California-based trainers Peter Eurton, Carla Gaines, and Michael McCarthy have been given 10-day suspensions this month for recent violations of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority’s rules regarding intra-articular injections.
Eurton was cited for working Lil Nas at Santa Anita on Sept. 21, six days after the gelding received an intra-articular injection, according to a ruling on HISA’s website. HISA rules state horses may not be given a workout within seven days of such treatment.
In a ruling issued on Nov. 24, Eurton was fined $6,000 and suspended 10 days, from Dec. 1-10, for the violation, his second such infraction within a year. Eurton was fined $3,000 in February for a similar violation that occurred in October 2024.
On Friday and Saturday at Los Alamitos, two runners previously trained by Eurton will start for Doug O’Neill, including Cosmic Heat in Saturday’s Grade 2 Starlet Stakes.
Gaines was fined $6,000 and suspended 10 days, from Dec. 2-11, after Winning Patriot was given an intra-articular injection at Santa Anita on Sept. 23 and had a workout there on Sept. 29. Gaines had a similar violation earlier this year and was fined $3,000, according to HISA documents.
McCarthy was cited for working Hotrocket on Oct. 4 at Santa Anita after the gelding was given an intra-articular injection on Sept. 28. McCarthy had a similar violation in the fall of 2024 and was fined $3,000, according to HISA documents.
For the Hotrocket infraction, McCarthy has been fined $6,000 and will serve a 10-day suspension from Dec. 8-17, according to a HISA official.
Eurton’s suspension comes at the end of one of his best seasons.
Eurton has won a career-best 57 races through Thursday with horses that have earned more than $3.76 million. His stable earned a career-best $4,235,430 in 2016.
Eurton has diversified his stable in the last few years, launching a division in Kentucky. Since the beginning of 2024, Eurton has won seven races at Churchill Downs, five at Keeneland, four at Ellis Park, and three at Kentucky Downs.
McCarthy has a division in Kentucky, and is in the midst of his best season by far. The stable has been led by Journalism, the three-time Grade 1 winner who won the Preakness Stakes and was second in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.
Through Thursday, McCarthy had 73 wins this year and stable earnings of more than $10.3 million, a record. The stable won a record 78 races in 2024.
Gaines, a fixture in California racing for decades, has won 24 races this year. Her stable had earnings of more than $1.34 million this year through Thursday.
The three suspensions coincide with the current Los Alamitos meeting that ends on Dec. 14, and will be completed well in advance of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting that begins on Dec. 26.
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