In a race held on March 8 at Laurel, the filly Devil Pays in Gold (Uncle Lino) tested positive for the prohibited drug Metformin, according to a May 21 notice from the Horse Racing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) on its website.
For good reason, the verdict does not name a trainer, nevertheless. Although David Howard was identified as the race's trainer, he died seven days later at the age of forty-five from a heart attack. The fact that Devil Pays in Gold had tested positive would not have been known to him at the time.
“David Howard was the trainer of record when Devil Pays in Gold tested positive for metformin,” stated HIWU's director of communications and outreach Alexa Ravit in an email. “Howard passed away later that month. Thus, the only potential sanctions for this case are the disqualification of race results and a period of ineligibility for the horse, which has already been completed.”
Humans use metformin, one of the most often prescribed medications on the market, to manage Type 2 diabetes. The connections have maintained that environmental contamination was the cause of the positive in multiple HWU cases with Metformin.
Devil Pays in Gold appeared in the Laurel entries for trainer Kieron Magee two weeks after Howard's death. For her new trainer, she won the allowance race by a margin of 1 3/4 lengths. Since the race on March 29, she has not run.
The magazine published by the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association states that Howard was first exposed to the racing world by Magee. He subsequently worked with horses in Amanda Rawlings' barn before obtaining his trainer's license in 2021. He had won a $12,500 claimer at Laurel with Thencomemorning (Friesan Fire) the day before he died, and he had placed fifth in a maiden special weight race with Goldrush Hottie (Golden Lad), his final horse.
Out of 250 starts, Howard had 28 victories in his career.