Horse Racing Trainer Jeff Mullins Suspended

The California Horse Racing Board has suspended Jeff Mullins for 30 days effective May 9 and also fined the trainer $2,500 for a total carbon dioxide (TCO2) violation that occurred in 2008, according to a release. This latest incident violates the terms of his probation from another case against Jeff Mullins stemming from a 2006 medication violation and could result in him serving an additional 70-day suspension.

Jeff Mullins is an American Thoroughbred horse racing trainer who trains the Kentucky Derby favorite I Want Revenge, acknowledged that he gave his horse Gato Go Win a dose of what he characterized as a “liquid cough medicine” in the detention barn at Aqueduct on Saturday. Mullins, however, said he did not know that he was violating any rules.

Jeff Mullins trained Pathbreaking when the horse finished third in a race at Del Mar on Aug. 3, 2008. A blood sample tested at the University of California Davis laboratory showed the horse exceeded the allowable limit for total carbon dioxide, or TCO2, a performance-enhancing alkalizing agent known as a "milkshake".

Afterwards, the Maddy Laboratory at UC Davis reported the blood sample taken from Pathbreaking exceeded the regulatory threshold for total carbon dioxide (TCO2), which is a Class 3 violation. This disciplinary case went before a hearing officer, Steffan Imhoff, who conducted hearings at Del Mar last summer. All filings and briefings were closed in February 2010, and then Steffan Imhoff’s proposed decision was sent to the board last month. The board considered Steffan Imhoff’s proposed decision during executive session April 15 and accepted the penalty recommendations of a 30-day suspension and $2,500 fine.

Horse racing trainer Jeff Mullins was on probation for a prior mepivacaine violation at the time of Pathbreaking’s TCO2 violation. Jeff Mullins had served 20 days of a 90-day suspension in the mepivacaine case, and the remaining 70 days was stayed subject to the conditions of his probation, which required that Mullins have no further violations of CHRB regulations. Steffan Imhoff recommended that the 30-day suspension for the TCO2 violation be served concurrently with the 70-day suspension from the probation violation. Instead, the Board instructed a deputy attorney general to proceed expeditiously with a hearing to revoke Mullins’ probation.

Racing association officials said the rules were clear. “It doesn’t really matter what the substance was — you cannot give a horse anything on race day.” said Stephen Duncker, the racing association’s chairman.

Jeff Mullins has a history of medication violations in California. Last spring he was suspended for 20 days by the California Horse Racing Board for use of mepivacaine, an anesthetic. In 2005 one of his horses tested positive for exceeding the limit of total carbon dioxide, which indicates the horse had been given a treatment known as a milkshake, a concoction of baking soda, sugar and electrolytes that helps ward off fatigue. After that positive, his horses were put under 24-hour surveillance for 30 days. 

 

"He (Jeff Mullins) has an entirely different history,I realize it seems a little inconsistent, but we're trying to work with the trainer on this." said Dr. Rick Arthur, a member of the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium and chairman of the Total Carbon Dioxide Testing Review Committee in California, rejects the idea of accidental contamination.