Horse Given Painkiller Breaks Down at New Mexico Racetrack

A horse that recently tested positive for a supercharged painkiller drawn from a type of South American frog broke down and was euthanized Thursday at a New Mexico racetrack after winning a trial heat for the coming All American Futurity, one of the world’s richest horse races. The horse, Jess A Zoomin, was one of eight New Mexico quarter horses that tested positive for the painkiller dermorphin on the same day in late May. All were running in an earlier round of trial heats to earn the right to advance to the Futurity, which has a purse of more than $2 million. The dead horse’s trainer, Jeffrey Heath Reed, is accused of doping five of those horses. But he has been allowed to continue training — and vying to win the Futurity on Labor Day — after exercising his right to verify the state’s positive tests at a second laboratory. A second horse that Reed trained, which had not tested positive for dermorphin, also broke down and was euthanized Thursday during another trial heat for the Futurity. Reed declined to comment. Vince Mares, executive director of the New Mexico Racing Commission, expressed frustration at the length of time the lab is taking to report its dermorphin findings. “We do not have the authority to tell other labs to hurry up,” Mares said. The quarter horse industry has also been rocked this year by charges that a small group of horsemen had been laundering money through racehorses for two Mexican drug cartels...more