Trainer Jeff Mullins, who ranks second in wins at Santa Anita and ninth nationally in purses, ran a horse last month in a $150,000 race who tested with excessive sodium bicarbonate levels in his system, track officials said.
The horse, Puppeteer, ran second as the 3-1 second choice in the San Marcos Handicap on Jan. 22 and earned $30,000.
Rick Arthur, a veterinarian who chairs an industry committee that has led a testing program for milkshakes, as the bicarbonate cocktails have been called, said that under a stall-application provision that Mullins signed, the trainer's horses would be subjected to detention-barn surveillance for 30 days. A day before the horses run, they will be isolated in a barn that will be monitored by a camera and security personnel.
Milkshakes, which are said to help a horse's performance by reducing the fatigue factor, have been a source of concern for tracks in California and elsewhere. Last summer, Del Mar became the first thoroughbred track to test regularly for milkshakes in California.
