” and provide “separate penalties for violations of the rules regarding each class.”

Phenylbutazone is a permitted medication, and the only allowed penalties for violations of rules concerning use of permitted drugs are a fine and/or suspension and/or revocation of license, the judge said.

Redistribution of a purse is a penalty for violation of rules on prohibited substances.

Joel Turner, Cart’s attorney, said: “Basically, the commission and the stewards had been penalizing people for years without the authority to do it by taking their purses away.”

Turner said the commission can appeal.

The matter will go back to the commission, so Cart can be given a proper penalty.

When asked what might happen, Turner said: “To my knowledge, no trainer in Louisiana has ever had his license suspended or revoked for a first-time violation of the permitted-medication rule.”

Turner and Cart never disputed that Big Earl raced on Butazolidan.