The Breeders’ Cup has revised its "Convicted Trainer Rule" and will impose a minimum one-year suspension from this year’s World Championships on any trainer with a Class 2, Category A, violation during the 12 months preceding the races. Trainers who are repeat offenders will face up to a lifetime ban, according to an April 5 announcement from Breeders’ Cup Ltd.

The action, based on the recommendation of the Breeders’ Cup’s medication committee, is an extension of the trainer rule enacted in 2011 that made trainers with any Class 1 violations in the 12 months preceding the World Championships ineligible to participate.

The revised rule, effective with the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Nov. 2-3 at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., is as follows:

No person may participate as a trainer of a horse pre-entered or entered in a World Championships race if that person, during the twelve months preceding the World Championships, has been found by any racing regulatory agency, whether a governmental agency or a non-governmental regulatory body, to have violated a racing regulation prohibiting the possession or use of any substance listed under Class 1, carrying Category A or B penalties, or Class 2, carrying a Category A penalty, in the Association of Racing Commissioners International (RCI) Uniform Classification Guidelines for Foreign Substances or a racing regulation prohibiting the possession or use of steroids and the appeal periods for such finding shall have expired or all appeals, if any, will have received final disposition (a "drug conviction")