Charles Town stewards have declined to penalize trainer Curtis Bass after a cocaine metabolite was detected in his winning mare, marking the second such ruling at the track in eight months.
The stewards determined that a “trace level” of benzoylecgonine found in Crafty Windsor Cat following her April 10 victory in a $5,000 claiming race resulted from “inadvertent exposure” to the substance. While the horse was disqualified and the purse forfeited, Bass faced no sanctions against his license.
This ruling mirrors a similar September 2024 decision at Charles Town involving trainer Justin Nixon, where officials also cited inadvertent exposure as the mitigating factor.
West Virginia’s Thoroughbred medication testing currently operates outside Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) oversight due to a preliminary injunction pending federal litigation.
The stewards’ approach parallels actions taken by the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) in 2023, when it dropped pursuit of two cocaine metabolite positives after determining that appropriate testing specifications for cocaine metabolites in blood samples were not fully standardized.
Under both HISA regulations and West Virginia Racing Commission rules, benzoylecgonine — cocaine’s main metabolite — is classified as a banned substance. West Virginia specifically categorizes it as a Class 1, Category A substance (the most severe classification) with no acceptable threshold concentration.
Bass waived his right to a hearing and declined split sample testing after the positive result.
“Mr. Bass’ past record as a permit holder is good in that he has never had a medication violation in any jurisdiction since his first license in 2018,” the ruling stated.
The stewards emphasized that the trace amount “lends credibility to the probability that the horse was inadvertently exposed to the drug in some manner” and concluded “there is no reason to believe that Mr. Bass knew of or caused the drug to be administered to the horse.”
Based on these factors, officials opted not to impose the standard penalty for a first offense Class A medication violation, which would typically include a one-year suspension, $10,000 fine, and six Multiple Medication Violation points.
Bass, 62, remains winless in 17 starts this year. The mare’s owner, Tamera Bass, was ordered to forfeit the winning purse, and Crafty Windsor Cat was disqualified to last place in the 4 1/2-furlong sprint she had won by 4 1/2 lengths.
All four recent cocaine positives — the two under HIWU’s jurisdiction in 2023 and the two at Charles Town in 2024 and 2025 — involved detections via blood samples, though the 2024 Charles Town ruling noted that urine testing was also used in Nixon’s case.
