Janey Adams, a 22-year-old Indiana-based owner/trainer, has been accused of abusing and neglecting a Thoroughbred in her care and was recommended to receive a 10-year suspension by the Indiana Horse Racing Commission (IHRC). She is fighting the penalty.

Adams, who pleaded not guilty in the case, requested a stay of her suspension, but her appeal was denied by administrative law judge Kathryn Hostetter on Oct. 25. A full evidentiary hearing before the same judge will take place in February 2012.

The subject of Adams’ case is the 7-year-old gelding Tony Terrific. The stakes-placed son of Gone West had been racing at the claiming level for Steve Zeehandelar in Indiana, Florida, and Kentucky, but was sent to Adams’ parents’ farm near Converse, Ind., in September 2010 for stall rest due to soreness from previous condylar fractures.

According to Adams, a local veterinarian took radiographs (X rays) of the horse’s legs last January and deemed him not fit to be put back into training due to arthritis. Because of the extent of Tony Terrific’s continued soreness, Zeehandelar decided to officially retire the horse and requested for Adams to send him to the Kentucky Equine Humane Center (KEHC) near Lexington