Horse racing takes another big hit
Until now, most investigations into illegal drug use have been undertaken by entities within the racing industry itself. Penalties, when applied, often amounted to little more than a slap on the wrist.
The sensational charges contained in indictments unsealed last Monday in Manhattan, however, are a different story. These indictments result from a lengthy investigation involving individuals from five Federal and local agencies: the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the New York City Police Department, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection in New York. Guilty verdicts on some charges could result in multi-year prison sentences.
The 27 individuals named in
the indictments – trainers, veterinarians, drug distributors and others – are charged with schemes to “manufacture, distribute and receive PEDs [performance-enhancing drugs] and to secretly administer those PEDs to racehorses competing at all levels of professional horseracing.”
Activities documented also include the falsification of vet records, the smuggling of illegal drugs into the U.S, the concealing of horses to avoid testing by state regulators and the secret disposal of the carcasses of deceased horses.
“What actually happened to the horses was nothing less than abuse,” the FBI’s William F. Sweeney Jr, assistant directorin-charge of the New York office, said Monday at a press conference, as reported at paulickreport. com. “They experienced cardiac issues, overexertion leading to leg fractures, increased risk of injury, and in some cases death.”
The two best-known defendants are trainers Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro. According to the indictment, Servis “doped virtually all horses under his control.” Last year, these horses included champion 3-year-old Maximum Security, winner two weeks ago of the $20 million Saudi Cup, multiple G1 winner World of Trouble and five-time graded winner Firenze Fire.
Navarro’s top horses last year included ace sprinters X Y Jet and Shancelot. X Y Jet, winner of the Dubai Golden Shaheen, reportedly died of a heart attack two months ago under circumstances that are currently under investigation. In 2019, horses trained by Navarro and Servis combined to make 1,343 starts. They “won” an astounding 29% of these races and “earned” over $17.8 million.
Among the observers least surprised by this week’s developments are probably those from overseas, many of whom view the U.S. as a sort of rogue state out of step with the rest of the racing world. The fact that horses trained by Servis and Navarro, the two principals in the indictments, recently won major international stakes in Saudi Arabia and Dubai only reaffirms America’s reputation as an outlier beset by the mis- and overuse of drugs and a high equine fatality rate.
Racing organizations, individual horsemen and animal-rights groups were of course quick to condemn the disturbing events described in Monday’s indictments. For veteran trainer Graham Motion, the indictments represent the possible last straw for a sport whose reputation can hardly sink any lower – as well as an opportunity.
“If this doesn’t wake us up as an industry, I don’t know what will,” Motion said at bloodhorse.com. “It’s our own fault. We let it happen. This shows we are incapable of policing our own sport, and that’s a sad situation.
“A day like today is why I strongly believe we need the Horse Racing Integrity Act,” Motion added. “With all that’s been going on in the sport, there couldn’t be worse timing, but maybe we have to hit rock bottom before we can start building our sport up again. From the sounds of the indictments, there have been some terrible things going on, and the sooner we get to the bottom and root it [sic] out, the better off we’ll be.”
Note: The Horse Racing Integrity Act, if enacted into law, would among other things create an independent, nongovernmental Horseracing Anti-Doping and Medication Control Authority. The bill is currently before committee in the House of Representatives..