HIWU ruling ends Thoroughbred trainer’s 50-year career
February 8, 2024,Editor’s Note: A few months ago, we read about the story of Thoroughbred trainer John Pimental, whose life and livelihood were upended when one of his charges, a 5-year-old gelding named Golovkin, tested positive for trace amounts of methamphetamine last May at Monmouth Park.
That the amount detected was infinitesimal and obviously the result of contamination did not matter to the Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit (HIWU), the enforcement and testing arm of the Horseracing Integrity & Safety Authority (HISA), which immediately started an investigation. What happened next defies justification.
It all ended this week. John Pimental is out of the game, a 50-year career over. He decided that HISA was too big to fight. As reported in Thoroughbred Daily News, Pimental’s only previous sanction in nearly a half-century of training was a $100 fine for a failure to have a foal certificate on file.
Every Standardbred horseman should read about what happened to John Pimental. The USTA has opposed HISA for six years. If the Authority survives its court challenges, HIWU is coming to harness racing.
Columbus, OH –– In Wednesday’s (Feb. 7) BloodHorse.com story, Eric Mitchell reports on the end of Thoroughbred trainer John Pimental’s 50-year career in horse racing due to a suspension and fine from the Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit.
Thoroughbred trainer John Pimental, with his wife Diana, has been driven out of the horse industry by a suspension and fine from HIWU. SV Photography.
Mitchell wrote, “John Pimental is done with training racehorses. A 15-month suspension and a $10,000 fine imposed Jan. 30 by the Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit has effectively ended his 50-year training career, Pimental told BloodHorse Feb. 7.”
Pimental told Mitchell why the suspension and fine have driven him out of the training business.
“I’ve lost my owners; it ruined me really,” he (Pimental) said. “I’m scared to get back into the business because I think they’ll just be looking for something else.”
To read the complete story on BloodHorse.com, click here.