RMTC
By: Matt Hegarty
Trainer Kellyn Gorder has been granted a stay of a 14-month suspension for two Kentucky rules violations and will be free to start horses until an appeal of the ruling is heard, according to Kentucky chief state steward Barbara Borden.
Gorder appealed the suspension shortly after it was handed down in late April, Borden said. A hearing on the appeal has not yet been scheduled, Borden said.
Gorder was suspended for 14 months after a horse he trained tested positive for methamphetamine, a Class 1 stimulant, and a related search of his barn turned up syringes and unlabeled bottles of medication. The horse that tested positive did so after a race on Nov. 22 at Churchill Downs, and the search took place at Gordon’s barn on Dec. 27 at Keeneland.
Gorder has denied that he ever administered methamphetamine to any of his horses, but he has acknowledged being in possession of a hypodermic syringe, saying it was an oversight related to the administration of an antibiotic solution to a horse in his barn during the summer of 2014.
Gorder’s suspension was to have started on May 1. His appeal of the methamphetamine positive will likely hinge on the concentration of the drug in the horse’s system. Gorder has said that the positive was for a trace amount of the drug, which is commonly abused by humans.
