Los Alamitos Stewards Suspends Three Trainers and Fines Each $1,000

Quarter horse trainers Allen T. Millenheft, John Smith and Tom Tarwater have been suspended for 90 days and fined $1,000 by the Los Alamitos Board of Stewards for allegedly drugging their horses, Jim Parrish, a California Horse Racing Board investigator, said Monday.

Seven Los Alamitos trainers have received suspensions in less than a week, all for illegal use of the painkiller hydromorphone.

The stewards reached their decisions on Millenheft and Smith on Friday, and on Tarwater on Saturday.

All three were cited under CHRB rule 1887, which holds a trainer ultimately responsible for the condition of his horses.

Parrish said the three men have not yet indicated if they intend to take the route of trainers Steve Rothblum and Alvin Caddin, who received stays on their suspensions pending appeal to the CHRB executive committee.