3 Penn National trainers are sanctioned for illegal injections

Three trainers were suspended and fined by federal racing enforcers after they were accused of being part of a multi-barn effort to illegally inject horses at Penn National with corticosteroids before workouts and races.

Erin Carpio was served with seven notices, Joe Miller six and Kimberly Graci three by the Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit, according to Friday posts on the agency’s website. They were charged with having horses injected within seven days of workouts and 14 days of races, all in violation of Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority medication rules.

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BloodHorse, which first reported the latest sanctions, said horses who failed drug tests were given intra-articular injections between May 2023 and July 2024. They all were disqualified from the races in question with orders for connections to redistribute affected purse money.

The HIWU website said Graci was fined $5,500 and Carpio and Miller $2,500 each for their cases that have been resolved. They all started serving 30-day suspensions Saturday, although Carpio is the only one who has remained active.

One of Graci’s citations listed 66 different races in which her horses were said to have been improperly medicated less than two weeks before their starts.

Miller was cited for six allegedly improper treatments of Highway Queen, who was foaled in 2018 but has not shown up in a workout or a race since she was vanned off from a claiming race in August at Penn National. The mare’s current status was not immediately known.

None of the sanctioned trainers has commented publicly about their cases, according to BloodHorse.