Clement is suspended 7 days after medication violation

Trainer Christophe Clement was suspended for seven days, beginning Thursday, after a filly in his care tested positive for acepromazine, a sedative.

The Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit also imposed a fine of $1,000 and two penalty points. The action was reported earlier by Paulick Report.

Mizoula, a 3-year-old daughter of Zoustar, tested positive for the sedative, a controlled substance, after her second-place finish in a maiden special weight at Gulfstream Park on March 3. She was disqualified from the race and the purse money was ordered to be returned.

That was the filly’s second of three career starts. Most recently, she was sixth in a maiden special weight at Keeneland on April 5, and she has been training since at Saratoga.

Clement told Paulick Report that Mizoula was not given the sedative intentionally and that the finding must have resulted from a barn mistake or contamination at the track. But he said it would be “too complicated and expensive” to fight the penalties.

As Paulick Report noted, Thoroughbredrulings.com lists only one previous medication violation for Clement, a finding of omeprazole sulfide, an anti-ulcer medication, in a horse in 2010.