Kentucky Fights Sponging At Churchill Downs Historic Track Has Another Outbreak Of Attempts To Slow Favored Horses

Every horse that races at Churchill Downs will have a full exam, including an endoscopic search of its nostrils for sponges, the Kentucky Racing Commission decided Sunday during an emergency meeting in Frankfort.

The meeting was called after Churchill officials found a sponge in the nostril of Early Conquest before a race Thursday and in both nostrils of Class O Lad on Saturday. Both horses were the favorites in their races, and both came up short on the track.

“It was a surprise and obviously bothersome to the racing community,” said Bernie Hettel, the Kentucky Racing Commission’s executive director and chief steward. “It’s an odd pattern of events, of recidivism.”

Sunday’s meeting brought concerned trainers, security officials and heads of the horsemen’s and jockeys’ associations together to discuss the problem. They still don’t know who sabotaged the two horses this spring or the eight found with sponges in their nostrils during the June meet last year. No other tracks have had a problem with saboteurs since the 1960s, Hettel said, and the commission wants to put an end to the problems at Churchill.

At the meeting, the commission voted to step up security around the horses in Churchill Downs’ barns and paddock and to add a more effective, mandatory exam that would detect sponges.

Exams for racing soundness have been mandatory at the Downs for years, but nostril checks had been conducted on only a spot basis in about one in every four horses before each race.

The testing practice was changed after the first sponge was found last week.

Now, a new exam that Hettel says is 100 percent effective is being implemented that should eliminate further problems.

The horse’s veterinarian will insert an endoscope - like a tiny video camera - inside the horse’s nostril. The endoscope takes a picture to make sure the horse’s airways are not obstructed.

State horse racing officials and the FBI are continuing to investigate. They have offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator.