Disqualified: Silver Dust Tested Positive For Levamisole After Louisiana Stakes

2/15/2020 – Silver Dust with Brian Hernandez, Jr. aboard wins the 35th running of the Grade III Mineshaft Stakes at Fair Grounds. Hodges Photography / Amanda Hodges Weir

Silver Dust, winner of yesterday’s Grade 3 Mineshaft Stakes at the Fair Grounds, has been disqualified from his Jan. 18 win in the G3 Louisiana Stakes after testing positive for levamisole, reports the Daily Racing Form. Trainer Bret Calhoun agreed to a $1,000 fine and the disqualification, placing Silver Dust last.

The Racing Medication and Testing Consortium in 2017 issued an advisory about levamisole, a commercially available dewormer for cattle, sheep, goats and pigs that also has off-label uses in horses as an immunostimulant and to treat equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM). The advisory states that levamisole can metabolize in horses to the Class 1 drug aminorex, a potent stimulant. RMTC said a positive finding for aminorex “is associated with a potential career-ending penalty,” but Fair Grounds stewards told drf.com that no aminorex was found in the samples.

Trainer Joe Sharp had eight horses disqualified for levamisole at Fair Grounds between Dec. 1 and 28, and his trainee Blackberry Wine (who finished seventh in Saturday’s G2 Risen Star) was also disqualified from an allowance win on Jan. 18. Sharp told the Paulick Report that he purchased dewormer at Tractor Supply containing the drug, and that he has since removed it from his barn.