California Horse Racing Board

The former chairman of the California Horse Racing Board is the focus of a criminal investigation for allegedly keying a longtime nemesis' pricey foreign car in Hollywood Park's parking lot last month, the Inglewood Police Department said Monday. Richard Shapiro, who directed the CHRB for four years until his December resignation, allegedly scratched horse owner Jerry Jamgotchian's 2007 Jaguar XJS after an April 24 CHRB meeting.

After a year of growing concern over catastrophic injuries in thoroughbred horse racing, new statistics indicate a slight drop in racing and training fatalities in California for 2006, offering the first sign that the unexplained rise has leveled off, according to Rick Arthur, equine medical director for the California Horse Racing Board. "We've certainly stopped the trend," Arthur said Monday. "Now what we need to do is address the underlying problems."

In a move aimed at bringing uniformity to the use of medications in horse racing, the California Horse Racing Board on Tuesday tentatively adopted guidelines that will establish standard fines and suspensions for trainers but also will put more responsibility on owners and veterinarians.

For the second time this year, lawmakers are scrutinizing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's appointees on a state board over conflicts of interest and other issues. In a rare move this month, a state Senate subcommittee stripped the California Horse Racing Board of its $10.8-million budget. Legislators have accused members of mismanagement and ethical lapses, including the refusal of one appointee to surrender $24,000 in prize money won by a horse he owned that had tested positive for morphine.

The turbulent career of 45-year-old jockey Patrick Valenzuela took another downward turn Friday when the California Horse Racing Board terminated his conditional riding license after learning of a recent arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol. A statement issued by outgoing CHRB Executive Director Ingrid Fermin said that "consuming or being under the influence of alcohol is a violation" of the conditional license. Valenzuela was arrested Dec. 20 at 2:48 a.m.

Richard Shapiro, chairman of the California Horse Racing Board, has ordered an independent review of an incident last summer at Del Mar involving a veterinarian and the Eclipse Award-winning mare Intercontinental. Scott Chaney, a steward at Santa Anita, will conduct the review of veterinarian Amy Lee Nevens, who falsified a bleeder medication report for Intercontinental last Sept. 3, the day the Danehill mare won the Palomar Breeders' Cup Handicap as the 3-10 favorite.

Horsemen, racetrack operators and members of the California Horse Racing Board learned about Polytrack on Tuesday at Santa Anita at the first of three informational meetings on synthetic track surfaces. At its February meeting, the CHRB, citing safety concerns, decided to require replacement of dirt tracks with synthetic racing surfaces at thoroughbred tracks in the state with meets longer than four weeks. Such tracks have until the end of 2007 to comply or face the loss of racing dates.

California Horse Racing Board Chairman Richard B. Shapiro issued a statement Wednesday defending the trainer of Pacific Classic winner Lava Man and Del Mar racetrack officials after comments by another trainer questioning the fairness of the race.

Sometimes a change of course is what a horse needs. If the horse is Cambiocorsa and the course is Santa Anita's hillside turf course, it always seems to pay off. Fifth in her last start in the CashCall Mile at Hollywood Park in July, Cambiocorsa took a 2 1/2 -length victory in the $100,000 Sen. Ken Maddy Handicap Wednesday on opening day of the Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita and is now eight for eight on the unique downhill course.

In a rebuke of the California Horse Racing Board's actions against Pat Valenzuela, an administrative law judge has paved the way for the talented but troubled jockey to ride horses again. Splitting hairs, saying a follicle is not the same as a strand, the judge, H. Stuart Waxman, overruled last year's stewards' suspension of Valenzuela and vacated the ruling. The racing board will meet today at Santa Anita to consider the opinion, which was issued Nov. 23 but not made public until Thursday.