Private Zone, one of the leading dirt sprinters in the United States, has added a bizarre and unfortunate footnote to his career after he was banned from racing in New York on Friday because his trainer failed a drugs test.
Brian Lynch, who has trained Private Zone for only a few months after taking over the gelding’s preparation in November 2015, is believed to have tested positive for marijuana and has surrendered his trainer’s licence to the New York State Gaming Commission. As a result, he cannot be listed as a trainer on a race day, and Private Zone has been scratched from the Grade Two True North Stakes at Belmont Park, a $250,000 event for which he was expected to start favourite.
The NYSGC did not confirm Lynch’s suspension was the result of a failed test, but Rene Douglas, whose Good Friends Stable owns Private Zone, told the Daily Racing Form the trainer had been selected from workers on the track’s backstretch for a random drugs test and had tested positive for marijuana.
Douglas, while disappointed that Private Zone will be forced to miss Friday’s race, blamed the commission’s policy of random drug testing rather than the gelding’s trainer for the seven-year-old’s absence from the field.
“I don’t think it’s fair for Brian, it’s not fair to the owners or the horse,” Douglas told DRF. “It’s not Brian Lynch who is going to run, it’s the horse. The horse is ready to run. We waited five months to run him. I’m not mad at Brian. I’m human, too.”
Lynch is no stranger to controversy, as his licence was suspended at Woodbine in 2013 after he was alleged to have threatened to kill Sunny Singh, a jockey, on the backstretch of the Canadian track, as well as “dangerous operation of a motor vehicle”.
It is unclear how long Lynch’s suspension will last, though he may need to enter a rehabilitation programme before he is relicensed. Other leading horses previously in his care include Heart To Heart, the runner-up in a Grade One event at Keeneland in April. He was also due to run Royal Squeeze in a Grade Three contest at Belmont on Saturday, but the horse was moved to the care of David Cannizzo in sufficient time to remain in the lineup.
Private Zone ran in Lynch’s name just once after joining the trainer’s barn following his close second behind Runhappy in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland in November. He could finish only fifth of the six starters in the Cigar Mile at Aqueduct after running to free on the lead.
Abingdon, in the pale blue colours made famous by the late Lord Weinstock, took the Listed race run in his memory at Newbury on Thursday afternoon by half a length under Ryan Moore.
Abingdon, a 2-1 chance, was sent to the front three furlongs out and while she was slowing as the line approached, she held the late charge of Beauly with Snow Moon, the favourite, back in third.
Abingdon is owned by Ballymacoll Stud, which produced several leading performers for Lord Weinstock during his long career on the turf.
“She is a big strong filly that probably wants further than a mile and a quarter,” Peter Reynolds, the stud’s spokesman, said. “We don’t get in the winner’s enclosure very often but we are quite excited about her. She is the first foal of a Galileo mare that didn’t race.
“It is great for the filly to win our own race. The last time we did that was with Eleanora Duse [in 2010] and she went on to win a Group Two. The [Group Two] Lancashire Oaks might well be a race we look at.”
