Trainer Bob Hess Jr. Suspended for 60 Days

Hollywood Park stewards on Saturday handed trainer Bob Hess Jr. a 60-day suspension after one of his horses tested positive for morphine earlier in the meeting.

Hess immediately said he planned to appeal the ruling, which was issued after a three-day hearing by stewards Tom Ward, Pete Pedersen and George Slender. Guide, who won the 1993 Del Mar Derby, tested positive for morphine after finishing third in the fourth race on May 6.

William Hodel, a groom who worked for Hess on a temporary basis, admitted using heroin before feeding the horses a few days before Guide raced, and heroin can show up as morphine in urine. Hodel was suspended for the Hollywood Park meeting after a search of his living area by California Horse Racing Board investigators turned up drug paraphernalia.

It was argued by Hess and his attorney, Don Calabria, that contamination led to Guide’s positive test, but, under the trainer-insurer rule, Hess is responsible for what happens at his barn.

“I’m extremely surprised,” Hess said of the suspension, which is scheduled to begin Wednesday--Del Mar’s opening day--and run through Sept. 23. “We are definitely going to appeal the decision.”

Hess, 30, could have faced up to a one-year suspension and a fine.

“Due to the mitigating circumstances, we tried to be fair and equitable and that’s how we came up with 60 days,” Slender said.

“We felt he was very negligent in the handling of his barn. I’m not saying he did [anything wrong], but he’s responsible. . . . I find it troubling that no one in the barn was aware [of any drug use].”