The Jockey Club suspends 12 trainers from registering foals

Twelve trainers, most of whom had horses who failed drug tests in recent years, were banned from registering foals for 1-5 years, The Jockey Club said in a news release Friday.

Michael Pino and James Nicholson Jr., two of the four active Pennsylvania trainers who were named, got two-year penalties. Nick Caruso and Ralph Riviezzo also got two years even though they have not had starters in more than two years.

Gary Johnson, a top 10 trainer this year at Mahoning Valley in Ohio, was handed a four-year sanction as was Angela Aquino, who trains mostly at Los Alamitos in California.

Iowa-based Robert Roe, who has not had a starter in 2024, got five years, the longest penalty on the list. He served a one-year training ban in 2020-21 and was fined $1,000 by the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission. At the time Roe claimed he accidentally spilled a banned medication into a horse’s joint supplement.

Damon Dilodovico, a Maryland trainer who had multiple positives with his horses but none listed by the Thoroughbred Regulatory Rulings website since 2020, got three years.

Félix Flores-Coba of New Jersey and Ívan Vázquez of Ohio got three years each, and José Romero of Ohio was penalized for two.

Amber Cobb, based in Delaware, got a one-year sanction but apparently not for a medication violation. Thoroughbred Regulatory Rulings said she was cited for behavioral violations in 2021, the last time she had a starter. She received a seven-year training ban from the New Jersey Racing Commission in 2023.

The punishments take effect with the new year Wednesday and are limited to foal registration. The 12 people named will not face other restrictions at this point from The Jockey Club.

According to a news release, penalties may come when “there is a final determination by a court, whether civil, criminal or administrative, an official tribunal or an official racing body that such person killed, abandoned, mistreated, neglected or abused or otherwise committed an act of cruelty to a horse or violated applicable racing authority statutes, rules or regulations relating to horses on one or more occasions involving prohibited or restricted drugs, medications or substances ... or on three or more occasions in any 365-day period involving prohibited or restricted drugs, medications or substances.”