Saldana is ordered to complete 2-year medication suspension

California trainer Reed Saldana lost his arbitration hearing this week and will serve a medication suspension that runs until August 2025, according to a post on the Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit website.

Thoroughbred Daily News was first to report the result of the arbitration.

Saldana was cited in July after 5-year-old Ice Queen tested positive for diisopropylamine, a banned drug that can be used to lower blood pressure and is considered a performance enhancer. The mare was flagged after she finished third June 16 in a $38,000 allowance race at Santa Anita.

In addition to completing a two-year suspension, Saldana was fined $25,000 and was told he would be responsible for the $12,000 it cost HIWU to hold the arbitration hearing he requested. All that is on top of the order to give back the $4,650 that came with finishing third in the June race from which Ice Queen since was disqualified.

Saldana could go to the Federal Trade Commission to appeal Wednesday’s ruling by arbitrator Jeffrey Benz, who wrote that the trainer’s claims of “alleged errors made in collecting and analyzing Ice Queen’s sample ... are vague and unparticularized.”

With no starters since 4-year-old filly Blossoming finished sixth in an allowance race July 1 at Los Alamitos, Saldana has a seven-year record of 656: 88-89-93 with purse earnings of $2,552,650, according to Equibase.