Trainer Linda Rice gets 2-week suspension for bute overage
Linda Rice, the leading trainer this season at Aqueduct, was ordered to serve a 14-day medication suspension March 3-16 for a bute overage last winter, according to the New York State Gaming Commission’s rulings database.
Rice also was fined $2,000, because the now 5-year-old mare Afleet Arlene tested positive for an excessive amount of phenylbutazone after winning a $28,000 claiming race Jan. 21, 2023, at Aqueduct.
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The Paulick Report, which ran the story first, quoted Rice as saying, “I initially appealed the suspension, but after reviewing the facts, I decided to drop the appeal.”
According to the ruling posted by the NYSGC, “Linda Rice trained horse Afleet Arlene that finished first in the fourth race at Aqueduct Racetrack on Jan. 21, 2023, and having received a report from the New York drug-testing and research program that a race-day sample taken from the horse Afleet Arlene had the substance phenylbutazone present at a concentration, including an assessment of the measurement and imprecision of the quantitative threshold, in excess of the quantitative threshold, in excess of 0.3 micrograms per milliliter in plasma. ... Trainer Linda Rice is hereby fined the sum of $2,000 and suspended 14 days March 3, 2024, through March 16, 2024, inclusive. Furthermore, the stewards order horse Afleet Arlene disqualified from any part of the purse and the purse redistributed.”
Afleet Arlene was placed last in the field of seven. A $16,000 claim for her already had been voided by the track veterinarian, according to the Equibase race chart. The daughter of Afleet Alex owned by Winning Move Stable has not raced or worked since.
Rice served a separate 10-day suspension and was fined $1,000 last February for a failed drug test two weeks before Afleet Arlene’s race. Winter Pool, now a 7-year-old gelding, was flagged for bute after a Jan. 7 Aqueduct claiming-race victory that was subsequently vacated.
The Paulick Report pointed out the two penalties given to Rice came before the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority established new rules for bute overages. Now they result in no suspension, a $500 fine and a payback of affected purse money.