Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.The Nebraska Racing Commission unanimously voted Tuesday not to reduce the three-year suspension being served by trainer David Anderson.
The commission's 4-0 vote came via a telephone conference call. Voting against reducing the suspension were chairman Dennis Lee of Omaha, Janell Beveridge of Paxton, Helen Abbott Feller of Wisner and Kristopher Covi of Omaha.
Commissioner Jeff Galyen of Norfolk had a scheduling conflict and did not take part in the vote.
Anderson, a member of the Nebraska Racing Hall of Fame, was fined $4,000 and suspended for three years in February of 2010 after two of his horses tested positive for banned substances at Omaha's Horsemen's Park in the summer of 2009. The request for early reinstatement was made by Anderson's attorney, Mike Kelley of Omaha.
Kelley addressed the commission Tuesday and said he viewed the proceedings as a "clemency hearing."
"We think it's in the best interests of racing that he be reinstated," Kelley said. "Look at the amount of time he already has endured."
The attorney said the commission had reinstated people in the past and asked that it do the same for Anderson.
"We're trying to look at the greater good and that of the industry," Kelley said. "Clearly in my mind, it was a sabotage situation."
Anderson said he understood the ruling against him but added that he had done nothing wrong.
"I'll go to my grave professing my innocence," he said. "I've been a staunch supporter of Nebraska racing and I miss it tremendously."
Anderson had testified at a hearing before the commission in November of 2009 that he did not know how the drugs got into the horses' systems. The horses had tested positive for the banned pain-killers oxycodone and oxymorphone, which are considered Class I drugs.
According to the state's racing regulations, Class I drugs are considered to have no generally accepted medical use in racehorses and their pharmacological potential for altering the performance in a race is very high.
Both horses finished second in their races.
Natalie Hart, a member of the attorney general's office that prosecuted the case, said nothing had changed since the commission handed down Anderson's three-year suspension.
"There's nothing in the statutes that addresses early reinstatement," she said. "And no evidence has been presented for that reinstatement."
Hart added that a reduction of the suspension would send the wrong message to the racing industry.
The attorney general's office originally had recommended the maximum penalty of a five-year suspension and $5,000 fine on each of the infractions. The trainer was fined $4,000 and suspended for three years.
After hearing from both sides, commissioner Beveridge made a motion to leave the suspension the way it was. The other three commissioners agreed.
"The commission gave due consideration of the request for the reduction of the suspension," Lee said. "Because of the nature of the offenses, the penalty will remain."
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