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California Horse Racing Board Considers Options in Baffert Drug Case

``The earliest the CHRB could take up the issue of whether to pursue Judge Dickran Tevrizian's ruling in the Ninth District U.S. Court of Appeals is at its Nov. 30 meeting, spokesman Mike Marten said.

``...Judge Dickran Tevrizian enjoined the CHRB from enforcing a 60-day suspension against Baffert on the grounds the board's main drug-testing facility, Truesdail Laboratories, had violated Baffert's right to due process under the 14h Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by tossing out the blood samples drawn from the horse in question.

``The filly Nautical Look had won an allowance race at Hollywood Park on May 3, 2000. A post-race urine analysis by Tustin, Calif.-based Truesdail revealed a trace amount -- 73 nanograms -- of morphine. A second test conducted by Texas A & M University on the same urine sample confirmed the positive result.

``Baffert contended the positive was the result of processed feed that may have included wild poppy seeds. He said he was satisfied with the decision, but still angry with the CHRB for showing `ignorance and vindictiveness' in pressing the case.

``...During an eight-day stewards' hearing in April, experts testified that the discarded blood samples were unimportant because such a minor level of the painkiller would be undetectable in blood tests. The stewards, acting instead on the urine test results and the state's `no tolerance' stance with regard to performance- enhancing drugs, issued the 60-day suspension.

``That led Baffert to sue, first in California Superior Court to get a stay of the suspension, and then in federal court to seek relief from the stewards' ruling. Tevrizian found that the CHRB had a duty to preserve the blood-sample evidence to protect Baffert against a faulty urine analysis.

``...Blood tests are less reliable than urine in cases of trace substance amounts for, among other reasons, a `dilution factor, 'said Dr. Ron Jensen, the CHRB's equine medical director. `A horse has seven to eight gallons of blood, but maybe only a pint or two of urine,' he said..."

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