Richard Moreau appeal hearing to continue

by Melissa Keith

Late last week, the Ontario Horse Racing Appeal Panel (HRAP) issued its ruling on whether the ongoing case of suspended trainer Richard Moreau would continue or come to a conclusion on procedural grounds about testing. An “interim decision” dated April 22, 2026 noted that regardless of issues raised about the collection and handling of blood samples from Funtime Bayama, a confirmatory lab had established the presence of DPO (darbepoetin-alfa) in the gelding’s plasma. The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) prohibits use of DPO in racehorses because it is a long-acting, synthetic performance-enhancer that can permanently damage the animals’ red blood cell production.

The appeal hearing had come to a pause on March 20, 2026 as the HRAP took time to weigh the evidence and arguments.

Counsel for the Defense Jean-Marc MacKenzie had raised serious concerns about breaches to Moreau’s anonymity and the sample’s integrity due to chain of custody and handling issues.

“Livelihood is at stake; standards must be met,” he said in his March 20 closing arguments. “There needs to be a framework, not just with the testing, but in the forensic part of it. This is very much a penal proceeding Mr. Moreau is facing. He’s already faced 605 days, a serious monetary fine, and suspension.”

MacKenzie said that because test results provided by LGC Laboratories were “insufficiently reliable” and “prejudicial to the proceedings,” they should be excluded from consideration.

“If we allow what happened here, this panel is signaling a double standard: The CPMA [Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency] will apply one standard and the AGCO, when it decides to spend its own money, can apply a different standard, [a] lower standard… This cannot be in the best interest of the industry.”

MacKenzie compared the case to an incomplete “home run” in baseball. While describing the logic as “novel and fascinating” in their decision, HRAP Chair Stanley Sadinsky and members Dr. John Hayes and Nicolle Pace ultimately disagreed with his explanation.

“[I]n our view, this analogy does not carry over to the circumstances of this case,” the HRAP ruling, dated April 22, stated. “In baseball if a home run is hit and the batter while rounding the bases does not touch one of the bases or home plate, a baseball rule provides that the batter is out and the home run does not count. There is no such rule that applies in horse racing to the testing procedures or the chain of custody of a sample on its way to being tested. There is no rule or even a standard that provides that if there is a suspect link or links in the chain of custody or in the testing, any subsequent test result of the sample cannot stand.”

The panel based its decision on LGC lab’s Certificate of Positive Analysis declaring that Funtime Bayama’s blood sample “did contain synthetic DPO.” The Moreau appeal hearing will continue at a future date to be set by the HRAP secretary and the parties involved.

On March 20, Brendan van Niejenhuis, Counsel for the Registrar, had stated that Moreau’s case did not meet the Supreme Court of Canada’s standard for “an abuse of process.” He concluded that MacKenzie’s argument “seemed to be pointing more in the style of a ‘reasonable doubt’ case,” rather than indicating “practically beyond the shadow of a doubt that the matters speculated about did not occur.”

Van Niejenhuis disagreed with the argument that Funtime Bayama’s blood samples may have degraded due to documented irregularities in its handing enroute to confirmatory testing in Fordham, UK.

“With respect to hemolysis, no witness testified that sample hemolysis was a concern here,” he stated. “All of them were asked. They all agreed it was irrelevant to the confirmatory process.”

The Counsel for the Registrar also questioned whether there was any evidence of tampering.

“Is it more likely than not that this is the blood that was drawn from Funtime Bayama, that it wasn’t tampered with by the adding of DPO to it during transit, while it was with the courier or by one of the witnesses who told [the HRAP] what they did with it, and that it reached [confirmatory lab] LGC’s SCIEX 7500 [mass spectrometer] machine in just that same form?” he asked.

Van Niejenhuis noted that the differences between CPMA and AGCO protocol cited by MacKenzie were not deficiencies but “intended to serve as a proxy for proof by witness” in cases where witnesses did not appear.

Van Niejenhuis’ concluding arguments on March 20 noted the recent discovery of additional, untested samples taken from Funtime Bayama back on June 10, 2024.

“The Registrar, like [MacKenzie] would love not to have been learning that there were three more vials of blood shortly before the [Moreau] hearing began in December [2025],” he said. “That having been said, it makes no difference.

“There were months of correspondence, through the pre-hearing conference process with [MacKenzie] and [counsel for Sylvain Filion] Ms. [Jennifer] Friedman in the related case, offering the remaining sample residue that was then known to be retested or to be sent to an independent lab for retesting.

“That opportunity was not taken, and of course that cannot be held against Mr. Moreau in any way, but you may take it into account in assessing the submission about whatever [MacKenzie] is trying to throw on the process as a result of the late discovery that there are three more full vials of blood sitting in BV Labs in Vancouver. There have been three months since then. No effort has been made to do anything with that blood that would ground the speculation that you’ve heard today in some concrete evidence.”

Funtime Bayama (p, 3, 1:49.1s; $394,999) originally raced for owner/breeder Bayama Farms of Saint-Andre-D’Argenteuil, QC, the farm of Yves Filion, father of the gelding’s original driver Sylvain Filion. Like Moreau, Sylvain is currently awaiting a date for an HRAP hearing. Filion’s application for a stay was denied on March 19, 2025.

Since leaving the Moreau stable in June 2024, Funtime Bayama has raced for owners William Pollock and Bruce Areman of Freehold, NJ and owner/trainer Andrew Harris of Allentown, NJ. (As of April 28, 2026, his ownership group is registered as the Punisher 11 Stable LLC of Freehold, NJ.) Now 5 years old, the pacer found vindication at Woodbine Mohawk Park, his one-time home track, when he won the Canadian-Sired Graduate Series final on May 3, 2025.

Although DPO can cause irreparable harm to a horse, Funtime Bayama has gradually found his way back to the winner’s circle, most recently at Oak Grove on April 4. He finished second on Sunday (May 10) in a class drop from the Oak Grove open handicap pace.