Trainer Gargan is suspended 10 days for joint injection violation

Trainer Danny Gargan has been fined and suspended from Dec. 7 through 16 for working a horse within less than seven days of a joint injection. The horse, juvenile McKinzie colt Capo Di Tutti, was fatally injured in the Oct. 29 workout at Belmont. 

According to a Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority ruling published Monday, Capo di Tutti was given a joint injection on Oct. 23 and worked six days later, Oct. 29. HISA rules require a seven-day stand-down between an injection and a workout and require a 14-day period between an injection and the race. The ruling was previously reported by Byron King of BloodHorse.

New York equine injury records state that Capo di Tutti pulled up near the wire in that Oct. 29 workout with a fractured sesamoid in his right front and that he was euthanized at Ruffian Equine Hospital after the workout as a result of the injury. The fatal injury was not mentioned in the HISA ruling.

The 10-day suspension and $6,000 fine levied against Gargan are the penalty prescribed under HISA rules for a second infraction of the joint injection rule within a 365-day period. Gargan was fined $3,000 for breezing Good Illusion at Saratoga on Aug. 5, six days after a joint injection.

Joint injections reduce pain and inflammation. The injections keep horses comfortable while a joint is healing, but the analgesic effect can mask lameness. The stand-down period is intended to reduce risk by keeping horses out of high-speed work while a joint is healing and while lameness is more difficult to detect due to the analgesic effects of the injection.

Gargan is best known for training Dornoch, winner of both the Belmont Stakes and the Haskell (G1) in 2024. He has trained one other Grade 1 winner: juvenile filly Iron Orchard, who won the Frizette (G1) at Belmont this year. Iron Orchard was sold to KatieRich Farms after the Frizette, and though Gargan kept her through her ninth-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, she will move to the barn of Steve Asmussen for her 3-year-old season according to a Nov. 8 report from Tom Pedulla at Paulick Report.