DTRC STEWS REVOKE AMBER COBB’S LICENSE
The hits keep on coming for trainer Amber Cobb.
The 33-year-old Cobb’s license to train horses in Delaware was revoked Oct. 28 in a ruling issued by state Racing Commission stewards. The revocation is for the remainder of her period of licensure, which was to have concluded December 31, 2022.
The stewards’ move is the culmination of a series of rulings levied against Cobb, whose runners had made 64 starts through July 21 but have not made any since.
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According to the ruling, the suspension also applies to the horses under her care at the time of the license revocation. Owners of horses she trained may appeal to the stewards to approve the transfer of the horses to other trainers.
The latest ruling builds in part off of prior penalties the Commission had handed down. It specifically cites four issues that had come to light in the last several weeks:
- That she had failed to appear for a duly noticed disciplinary hearing October 22;
- That she had “failed to get approval by the Stewards for Bills of Sale and Horse transfers”;
- that she “was involved and was still participating in horse racing while under suspension”; and
- That she had failed to attend an anger management program and apprise the stews of her progress, as they had previously directed her to do.
Cobb’s troubles began early in the Delaware Park meet when a former employee of hers brought to the Commission video of her berating and brandishing a plastic pitchfork at a plainly frightened horse, which eventually reared and fell to the ground.
The stewards, seeing the case as one of straightforward animal cruelty, suspended her for two years and directed she attend an anger management program. That ruling came out May 26; on appeal, the state Thoroughbred Racing Commission reduced the length of her suspension to 60 days starting July 23.
Less than two months later, on Sept. 10, the stewards summarily suspended Cobb pending a disciplinary hearing. Stewards can issue summary suspensions if they “determine that a licensee’s actions constitute an immediate danger to the public health, safety or welfare,” according to state regs.
The summary suspension issued by the stews had stemmed, the most recent ruling says, from “complaints and allegations of past abuse and neglect of horses in her care that did not involve her recent suspension.”
The additional violations came to light in their investigation.
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