Trainer Jonathan Wong is suspended for banned substance

The Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit provisionally suspended trainer Jonathan Wong on Saturday after a horse he trains tested positive for a banned substance.

The substance is metformin, which is used to treat diabetes in humans. A 3-year-old filly named Heaven and Earth tested positive for the substance after winning a maiden special weight at Horseshoe Indianapolis on June 1.

Reached by Horse Racing Nation on Sunday, Wong referred questions to his attorney, Alan Pincus. The suspension was reported earlier by Paulick Report.

Wong has about 110 horses in training in California and Kentucky, according to the report. He began expanding his operations to Kentucky last year. (Read more here.)

Pincus told HRN on Sunday that Wong will pursue a provisional hearing to to see whether the suspension will remain in place until a full hearing. The attorney said the suspension is “outrageous” on at least two fronts.

One is the level of violation for the substance.

“Prior to this, we had a system with (the Association of Racing Commissioners International) of class 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 with different penalties for each of them. And HISA has eliminated those, superseded those, and now we have therapeutic medications and banned substances. And many of the things they have as banned substances should never be banned substances. … But they don't do that. So when you get a penalty for a banned substance, and Jonathan's is considered a banned substance, you're facing two years and $25,000, absolutely punitive.”

Pincus said Wong has a prescription for metformin, “and he evidently accidentally contaminated his horse.”

He also objects to the process.

“The worst part about it is they throw you out of horse racing at the moment they give you the notice. So they give a notice yesterday, they told him he’s out of horse racing today. He has not been charged with anything, OK? Won't be charged with anything until the split sample comes back. But by then, fatal damage is done. You can ask for a provisional hearing on it, which is only to to stop the suspension until the main hearing comes. They tell you the things you can argue, making it extremely difficult to defend yourself. They also charge you half of the cost of the hearing, the other half borne by HIWU. But HIWU has the right to come back and get that half from you. And also make you pay their attorneys fees.”

HIWU is the organization that administers rules and enforcement under the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority's anti-doping and medication control program.

Pincus pointed out the financial burden the process brings.

“This is a monetary procedural barrier for a trainer just to get his due process,” he said. “Ninety-eight percent of trainers cannot afford this kind of stuff, because it's going to cost them at least $4,000 or more for the provisional hearing, and an amount more than that for the actual hearing. They do not give you a choice where to send the split sample. In the case of (another trainer he represents), it's going to be $2,000 for the split sample, which I paid for that exact same drug $750 seven months ago. I don't know if they're gouging or there's a surcharge or what. They tell you the lab it's going to, no choice.”

This, he said, is “the worst part about it.”

“They, in an un-American way, punish you before you ever have a chance to defend yourself,” Pincus said.

His other client, Mario Dominguez, whose horse tested positive for cobalt, also a banned substance, “is now 20 days into his, and he's not yet been charged with anything.”

Dominguez did not pursue a provisional hearing because he could not afford it, Pincus said.

The attorney said that even if Wong prevails at his provisional hearing, “Do you think knowing that another hearing is coming in a week, or four or five weeks, that the owners are going to give (their horses) back? Do you think the track will give him his stalls back? It put him out of business. And then what happens if the split sample comes back a few weeks from now. And it's actually doesn't confirm the test. What do they say say? Oops, sorry that I ruined your life?