NM Racing Commission considers changes to trainer responsibility rules

Cross-posted from the Albuquerque Journal

Horse Racing New Mexico. Journal image.

Written by CHARLES D. BRUNT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The New Mexico Racing Commission is considering changing a regulation that allows horse trainers to transfer responsibility for their horses to another person when they are not at the track on race day.

Though the regulation was intended to give trainers a way to run their horses when they couldn’t be there -– due to illness, for example -– it’s being abused, said Vince Mares, the Racing Commission’s executive director.

In some cases, substitute trainers, who may not be licensed, have found themselves facing sanctions for running a doped horse they might not have known was drugged. Meanwhile, the “paper trainer,” or the trainer of record, might get off scot-free. Continue reading >>