California-based trainers Reed Saldana and Milton Pineda were the latest trainers to be provisionally suspended by the Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit for possession of a banned substance and/or its metabolites or markers.
Pineda had three horses test positive while Saldana had one, all for the banned substance diisopropylamine, a vasodilator used in the treatment of peripheral and cerebral vascular disorders in horses. The drug is not approved by the FDA.
The horses found with diisopropylamine in their system were the Saldana-trained Ice Queen (ran June 16) and Pineda trainees Big Splash (June 10), Flatterwithjewels (June 9), and Bella Renella (June 18). All horses were exiting races at Santa Anita Park. Flatterwithjewels was claimed by trainer Phil D’Amato on behalf of Flurry Racing Stables after finishing second in a $12,500 claiming race but that claim was voided in adherence to the rules of HISA.
Both trainers will not be permitted to start horses until the suspension is lifted.
In a July 7 story published in the Paulick Report, Jeff Plotkin, an owner with Saldana, identified the supplement SU-PER B-15 as the source of the diisopropylamine positive. On the company’s website, the product is described as containing Vitamin B-15, or pangamic acid, which “has been shown to increase oxygen delivery to the muscles, as well as help to use oxygen more efficiently during the oxidation of glucose.”
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Diisopropylamine is an active component of pangamic acid, according to an article published in the National Library of Medicine.
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