Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. can race at Keeneland, after all.
A Kentucky judge granted a temporary injunction against the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission on Thursday, a day after officials unanimously voted to deny Dutrow a racing license this year for "consistent disregard for the rules of racing."
The decision handed down by Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip Shepherd means Dutrow can enter Amen Hallelujah in Thursday's Vinery Madison and Court Vision in the Maker's Mark Mile.
Shepherd ruled Whizway Farm LLC, which co-owns Amen Hallelujah, ''raised substantial legal questions regarding to the right to due process in the license.'' Shepherd added the owners would suffer ''irreparable injury'' if the court does not grant injunctive relief and allow the horse to race.
Dutrow won the Derby and the Preakness in 2008 with Big Brown but has a history of rules violations in several states.
New York racing officials suspended him twice in February for hypodermic needles in his barn and for a winning horse's positive test for a banned painkiller at Aqueduct last year. They will meet again next month to decide whether to revoke his license.
Kentucky officials cited a half-dozen concerns about Dutrow, whose license was suspended for 30 days in 2009 after one of his horses tested positive for a breathing stimulant.
Big Brown never violated a drug rule, but Dutrow was widely criticized when he acknowledged the horse had the then-legal steroid stanozolol in his bloodstream during his Derby and Preakness victories. Kentucky and most other states have since banned stanozolol and other anabolic steroids.
