By: Evan Hammonds

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission granted Patrick Biancone a conditional license to resume training Thoroughbreds during their monthly meeting Aug. 15. The 16-1 vote came after the KHRC license review committee added two conditions to the trainer’sĀ application July 19.

Biancone has not had a license in Kentucky since 2007 following the discovery of cobra venom in hisĀ KeenelandĀ barn and he was handed a one-year suspension.

“There’s a point where you have served your time and you’re clean and that’s when you give people a second chance,” said Dr. Foster Northrop, who was on the commission when Biancone was originally suspended. “That’s where we’re at. I’ve gotten more comments on the racetrack over this than anything in the 50 to 60 years I’ve served on commissions. I’ve gotten a lot of flack. But this guy has served his time. Isn’t that what the justice system is all about?”

“I don’t believe you should hang somebody out forever,” said commission member Kerry Cauthen. “It’s not going to be popular, but everybody who I have talked to who begrudges it probably isn’t looking at it from a legal standpoint. They are looking at it from an emotional standpoint, which I understand.”

In the 2007 finding, KHRC staff searched Biancone’s barn after one of his horses tested positive for caffeine. KHRC noted the cobra venom was found in a container with the name of Biancone’s veterinarian, Rodney Stewart, on the box. While the vet’s name was on the box, KHRC determined Biancone was still subject to sanctions because it was in his barn.

Biancone, who since the suspension has been licensed to train in multiple states and has not had any violations, currently has a string of horses at the Palm Meadows Training Center in South Florida.

The license review committee tacked on these terms in their July session:Ā Any finding in any jurisdiction of a Class A or Class B medication, or any unclassified substance that would fall in the A or B Class, would result in Biancone’s license in Kentucky to be immediately and permanently revoked.

The condition, it was further noted, would occur after due process.

If Biancone is found to falsify any future license application to any other racing state, his license would be revoked in Kentucky.

KHRC executive director Marc Guilfoil noted that the second provision was put in place because when Biancone applied for reinstatement of Kentucky license in 2010, he withdrew the request after then committee chairman Burr Travis raised concerns that Biancone had not included all infractions on his application.

As for his new license, KHRC member Kenneth Jackson noted: “Anybody who has had any kind of suspension or violation and has been made aware. … is under a higher level of scrutiny.”