State Upholds Race Ban for McPeek Tied to Quarantine

New York State regulators denied a bid for a declaratory relief by trainer Kenny McPeek,who argued that a steward made an “arbitrary and capricious” decision that kept seven of his horses from racing in the days after an equine herpesvirus-1 quarantine ended last summer at Saratoga Race Course.

The state Gaming Commission unanimously sided with Peter Moschetti Jr.— a board member of the commission —who on Oct. 28 ruled versus McPeek’s appeal of the steward’s decision to restrict the trainer from entering the horses Aug. 1, 3 and 4 after a quarantine at Saratoga’s Barn 86 had ended.

An outbreak of the herpes virus was discovered July 15 and all horses stabled in Barn 86 were quarantined for 21 days, effective as of July 11. During that period, Moschetti wrote, all horses in that barn would be prohibited from entering races or training with other horses.

McPeek sought to enter seven of his horses in races set for the very start of August—after the quarantine period. But NYRA rules have deadlines for when horses can be entered, meaning that, for instance, McPeek would have had to enter one of his horses by July 29 for a Aug. 1 race. For the dates he wanted, all had to be entered by July 31—a date that was still in the quarantine period, which ended Aug. 1.

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McPeek was denied entry, the commissioner wrote, “as a result of the stewards’ decision not to allow quarantined horses to be entered into a race during the quarantine period.” McPeek sought a declaratory judgment that the decision was wrong.

“A declaratory judgment is not available when the existence of a controversy is contingent upon the happening of future events which may never occur,” Moshetti wrote in his October ruling that the full commission accepted Nov. 8.

McPeek had also sought to require that the Gaming Commission okay formal “protocols in the future addressing this issue to protect all horsemen similarly situated and grant any sundry relief available to the Commission to assuage the injury to Mr. McPeek and his owners,” Moshchetti wrote in quoting the case the trainer brought before the state.

The commissioner stated the request by the trainer “was beyond the scope of this proceeding.”

In a BloodHorse interview earlier this summer, McPeek sharply criticized the decision to prevent his horses from running even after the quarantine period passed. He said he brought the case against the steward in a bid to force the state to clarify its rules and prevent other trainers from going through what he did in August.

“Officials need to address some standard operating procedures and protocols for everyone that make(s) sense. To keep horses who have cleared quarantine from not running is nonsensical,” he said in early August.

In a message Monday night, McPeek said the Gaming Commission handled the whole affair poorly.

“All we’ve ever asked is that they establish consistent protocols. They just bury their heads into the sand,” he said.