205 CMR 4.36 - Trainers

(1) Each trainer must obtain a license from the Commission.

(2) No trainer's license or assistant trainer's license shall be considered or approved for an applicant younger than 18 years old.

(3) No trainer shall practice his or her profession except under his or her own name.

(4) The Stewards may permit a trainer to act pending action on his or her application.

(5) A licensed trainer may represent the owner in the matter of his or her entries, declarations and the employment of jockeys.

(6) A trainer shall have his or her horse in the paddock at the time appointed.

(7) A trainer shall attend his or her horse in the paddock, and shall be present to supervise his saddling, unless he or she has obtained the permission of a Steward to send his assistant trainer or another licensed trainer as a substitute.

(8) When a trainer is to be absent from his or her stable or the grounds where his or her horses are racing for a period of more than two racing days, and his or her horses are entered or are to be entered, he or she must provide a licensed trainer to assume the complete responsibility of the horses he or she is entering or running. Such licensed trainer shall sign in the presence of the Stewards a form furnished by the Commission accepting complete responsibility of the horse or horses being entered or running.

(9) The trainer shall be responsible for and be the absolute insurer of the condition of the horses he or she enters regardless of the acts of third parties.

(10) Each trainer shall register with the racing secretary all the horses in his or her charge, giving the name, color, sex, age, breeding and ownership of each.

(11) The personnel of every stable and changes shall be registered, by the trainer, with the Security Department at the track where their horses are racing or stabled, and shall be available at all times to representatives of the Commission.

(12) A trainer shall not have in charge or under his or her supervision any horse owned, in whole or in part, by a disqualified person.

(13) A trainer shall not have in charge, or under his or her supervision any horse owned, in whole or in part, by a jockey.

(14) No trainer shall accept, directly or indirectly, any bribe, gift or gratuity in any form which might influence the result of any race or which would tend to do so.

(15) No trainer shall move or permit to be moved any horse or horses in his or her care from the grounds of an Association until the horse is properly signed out of the grounds at the stable gate and after the racing secretary has been properly notified.

(16) A trainer shall not enter or start a horse that:

(a) is not in serviceably sound racing condition;

(b) has been trachea-tubed;

(c) has been "nerved" at or above the ankle.

(d) has been nerved or had cryosurgery performed on a nerve; except that horses that have had a neurectomy or cryosurgery performed on the posterior digital nerve below, and not at, the fetlock of one or more feet may be permitted to race.

(e) is blind or whose vision is seriously impaired in both eyes. A horse blind in one eye may start only if the other eye has normal vision.

(f) does not comply with M.G.L. c. 129, § 44 and 330 CMR 16.05: Prevention and Suppression of Equine Infectious Anemia.

(17) A trainer shall report promptly, to the official veterinarian, all horses in his or her care that have been nerved. A list of nerved horses approved by the official veterinarian for racing shall be conspicuously posted in the racing secretary's office.

(18) No trainer shall employ a jockey for the purpose of preventing him or her from riding in any race.

(19) A trainer is responsible for reporting the proper gender of his or her horse at the time of entry, and reporting the castration of any horse in his or her care to the horse identifier and official veterinarian.

Notes

205 CMR 4.36