Young Trainer Caught in Vet's Web of Violations

Young Illinois trainer Vance Childers learned a harsh lesson recently about being too trusting of a racetrack veterinarian and not asking enough questions about how his horses are being treated. His inexperience led him to be suspended three years and 10 months and fined $30,000 by the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit. Childers has only been training since 2020 after inheriting a racing stable owned by his grandfather. Along with the stable came the services of veteran racetrack veterinarian Dr. Donald J. McCrosky, who worked with the grandfather, according to HIWU records. Childers' troubles began Oct. 16, 2024, when a gelding in his care named Childersattack tested positive for testosterone following an out-of-competition blood test. According to HIWU rules, geldings should not test above 100 picograms/milliliter and the then-4-year-old's test results were 579 pg/ml. A second testosterone positive occurred with another gelding in Childers' stable named Tigger Attack, who was tested following an Oct. 29, 2024, race at Fairmount Park where the horse finished fifth in an allowance optional claiming race. Tigger Attack initially tested with a 374 pg/ml concentration and the B sample test revealed a concentration of 363.5 pg/ml. Childers was notified about Childersattack's testosterone positive Nov. 12, 2024. On that day, HIWU investigator Matthew Meyer also discovered a tub of the banned substance kava kava in Childers' barn tack room. Known simply as kava, or Piper methysticum, the herbal product is considered a sedative and analgesic. McCrosky responded to the Childersattack positive notification with a handwritten note stating he had castrated Childersattack in March 2022, but he had an undescended testicle that remained intact. HIWU requested the gelding's medical records, which McCrosky did not provide. Instead, the vet followed up with another handwritten note in April 2025 that he had removed the remaining testicle Dec. 2, 2024. Regarding Tigger Attack, the vet admitted to giving the gelding 1 cc of testosterone because a groom told him the horse was not eating well. McCrosky told HIWU he treats a horse with testosterone "only every once in a while" and no fewer than seven to 10 days before a race. A review of medical records by HIWU in the InCompass database showed that Childersattack had been tested Sept. 24, 2024, because he was on the vets' list and showed no overage for testosterone. Also, HIWU could find no evidence that Childersattack had any surgical procedure in December 2024. In a prehearing brief, Childers had argued that the horse was a ridgling and that is why he tested positive for testosterone. In a posthearing brief, however, after McCrosky admitted to giving Tigger Attack a testosterone injection, Childers concluded "Dr. McCrosky fabricated the ridgling explanation and that Childersattack was in fact a gelding at the time of the Oct. 16, 2024, sample." Childers later testified that he did not know about either gelding being given testosterone injections and that he never gave any horse the kava, which had been found on a back shelf "covered in dirt/dust, and the bag inside the tub appeared to be full and in its original state," according to an arbitration panel report. Still, Childers was found responsible for not thoroughly inspecting his tack room for any banned substances and disposing of them. Childers did say he found and disposed of a container of thyroid powder. The trainer admitted he did not attend any HIWU educational seminars on how to comply with new rules implemented by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, but because he had disposed of the thyroid powder and the kava was apparently not used, HIWU considered Childers moderately at fault for the violation. Childers was considered moderately at fault for the two testosterone positives as well, because he testified that McCrosky told him the horses were getting "vitamins" and "buildup" substances. The trainer said he recognizes the difference between giving a treatment such as the anti-inflammatory phenylbutazone or vitamins and giving testosterone is "a big difference." He said he had "assumed it was one way" when "it was not." Childers' three-year-and-10-month suspension started May 7. The problems with Childersattack and Tigger Attack, both bred by McCrosky and raced by his wife, Lois, are only two items among a laundry list of violations involving McCrosky. A licensed vet in Illinois for more than 50 years, McCrosky has been banned from racing for 24 years, which started Feb. 9, and fined $300,000 for violations dating back to October 2023. Besides the testosterone violations, McCrosky has been sanctioned for violations including the intentional and flagrant disregard for the Anti-Doping and Medication Control program rules, possession of five banned medications, the sale and distribution to trainers of drugs loaded into syringes (substances including testosterone and the bronchodilator glaucine), and two incidences of tampering after repossessing a container of thyroxine (Thyro-L) and a bottle of Osphos (clodronic acid) after they had been confiscated by HIWU investigators, according to HIWU reports. Read: Illinois Veterinarian McCrosky Suspended 24 Years