Taylor v. Wright

WARD, J.

This raises the same question involved in

Sandstrom

v.

California Horse Racing Board,

31 Cal.2d 401 [189 P.2d 17], namely, the validity of rule 313 of the Rules of Racing of the California Horse Racing Board (tit. 4, Cal. Adm. Code, § 1930) which provides in part: “The trainer shall be the absolute insurer of and responsible for the condition of the horses entered in a race, regardless of the acts of third parties. Should the chemical ... or other tests, prove positive, showing the presence of any narcotic ... or drug of any kind or description, the Trainer of the horse may be suspended or ruled off ... in the discretion of the Board.”

As in the Sandstrom case the present appeal is prosecuted by the members of the California Horse Racing Board from

[522]

a judgment in a mandamus proceeding ordering them to restore to the trainer the full enjoyment of his license which the board had suspended on the ground of violation of said rule 313.

Respondent’s petition for mandate filed in the lower court shows that on May 16, 1946, he was a duly licensed race horse trainer of a horse named “Red Beard”; that at a hearing held said day the racing steward of one of the California race tracks informed him that the urine test taken from ‘ Red Beard” on May 10, 1946, after winning a race at the track, had reacted positively to a benzedrine test showing the presence of benzedrine in the urine of said horse; that on June 14.1946, a notice of time and place of hearing from the secretary of the California Horse Racing Board was mailed respondent notifying him that a hearing would be held on June 24.1946, to determine whether his license should be suspended or revoked upon the ground that the analysis of urine taken from the horse, after running in the race, proved positive, showing the presence of benzedrine (amphetamine), and that said horse had “been trained by you at said time and place in violation of Rule 313 of the Rules of Racing adopted by the California Horse Racing Board. ’ ’ Pursuant to the notice a hearing was conducted. On July 26, 1946, the commission ordered the trainer’s license suspended for a period of six months from May 16, 1946, and on August 1, 1946, notice of this action was mailed him, stating': “The grounds for such action are that you violated Rule #313 of the Rules of Racing of the California Horse Racing Board.”