Surge in Use of Procaine Is Alleged

Rocked by horse-drugging scandals involving cocaine and clenbuterol in recent years, California racing investigators and chemists are turning their attention to a wave of positive post-race tests for another banned medication.

No stewards’ rulings have been issued, but a member of the California Horse Racing Board who declined to be identified said that the state’s testing laboratory has found “10 or 12” positives for procaine in recent weeks.

Procaine is a local anesthetic that can resemble cocaine, but is less toxic. Procaine, commonly found in penicillin compounds, can act as a stimulant when used independently. Procaine also is a painkiller and can block a horse’s nerves.

“There is some procaine going around, based on the testing,” said Hal Diaz, who heads the racing board’s enforcement division. “I can’t be specific because hearings and investigations are ongoing. Most of the activity is in Southern California.”

The racing board commissioner who talked to The Times said that the rash of procaine positives involves both thoroughbreds and quarter horses. At least one of the positives has been attributed to a horse who raced at Santa Anita, and another positive came from a horse at Bay Meadows, in Northern California.

This latest round of drug positives has hit before the racing board has finished its disposition of the clenbuterol incidents that led to national criticism of California racing last year. Four thoroughbred trainers, racing at Santa Anita and Hollywood Park, ran horses that tested positive for clenbuterol, a drug that reduces pulmonary bleeding and is said to enhance performance.

Before the horses’ urine could be tested by a backup laboratory, the racing board and its secretary, Dennis Hutcheson, dismissed charges against the trainers. The later tests also came back positive.

Hutcheson’s handling of the cases was investigated by the California Department of Justice and that report has been turned over to the Sacramento district attorney’s office, which is determining whether Hutcheson acted criminally.

In a recent clenbuterol development, Harvey Furgatch, a horse owner and racing board member in the 1970s, sued the board, asking that the Sacramento Superior Court order Hutcheson to make public information regarding all clenbuterol cases dating to 1991. Hutcheson has never identified the four trainers. In a story last September, The Times identified Barbara Caganich as one of them.

A hearing regarding Furgatch’s suit is scheduled in Sacramento on Monday.

The breeder and owner of Kentucky Derby winners Gato Del Sol and Sunday Silence, Arthur B. Hancock III recently wrote in The Blood-Horse magazine: “The clenbuterol fiasco in California was one of the major blights on the industry in the past year.”

The racing board’s credibility was severely tested in the late 1980s, when dozens of trainers, including Wayne Lukas and the late Laz Barrera, raced horses that tested positive for cocaine. Most of the charges were dropped because of lack of evidence.

One of the most prominent procaine positives occurred in 1985, after the $260,000 E.P. Taylor Stakes had been run at Woodbine in suburban Toronto. Jemifa, a filly from Italy, finished second, but tested positive, was disqualified and her owner was deprived of the $61,500 purse.

Jemifa was trained by Patrick Biancone, the European conditioner who won the 1983 horse-of-the-year title in North America with the filly All Along.

After the Woodbine race, Biancone said that Jemifa had a virus and had been treated with penicillin eight days before the race.

“Penicillin is a medication that is used for many horse ailments,” said Rick Arthur, a private veterinarian who treats horses at Santa Anita and other California tracks. “For example, if a horse is gelded, he is given penicillin and he can resume training about two weeks later.”

Arthur said that he was not aware of the recent procaine positives.

“My first reaction is that the testing is getting so sophisticated that it’s picking up procaine that should have already gone through a horse’s bloodstream,” he said. “I’ll tell you about a top trainer, although I won’t say his name, who was told by a state vet that two days would be enough time for the medication to leave the system. This trainer is so straight-arrow that he waited four or five days before running the horse, and the test still came back positive and he lost the purse money.”

In 1986, Hall of Fame trainer Charlie Whittingham and one of his assistants, George Lambert, were fined $500 apiece by stewards at Santa Anita after a 3-year-old filly tested positive for procaine. The filly, who finished fourth in a maiden race, was disqualified from purse money. Whittingham said that the filly, which had a leg infection, had been treated with penicillin and procaine six days before the race.

Jolypha might have the potential to be the best filly Bobby Frankel has ever trained, but as long as it keeps raining at Santa Anita, fans aren’t going to get the chance to see her.

Third in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, her first race on dirt, the French 4-year-old was scratched from the Hollywood Turf Cup last month, and she will stay in the barn Sunday when nine other fillies run in the $100,000 El Encino Stakes.

The El Encino, Santa Anita’s middle race in the series for fillies foaled in 1989, will be headed by Pacific Squall and Magical Maiden, who ran poorly in the opener, finishing fifth in the La Brea Stakes on Dec. 27. Pacific Squall, returning from a five-month layoff, won last summer’s Hollywood Oaks and also finished third in the Alabama Stakes at Saratoga.

Arches Of Gold, winner of the La Brea, won’t run Sunday because of the longer, 1 1/16-mile distance, and Race The Wild Wind will be held out of the race because of the mud.

There are four holdovers from the seven-furlong La Brea, including Terre Haute, who ran third. This is Sunday’s lineup, in post-position order: Certam De May, Interactive, Terre Haute, Pacific Squall, Autumn Mood, Secretly, La Spia, Avian Assembly and Magical Maiden. Terre Haute and Secretly will be coupled in the betting.

The final race in the series will be the La Canada on Jan. 30.

In today’s San Carlos Handicap for sprinters, Answer Do gets a new rider in Pat Valenzuela because the 7-year-old gelding’s regular jockey, Eddie Delahoussaye, is sitting out a five-day suspension.

Last year, it didn’t seem to matter who rode Answer Do. Before Delahoussaye took over the assignment, the horse won the Phoenix Gold Cup with Russell Baze aboard and Gary Stevens was his jockey for a 1 1/2-length victory in the San Carlos.

Answer Do proved his versatility in his last start, winning at 5 1/2 furlongs on the grass for Delahoussaye in the Turf Express Handicap at Hollywood Park. That was Answer Do’s 15th victory in 40 starts. He also has had 15 seconds and six thirds while earning $776,855.

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Corey Nakatani won the last three races he rode on Friday at Santa Anita. His mount in the feature, Navajo Pass, was scratched, and it was probably just as well. The 6-5 favorite, Beverly Z., splashed to a three-length victory under Martin Pedroza.