Court upholds Todd Pletcher’s 10-day suspension in Forte medication case

New York’s appellate court kept Todd Pletcher’s 10-day suspension on the books, a ruling that gives the Forte medication case a final legal stamp and sends a clear message to top barns: even a short penalty can carry long aftershocks.

The unanimous panel in the Appellate Division, Third Department, decided Matter of Todd A. Pletcher v New York State Gaming Commission on May 7 and affirmed the Hall of Fame trainer’s 10-day suspension and $1,000 fine. The case stemmed from Forte’s victory in the 11th race at Saratoga Race Course on September 5, 2022, in the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes, when post-race blood and urine samples tested positive for meloxicam. Split-sample testing at the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory confirmed the finding, and New York regulations prohibit meloxicam in any amount for Thoroughbred horses racing in the state.

This is more than a paperwork finish. Pletcher runs one of the most visible operations in North American racing, and rulings involving his stable inevitably land harder than the average disciplinary case. A 10-day suspension is brief in calendar terms, but it still hits a major barn where it matters: public reputation, race planning, staffing, and the ongoing argument over whether racing’s medication rules are enforced evenly and firmly enough to keep bettors and horsemen confident in the product.

The New York State Gaming Commission had already upheld the suspension and Forte’s disqualification in December 2023 after a hearing officer recommended sustaining the penalties. That matters because it shows the state’s case did not depend on one isolated ruling. The commission, then the court, both landed in the same place: the rules were broken, the sample mattered, and the penalty stood.

Forte’s later record made the original disqualification even more visible. After losing the Hopeful result, he went on to win the Breeders’ Futurity, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and the Florida Derby, earned the 2022 Eclipse Award as champion juvenile male, and later retired to his breeding career at Spendthrift Farm. That arc only sharpens the point of the appellate ruling. New York’s courts were willing to let a high-profile name, and a standout 2-year-old, sit under a medication penalty years after the race itself faded from the daily news cycle.