Miller: 'Asinine' rule behind an Arkansas Derby scratch

A bewildered trainer Peter Miller on Friday took issue with California Horse Racing Board regulations that left his horse on the vet’s list, leading to a scratch from this weekend’s Arkansas Derby (G1).

Wrecking Crew, Miller said, was prescribed clenbuterol in March after a veterinarian found mucus in the 3-year-old colt’s breathing passages. But under California’s updated clenbuterol regulations effective Jan. 1, a horse must record an official workout for a state vet where both blood and urine are negative for the substance before racing again.

Connections were neither aware Wrecking Crew made the vet’s list, nor could Miller find a training peer aware of the new clenbuterol statues.

“Where do you start?” Miller said. “The whole thing is asinine from top to bottom. The rule makes no sense because we have a zero tolerance on the drug (on race day). If you have zero tolerance on the drug, you cannot have it in your post-race sample, end of story. If you’ve got it, you’re suspended. You’re disqualified. You're screwed.

“…You talk about a waste of money. So you’re going to spend $500 to test a horse for a substance he’s not allowed to have. Why are you testing for it?”

Scrutiny has ramped up in recent years given the perception that horsemen could abuse clenbuterol, a bronchodilator, by administering excessive doses out of competition. The substance can take on similar effects as a steroid, beefing up horses to look better for sales season or enhance performance on track.

Miller’s vet prescribed clenbuterol in such a way that is permitted under CHRB rules. But because procedures were not followed to get Wrecking Crew on the vet’s list, the horse remains there, unable to run in Oaklawn Park’s signature race due to reciprocity of rulings across jurisdictions.

Wrecking Crew, whose last two works are 3/4-mile bullets at the San Luis Rey Training Center, showed up on the CHRB's list Saturday. Entries for the Arkansas Derby were taken Sunday.

“Oaklawn, why didn’t they catch it until three days later?” Miller asked. “The truth of the matter is, they wanted the race to split and took any and all entries.”

Wrecking Crew had drawn into the Arkansas Derby’s first division led by Charlatan, the undefeated, west coast-based colt who would have been short on purse money to qualify for the race had it not run in multiple flights. Flavien Prat had the mount on Wrecking Crew, a 20-1 morning line shot.

Grade 1-placed at age 2, Wrecking Crew was seeking to run second off the layoff. In his first start this season, the son of Sky Kingdom campaigned by Gary Hartunian’s Rockingham Ranch finished fifth on March 7 in Santa Anita Park’s San Felipe Stakes (G2).

From there, Wrecking Crew traveled to Dubai for the UAE Derby (G2) later canceled as fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. Wrecking Crew then shipped out of California again, this time to Oaklawn, at what Miller said was a $10,000 cost for Rockingham Ranch.

“California leads the way in superfluous rules,” Miller said. They make rules for the sake of making rules. They make rules that make no sense. There’s no thought process or just common sense to it.

“…At the end of the day, the owner gets screwed. The owners in this business, they’re not going to continue to take it forever. That’s why you see horse ownership and horse crops dwindling and dwindling. You have to treat the owners better.”