An 81-year-old private vet and 13 trainers based at Penn National have been accused by the PA Racing Commission and HISA of conspiring to administer intra-articular injections to the joints of more than 100 different horses within the prohibited periods ahead of races or training sessions from May ’23 through Nov ’24. Apparently, after injection, 30% of the horses never raced again – “strongly suggesting these injections were used to mask pain,” says HISA – 10% came back lame, and no fewer than seven died in the race that followed or in a race or training session shortly thereafter.

For his part, the veterinarian, Dr. Allen Post Bonnell, said this in a BloodHorse article: “I love these animals; I love horses. I would never give horses anything illegal. These are permitted medications, and they caught me injecting a knee – I could see where that would call for a punishment but not on the level of what they’re looking to do.” The article goes on: “Bonnell…said because of restrictions on injections, many races are not filling” and “that while he’s not especially fond of administering injections, he was doing his job and helping horses with the hyaluronic acid and flumethasone he was administering.”

According to the PA Commission, “Dr. Bonnell informed investigators that trainers will request his services for intra-articular injections because they know he will not report them as required, allowing them to run their horses during the time they should have been placed on the veterinarians list. Investigators inquired if he charges extra for not reporting intra-articular injections and he advised he just charges a standard rate of $50.”

Thus far, only four of the trainers have been named: Kimberly Graci, Bonnie Lucas, Marlin Arthur “Joe” Miller, and Javier Morzan. Graci was prominently mentioned in the PA report: “Dr. Bonnell was finally forthright with investigators and admitted that Ms. Graci told him to use a different horse’s name if he reported the injection. Investigators inquired why he wouldn’t report this injection as required and he advised that Ms. Graci asked him not to report it so the horse would be able to race later that week.”

According to investigators, one of the Graci horses, Zoomer, had all four knee and hock joints shot up in October. Zoomer’s last race for Graci was Oct 4 at Delaware (while all injections happened at Penn, the 100+ victims were raced at multiple tracks in multiple states). But as of Jan 3, Zoomer, who will turn 9 tomorrow, was still active: racing at Penn, he finished 9th for trainer Anthony Aquirre. Horrible animal abusers, all. I will update.

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