Puype Credited for Time Served After Banned Drugs Found

Santa Anita Park-based trainer Mike Puype, provisionally suspended by the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit this summer after the currently banned substances isoxsuprine and levothyroxine were found in his barn, was fined $1,000 by arbitrator Barbara Reeves and credited for time served. Her Dec. 12 decision formally resulted in him serving a suspension of three months and 17 days, commencing July 18 and ending Nov. 4. According to documents posted to the HIWU website, a search of his barn yielded two expired bottles containing isoxsuprine in a blue cooler and two expired bottles containing levothyroxine found in a locked cabinet. Isoxsuprine is a prescription vasodilator medication to help improve blood circulation and is sometimes used to treat lameness for navicular disease or laminitis. Levothyroxine is a synthetic thyroid hormone used for an underactive thyroid. The latter drug had widespread use during the prior decade before regulators began to curb its use over concerns about indiscriminate use and its potential to impact performance. Puype and two of his assistants all attested that one of the two substances was found in a blue cooler that belonged to a former assistant who was no longer working for Puype. One current assistant, Alfredo Garcia, added the blue cooler "has been in a corner with boots and other things piled on it for many years and has always remained at Santa Anita." Per document arguments, neither Puype nor his assistant trainers were aware that the two containers of levothyroxine were in the cabinet. Puype asserted that he would have "properly disposed of them immediately" had he been aware of them. Puype's assistants were the ones that made use of the cabinet, according to the trainer. Puype and his assistants deny administering levothyroxine to any horse. One canister, dated March 2021, was "unopen and unused," and the other, dated February 2016, was "mostly empty." The HIWU documents suggest the drugs found in Puype's barn were prescribed during the prior decade by his former veterinarian, Dr. Jeff Blea, who worked in private practice before becoming the California Horse Racing Board's equine medical director in 2021. Puype argued to the arbitrator that he would never even consider administering an expired medication to any horse in his care. HIWU contended to the arbitrator that Puype bore liability for the actions of his current and former staff, and his "ignorance of the contents of his barn and attempt to shift the blame onto his assistant trainers (did) not negate his exclusive control over the premises where the seized substances were found." The sanctions issued by the arbitrator fall short of the standard suspensions imposed by HIWU under the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority's Anti-Doping and Medication Control Program. One of those rules noted presumptive consequences calling for an ineligibility period of two years and a fine of $25,000. Another rule, however, allows for a reduction of a period of ineligibility where there is no significant fault or negligence, allowing suspensions to fall between three months and two years "depending on the Covered Person's degree of fault." Puype had contended the appropriate suspension was from three to four months. Puype, who began training in 1988, has conditioned such top horses as two-time Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1T) winner Mizdirection, multiple grade 1 winner Turbulent Descent, and grade 1 winners Lord Grillo and Running Flame.