Mayberry Suspended After Horse Fails Test

Trainer Brian Mayberry was suspended for 30 days Thursday by the California Horse Racing Board because of what CHRB stewards at Del Mar identified as a positive drug test on a horse he ran at Hollywood Park on July 6.

The ruling said that Gamblin A.J., trained by Mayberry at the time, was found with a foreign substance, promazine sulfoxide, in his urine after the sixth race that day. Steward Dave Samuel described promazine sulfoxide as a tranquilizer.

Actually, Gamblin A.J. reared in the starting gate, losing jockey Martin Pedroza, and did not run the race.

The winners of all races are tested, along with all claimed horses, the first three finishers in stakes races and nine others at random each day. Gamblin A.J. was claimed by trainer Mike Mitchell out of that Hollywood Park field, prompting the drug test.

The horse is scheduled to run in Saturday’s Del Mar Debutante out of the Mitchell barn.

According to the terms of the suspension, Mayberry loses his license privileges and is denied access to all premises within the CHRB’s jurisdiction. The 30-day period will begin next Tuesday.

“We’re getting in line with other jurisdictions,” said Ingrid Fermin, a steward at both Hollywood Park and Del Mar. “In the past, other jurisdictions have been more severe than the State of California.”

Mayberry, 56, was irate.

“This is my first offense after a long and pretty good career as a horse trainer, and I get a 30-day suspension,” he said. “I went in there like a wide-eyed innocent, without a lawyer, like I was advised. If I didn’t have two daughters following in my footsteps, it might make me quit training.”

Mayberry, who called the trainers’ responsibility rule archaic as written, said he will appeal the suspension.