Midwestern trainer John T. Brown has been suspended 18 months after a horse he trained tested positive for isoxsuprine, a vasodilator that is banned under new rules that went into force on May 22 and that replaced a rule that had previously treated the drug as a regulated substance in most U.S. racing jurisdictions. The 18-month suspension is the first resolution to a case involving a banned substance since the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit took over drug-testing and enforcement in most U.S. racing jurisdictions in May. Since the implementation of the new rules, HIWU has issued provisional suspensions to a dozen trainers who have had horses test positive for banned substances. The recommended suspension for a violation involving a banned substance is a two-year suspension, regardless of the potency of the drug. However, HIWU has said that trainers can receive reductions to the suspension based on their cooperation with the investigation. In addition to the 18-month suspension, which started on June 28, the day Brown received a provisional suspension from HIWU, the Brown ruling included a suspension of 60 days for the horse that tested positive and a $12,500 fine. The horse, Rollin On Tequila, was disqualified from a May 31 race at Thistledown in which the 7-year-old gelding finished sixth at odds of 24.60-to-1. Efforts to contact Brown were unsuccessful on Monday. The ruling notes that Brown admitted to a violation of the isoxsuprine rule and had accepted the “consequences.” Brown has run mostly in Ohio and West Virginia over the last several years. In 2017, he won a career-high 29 races from 277 starts, for total earnings of $454,814. In 2022, he won nine races from 91 starts, and in 2023, he had won three races from 38 starts prior to being suspended. Alexa Ravit, a spokesperson for HIWU, said that the organization would not comment on specific cases or their adjudications, including the Brown case. A formal report on the adjudication will be issued within 20 days of the ruling, Ravit said, and the report will be made available on HIWU’s website. Vasodilators like isoxsuprine relax blood vessels and can reduce blood pressure. It is unknown whether isoxsuprine has a significant vasodilation effect on an exercising horse. It is a prescription drug, and it cannot be compounded. It is sometimes used off-label to treat navicular disease or laminitis, two extremely serious foot diseases. Isoxsuprine is listed as a Class 4, C penalty drug on a list still maintained by the Association of Racing Commissioners International, an umbrella group for racing commissions. Under that classification scheme, penalties for a first offense for a positive for isoxsuprine would have been a minimum fine of $1,000, with no recommended suspension. However, that classification is out of step with guidance from the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium, an advisory group for racing pre-dating HIWU, which issued a bulletin in early 2022 noting that the FDA had withdrawn its approval for isoxsuprine for use in horses in 2020. The notice urged horsemen “to consult their veterinarians on proper disposal of any isoxsuprine in their possession” and also contended that the ARCI should place isoxsuprine on its list of “non-approved substances,” which would have made the finding of the drug a prohibited practice and established far stiffer penalties for positives. Due to its lack of FDA approval, HIWU’s rules simply put isoxsuprine in its banned substance category. In the lead-up to the implementation of the new rules, personnel with HIWU conducted seminars at tracks across the U.S. about the changes to drug regulations that would occur as of May 22, and a copy of the presentation that was made to horsemen that remains available on the HIWU website contains a slide explicitly warning horsemen that isoxsuprine is a banned substance. That presentation, prepared by Dr. Mary Scollay, the chief of science for HIWU, urges horsemen and veterinarians to have a “spring cleaning event” in advance of the May 22 implementation of the rules to rid their barns or veterinary trucks of banned substances, explicitly in reference to isoxsuprine. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages. “Possession of isoxsuprine constitutes possession of a banned substance,” Scollay says in the presentation.