A New York Thoroughbred trainer has been fined $500 by state regulators for verbally harassing a veterinarian and her assistant following a drug test on a horse last March at Belmont Park, located in Elmont.

On Jan. 25 the state Racing and Wagering Board upheld a hearing officer’s penalty recommendation against trainer Diane Balsamo after what an official report said was an inappropriate "display of temper” and "abusive language” and verbal harassment against Dianna Meyer, DVM, and her assistant Donna McMullen.

Officials during the investigation into the March 13 incident said Balsamo approached the veterinarian and her assistant after a blind drug test on a horse that was not scheduled to race that day. Balsamo insisted the test had been conducted on the wrong horse, according to a report. Balsamo told them that she had seen the name of the horse to be tested on a card and they pulled blood on the wrong horse. The Meyer and her assistant testified that they don’t have names of horses to be tested, only numbers and stall locations.

The two track officials testified in a hearing that Balsamo chased after them and "distracted” them from doing their next round of testing on a nearby horse. At one point, Meyer testified, Balsamo reached into a container with tubes and cards on the blood tests they had been performing