Four trainers based out of Penn National Race Course in Pennsylvania have been charged with multiple violations of a rule prohibiting intra-articular injections of corticosteroids within prescribed stand-down periods before races or workouts, according to records posted on the website of the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit.
Erin Carpio, who has a total of 24 wins from 345 lifetime starts since 2019, was charged with seven violations of the rule. Fernando Ferreira, who is wanted on multiple felony charges, including child rape, and has not started a horse since Nov. 10, 2023, was charged with three violations.
On Friday afternoon, HIWU posted records for two more trainers based at Penn National with identical violations. David Geist, who has won 1,452 races over a nearly 40-year training career but whose starts have dwindled over the past five years, was charged with five violations of the corticosteroid rule, while Jose Salinas, who has 54 wins from 988 starts over a 24-year career, was charged with one violation.
The cases are related to a wide-ranging investigation conducted by the Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission, HIWU, and the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority. The general investigation involves the practice of Dr. Allen Post Bonnell, a racetrack veterinarian who has been charged with conspiring with 13 trainers to administer illegal injections of corticosteroids and falsify the treatment records.
Bonnell has been summarily suspended by the PSHRC, as have four of the trainers said to be involved. Marlin Miller, one of the suspended trainers, was also charged with eight violations of the rule, according to information posted on HIWU's website Thursday.
Alexa Ravit, a spokesperson for HIWU, said that the multiple violations for each trainer would be treated as one violation under guidance that HISA released last September. That guidance says that adjudications of multiple violations of the same rule would be treated as one violation if the trainer did not receive a notice of violation prior to the issuing of a charging document.
The maximum suspension for a violation of the corticosteroid rule is 60 days, absent mitigating or aggravating circumstances, and the minimum penalty is 30 days.
Because the HIWU charges are related to controlled medications rather than banned medications, Carpio and Ferreira were not issued suspensions under HIWU’s rules. Carpio has a horse entered on the March 13 card of Penn National.
Other trainers involved in the investigation are expected to be charged in the coming weeks. HIWU does not name trainers involved in an investigation until after they have been served with the notice.
Ferreira was charged with 22 criminal counts, including 18 felonies, in Pennsylvania last year, with all of the charges based on incidents in 2013. In November, state police issued an alert asking the public for assistance in locating Ferreira, who had won 186 races from 2,441 starts going back to 2001 before he disappeared.
An investigative report prepared by the Pennsylvania commission described hundreds of treatments administered by Bonnell in violation of both state rules and HISA rules. In the report, Bonnell admitted to injecting both hyaluronic acid and flumethasone into the joints of the horses within four to five days of a race, and he said that he would commonly list the injections as “draining” the joint, rather than injecting it, to hide the activity from regulators.
Although several trainer names were redacted in the report, many of the trainers said that it was well-known that Bonnell would administer the treatments without reporting the injections to HISA, as is required by the authority’s rules.
Corticosteroids are long-acting anti-inflammatory and pain-killing drugs. Although commonly used, they are tightly regulated by racing authorities due to their ability to mask pain and interfere with pre-exercise examinations for soundness.
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