Three stakes-caliber Quarter Horses trained by Monty Arrossa, including American Dreamin, the winner of the $1,046,800 Golden State Million Futurity at Los Alamitos last October, tested positive on four occasions for the class 1 medication carmoterol last fall, according to the California Horse Racing Board’s website.
Carmoterol is a bronchodilator not permitted to appear in post-race tests. As a class 1 medication, carmoterol positives are subject to potential lengthy suspensions and substantial fines, according to the racing board rule pertaining to medication violations.
The rules state that horses that test positive for class 1 medications be disqualified from prize money and that purses are to be redistributed, absent the findings of mitigating circumstances.
American Dreamin tested positive twice for carmoterol – on Oct. 20 in an out-of-competition test taken after time trials for the Golden State Million Futurity on Oct. 5, and after the Oct. 27 final. Ab Seis Corazones tested positive after a second-place finish in the $763,000 Los Alamitos Super Derby on Nov. 10. Blood Viper, who finished fourth in the Golden State Million Futurity, tested positive once, on Oct. 20 in an out-of-competition test.
The three runners are owned by the prominent stable of Matt and Bendi Dunn. Arrossa, one of the nation’s leading Quarter Horse trainers, did not return a phone call seeking comment on Thursday.
According to racing board executive director Scott Chaney, the positives were found in initial tests taken at UC-Davis, and confirmed at Industrial Labs in Colorado. The results of the second test, or “B” sample, were announced earlier this week on the racing board’s website.
The racing board is conducting an investigation into the positives, but has not filed an official complaint or scheduled a hearing with Arrossa.
Jeff Blea, California’s equine medical director, said American Dreamin and Blood Viper were allowed to start in the Golden State Million because the results of the out-of-competition tests had not been finalized before the lucrative final of the 400-yard race for 2-year-olds.
“Seven days is not enough time to get the results back, much less than the split sample,” Blea said on Thursday.
American Dreamin earned $439,656 for the win in the Golden State Million Futurity and $3,300 for winning a division of the time trials. Blood Viper earned $1,350 for finishing second in a division of the Golden State time trials. Ab Seis Corazones earned $123,710 in the Los Alamitos Super Derby.
Ab Seis Corazones, a gelding was listed as sold for $125,000 by Dunn Ranch to Amaro Racing at the Heritage Place winter mixed sale in Oklahoma City earlier this month, according to sale company records.
Arrossa ranked fifth among the nation’s Quarter Horse trainers in 2024 with earnings of $3,817,560 and led the nation’s trainers in earnings in 2020 and 2021. In 2024, Arrossa had 70 winners from 321 starters.
A native of Idaho, Arrossa has had a dominant stable at Los Alamitos for nearly a a decade. Last year, Arrossa saddled the first three finishers of the Los Alamitos Super Derby in November and the first six finishers in a field of 10 in the $285,000 Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association Futurity at Los Alamitos last September.
Earlier in 2024, Arrossa won such races as the Charger Bar Handicap, Ed Burke Million Futurity, El Primero Del Ano Derby, Golden State Derby, and Los Alamitos Winter Derby, all at Los Alamitos.
Arrossa has twice won the Champion of Champions, the nation’s leading race for 3-year-olds and older Quarter Horses – with Zoomin for Spuds in 2016, and Apollitical Pence in 2021.
The carmoterol positives are the first class 1 violations in California since Flagstaff tested positive for the banned medication clodronic acid, a bisphosphonate, following a second-place finish in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship in September 2020.
In a settlement agreement between trainer John Sadler and the racing board, Sadler was fined $5,000 for the infraction. Flagstaff earned $40,000 but was disqualified, leading to a redistribution of part of the purse.
An attorney for Sadler argued that Flagstaff was treated with clodronic acid in 2019, before bisphosphonates were banned, and that the substance can remain in a horse’s bones for considerable time.
Bisphosphonates are part of a class of drugs used to stimulate the repair of bone material, and were at the forefront of regulatory discussions nationwide at the time.
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