Rick Dutrow Jr., who ranked third among New York trainers this year with 51 victories when he surprisingly turned in his license Sept. 25, did so after testing positive for marijuana, he told The Post yesterday.
Dutrow, 41, said his horse owners are standing behind him 100 percent and that he will reapply for his license when he re-tested with negative results.
Until then, he is not allowed at the racetrack and keeps in touch by phone with trainer Cleveland Johnson, who is running Dutrow’s barn in the interim.
The State Racing and Wagering Board tested Dutrow after he was ticketed for speeding while driving to Saratoga.
“They called me in about 21 days ago, and the test came back with a trace of marijuana in my system,” he said. “I gave the license up. It was either that or face a suspension.
“They basically told me they’re not going to consider giving my license back until I test clean. I haven’t smoked since. As soon as it comes out of my system, I’m going to be knocking on their door looking to be tested again.”
Trace amounts of marijuana can remain in the body for a few days up to three months after it was last used. When Dutrow files to renew his license, “He will have to fill out another application and go through the standard review,” said Stacy Walker of the SRWB. “It takes at least three weeks.”
Walker said there have been no prior rulings against Dutrow.
“He’s got no drug problem,” said owner Sandy Goldfarb, one of Dutrow’s top backers, who urged him to clear the air about his license and put the rumor-mill to rest. “It was just stupidity.
“But all his owners are behind him even bigger now. He’s the hardest working guy out there, who gets to the barn at five in the morning, and he’s a superior horseman. Just by looking in their eyes, he can tell how a horse is doing.”
Dutrow, whose father, the late Dick Dutrow Sr., was a top horseman on the New York, New Jersey and Maryland circuits, was fifth-leading trainer in the Big Apple last year, winning 49 races at a 27-percent clip. He saddled six winners at the current Belmont Park stand before taking his leave.
“My clients are all behind me,” he said. “The only good thing about this is, I get to see who’s on our side. I feel great about my clients, my friends, my family. I’m getting total support.
“My help at the barn is on top of things. They’re going the extra mile for me, and this is a good test for everyone involved. But I can’t wait to get back around my horses. I wake up in the middle of night worrying about them.”
Johnson, 49, said “there is no change, everything is the same” at the barn. A longtime friend of the Dutrow family and former assistant to the late trainer Butch Lenzini, he’s been training a small string of horses on his own for the past 10 years. So far he’s 2-for-2 with horses formerly trained by Dutrow.
Dutrow returned yesterday from the Fasig-Tipton thoroughbred auction at Timonium, Md., where he and his clients spent “about $700,000” to purchase six yearlings.
“It was my very first sale,” he said. “I had nothing but strong people around me, my brother Tony (a trainer in Maryland) and Samantha Siegel (whose family has several horses in training with Dutrow) from the West Coast. I see everything going good in the future.”