Don’t bet on a court overturning Derby DQ

If the owners of Maximum Security turn to the courts to reverse his historic Kentucky Derby disqualification, they’ll find the odds stacked against them.

No horse owner has successfully appealed the outcome of a horse race in a Kentucky court. And successful appeals of stewards’ decisions are rare nationally, according to experts on equine law.

Louisville attorney Bob Heleringer, author of “Equine Regulatory Law,” said in Kentucky, “I don’t know of any appeals that even have been tried.”

Kentucky regulations say flatly that stewards “shall make all findings of fact as to all matters occurring … during the running of a race” and “shall not be subject to appeal.”

But Gary and Mary West, the owners of Maximum Security, did just that Monday, filing a protest and appeal of what their lawyers say was the “arbitrary and capricious” decision Saturday to disqualify their horse and award the first-place finish to Country House.

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission quickly denied the appeal Monday.

If the appeals goes to court, Heleringer and other equine lawyers say judges tend to defer to stewards and racing commissions because they are the experts on horse racing.

But Heleringer, who has consulted with one of the Wests’ attorneys, said the U.S. Supreme Court has held that racetrack employees and licensees do have due process rights.

Louisiana DQ overturned

Last year, a Louisiana appeals court upheld a trial judge’s finding that racing stewards and the state racing commission got it wrong when they disqualified Coalport and jockey Rosie Napravnik from a first-place finish in the 2014 Unbridled Stakes at Louisiana Downs. The three-judge panel, which heard from Napravnik and reviewed the race video, ruled a foul had occurred but that the second-place finisher would not have won had the race had been clean.

Louisiana attorney Bill Marshall said he thinks it was the first time in the U.S. that a DQ affirmed by a racing commission had been reversed by a court. The ruling saved Ken and Sarah, owner of Ramsey Farm, $30,000 in purse money.

But Marshall noted Kentucky rules are different from Louisiana’s, which allow the state racing commission to hear appeals of stewards’ decisions.

It’s like suing over a referees’ call

Racing traditionalists say they believe stewards’ decisions should not be reversed.

Turning aside the appeal of the owner of a horse named Chilly Peppa, who was moved from second to third after a racing violation at Hoosier Park that cost the owner $6,250, famed Judge Frank Easterbrook wrote for a federal appeals court panel in 2005 that stewards “are no more bound to offer hearings than are referees of the National Football League.” Reversals of stewards’ calls are rare. In 1991, three stewards in California disqualified the winner of the $300,000 Del Mar Derby for interference, but the state racing commission reversed the decision and a judge ruled the evidence supported that call.

The Los Angeles Times reported that it was believed to be the first time in California racing history that a stewards’ decision was reversed in an important race.

Before Saturday’s disqualification, the most famous one in the Kentucky Derby came in 1968, when Dancer’s Image crossed the finish line first but later was placed after tests showed the colt had traces of the then-banned medication phenylbutazone — known as Bute — in his system.

Owner Peter Fuller, a New England car dealer, claimed the test was botched. Fuller, who died in 2012, told reporters he spent $250,000 in legal fees fighting to retain his victory. But five years after the race, he had exhausted all legal moves.