Ness suspension is rescinded by Pennsylvania commission

Trainer Jamie Ness's suspension for a positive drug finding in one of his runners last year was rescinded by the Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission.

According to a Thoroughbred Daily News report, Ness attorney Drew Mollica argued that the presence of bufotenine in the horse's blood could have been caused by inadvertent contamination.

"It's good news," Ness told Horse Racing Nation on Wednesday. "Personally, I don't think it should have gotten that far. It's a known contaminant, obviously it's not commercially available. It's good news. We did our due diligence and presented the Pennsylvania Racing Commission with what we thought was the evidence of the case, and they agreed that it's not a penalty."

The drug, a mild hallucinogenic, was found in a blood sample from the then 3-year-old gelding Crabs N Beer after winning a race at Parx on Feb. 23, 2022.

In August, Ness was suspended for six months and fined $5,000, and Mollica said at the time that the suspension would be appealed.

Bufotenine can be obtained from the skin of a toad, TDN reported, but it also is found in reed canary grass, which grows in pastures.

In its ruling, the commission said the Association of Racing Commissioners International does not specify a threshold level for bufotenine.

The commission said the "proper procedure" would be to follow the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities recommended residual limit of 10 micrograms per millileter in urine.

Based on that level, the commission said, the finding "will not be determined as a positive result. As such, there is no violation of the commission’s rules of racing."