US trainer to appeal against ban after horse dies from apparent drug overdose

A US trainer has been handed two consecutive year-long suspensions from racing and fined $2,500 after a horse in his care died from an apparent drug overdose in May 2021.

Cody Axmaker, 33, who currently trains at Tampa Bay Downs in Florida, plans to appeal against the decision taken by stewards at Monmouth Park in New Jersey following the death of six-year-old mare Wishful "on or about May 9" last year from an apparent clenbuterol overdose, four or five days after she arrived at Monmouth for stabling.

Clenbuterol is a medication that can be used therapeutically to assist horses with respiratory difficulties. However, critics say the drug has been abused for muscle development properties, leading many regulators and racecourses in the US to implement restrictions on its use beyond treating horses with lower airway disease.

Axmaker claims Wishful and other horses he trains were accidentally fed clenbuterol, a jug of which the trainer said was mistakenly brought on to the Monmouth property.

"Hopefully they grant me a stay and I can fight it. It was all an honest mistake," Axmaker said of his appeal before the New Jersey Racing Commission.

"We weren't intending to give any of them clenbuterol.

"It was in there from previous tracks I've been at that allow it. I was new in Monmouth. I didn't think anything of it. I wasn't planning on unloading it. It ends up getting unloaded, and now I'm in a world of [trouble] for it."

Wishful developed colic but appeared on the mend before she was discovered dead in her stall in the days after her exposure. Axmaker said his 14 other horses recovered with adequate hydration and after being treated with acepromazine, a tranquilliser.

Stewards issued Axmaker with a one-year suspension and fine for possession of the jug of clenbuterol in his stabling area, and an equivalent suspension and fine for failing "in his duty as trainer to protect and guard the horse Wishful against the administration of the prohibited substance". Without a stay or successful appeal, he is to serve his suspensions from May 7, 2022 to May 6, 2024.

'I don't feel [clenbuterol] is that harmful'

Axmaker said he informed Monmouth's investigator about what occurred the day after the clenbuterol ingestion and his other horses were given time and tested to see if the drug had cleared their systems before racing.

The ruling said the jug of clenbuterol "may have been labelled aloe vera" and that Axmaker "instructed his stable employee to administer aloe vera".

Axmaker disputes that portion of the ruling, saying the jug's label fell off due to age, leaving it without one. He said the clenbuterol was issued to him by a veterinarian in Arizona years ago.

"I don't feel [clenbuterol] is that harmful. If you give an excessive amount going by what happened, it could be real harmful," Axmaker said.

"I've used it in the past correctly. It's just for cleaning up their lungs of mucus. If you have a horse that bleeds, it helps keep their lungs cleaned up and keeps them in the feed tub also.

"I'm trying to feel out the appeal and see what happens. I don't know if I can win the fight."

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