Racing Board Reverses Decision in Drug Case, Will Return Purse

One of the owners of a horse that was disqualified at Santa Anita last winter said Saturday that the positive drug test has been overruled and the purse money will be returned to him and his partners.

Bob Huston, who owned Layton Hill in a partnership when the 6-year-old gelding ran in a claiming race in January, said that the California Horse Racing Board has accepted a recommendation from an administrative law judge to reinstate the horse as the second-place finisher. Layton Hill had been disqualified when a post-race urine test came back positive for atropine, a prohibited medication.

Second place in the race was worth $4,800. According to Huston, a split sample from Layton Hill was sent to Ohio State and that laboratory said that there was no positive. Bob Hess Jr., who trained Layton Hill, was exonerated of responsibility for the positive test by the racing board.

“I believe that this is the first time that an owner’s drug disqualification has ever been reversed in California,” Huston said. “Other owners’ cases that have been overturned have always been accompanied by a stewards’ ruling against the trainer as well.”