Albany Times Union (Sunday)

New York investigat­ors struggle to catch cheaters

State workers, subject to budget cuts, political influences, in charge of investigat­ing drug use

- By Emilie Munson

In February 2020, federal agents stormed the barns and offices of a racehorse training facility in Middletown.

They had intercepte­d communicat­ions suggesting an employee of the Mt. Hope Training Center was the source of drugs used to dope horses on behalf of the facility’s owner, Richard Banca, according to a federal criminal complaint.

The evidence recovered by investigat­ors at the Orange County training facility that day helped the U.S. Department of Justice build one of the biggest doping cases in the history of horse racing — allegation­s that continue to reverberat­e throughout the sport two years later.

The case, which would lead to 29 arrests and the dismantlin­g of an expansive racehorse doping ring, marked an extraordin­ary moment in the history of a sport that has long been policed by commission­s or bodies that regulate racing at the state level. It also raised questions about why it took a federal agency to clean up an industry where cheating has endured, in part, because of languid state investigat­ions that rarely involve law enforcemen­t authoritie­s.

Inside Banca’s personal office on the barn’s second floor, agents found a handwritte­n ledger with a list of horses’ names. There was a syringe on top, along with a note offering instructio­ns on how to administer a custom drug concoction through a tube inserted down a horse’s nose and throat, according to the federal complaint.

They found a substance labeled “bleeder” — believed to have performanc­e-enhancing effects — next to another syringe. A second bottle in the office contained adrenaline. Another medication they found was from a company that wasn’t authorized to make animal drugs.

Federal agents arrested Banca and his assistant trainer Conor Flynn a few weeks later on charges of obtaining misbranded or adulterate­d drugs through interstate commerce. They have pleaded not guilty. Banca’s attorney said he would vigorously fight the allegation­s against him in the appropriat­e forum. Other attorneys either declined to comment or did not respond to the Times Union’s queries.

The 27 other people charged include top thoroughbr­ed and standardbr­ed trainers, veterinari­ans and their partners who allegedly supplied illegal performanc­e-enhancing substances.

While the reputation­s of many of those arrested made the case high-profile, what seemed to shock many racing insiders was the fact that law enforcemen­t agencies were involved. Similar probes into the doping of racehorses have rarely been handled as criminal cases — more often triggering administra­tive and disciplina­ry proceeding­s for those accused.

Trainers, investigat­ors and other sources in the industry told the Times Union that lackluster state investigat­ions in New York, combined with underfunde­d drug testing, have for decades contribute­d to a proliferat­ion of doping in standardbr­ed and thoroughbr­ed racing.

“The drugs these guys are using to cheat with have become so sophistica­ted, unless you can detect them within hours, if not minutes,” they’ll disappear, said Barry Irwin, an owner whose horse Animal Kingdom won the Kentucky Derby in 2011.

Irwin contends there is too much focus on the never-ending cat-andmouse game of testing, which can only detect a fraction of the performanc­e-enhancing drugs in circulatio­n.

“The important thing is the police work, and the investigat­ion,” he said. “You need the boots-onthe-ground people to catch them in the act ... with the syringe — and you test that, and then you’ve got them.”

Most drug violations, caught through administra­tive investigat­ions and routine testing, generate scant public attention. The consequenc­es that trainers face are far less severe than those doled out in criminal cases: Violators may have to forfeit race winnings, but often pay only modest fines. If they’re barred from competitio­n, it’s typically for a matter of days or weeks — and usually only in the state where they were caught.

In New York, pursuing cheaters at race tracks is primarily the job of the state Gaming Commission,

which employs investigat­ors, administra­tive judges and attorneys to handle drug use and other rules violations. The operators of some tracks, including the New York Racing Associatio­n and Vernon Downs and Tioga Downs, augment the state’s investigat­ive efforts by employing their own investigat­ors.

The gaming commission refused to make its head of investigat­ions available for an interview for this story, and declined to answer all questions from the Times Union on this topic.

Across the country, horse racing investigat­ive forces haven’t seen much improvemen­t over the past 30 years, said Mike Kilpack, a security and integrity consultant for the National Thoroughbr­ed Racing Associatio­n and a former supervisin­g investigat­or for the California Horse Racing Board.

“I’d like to say there is more security and boots on the ground, but they don’t (have it),” Kilpack said. “That’s the problem.”

The gaming commission would not say how many investigat­ors it employs, but sources told the Times Union there are about a dozen investigat­ors statewide. The agency generally employs one investigat­or for each of the state’s 11 tracks and a few others who move among the them.

“Don’t make any waves”

When New York has performed proactive, hard-charging investigat­ions, it has at times uncovered evidence of significan­t drug use.

On Dec. 9, 1997, gaming commission investigat­ors locked down every harness racing track in New York for a comprehens­ive sweep — the first and only time they undertook such a massive enforcemen­t effort.

At Yonkers Raceway, investigat­ors filled two 55-gallon buckets with discarded needles and medication­s found in the barns and other track property, said Joel Leveson, the gaming commission’s former top investigat­or, who led the search.

In one night, they stopped 10 trainers or grooms who were attempting to enter the track with syringes. Many of them also carried written instructio­ns from veterinari­ans on how to administer performanc­eenhancing substances. The Yonkers sweep prompted 60 administra­tive drug violation cases against various trainers, Leveson said.

At Saratoga Race Course and other thoroughbr­ed tracks, they inspected the vehicles of veterinari­ans and confiscate­d bottles of mislabeled or unlabeled drugs for testing, he said.

Prior to that sweep, the investigat­ive division generally moved slowly and was ineffectiv­e, Leveson said.

“I inherited patronage policemen who were given (the jobs) by the governor for a donation,” he said. “They weren’t bad people, but they didn’t know horses and they didn’t want to particular­ly learn about them . ... It was about a 50 percentile or less workforce.”

After the crackdown in late 1997, the atmosphere changed — at least for a while: Leveson was invited to speak to horse racing investigat­ors around the country, and was empowered to hire new investigat­ors to shake the dust off what he described as a sleepy unit.

Diligent investigat­ions require intense amounts of work, according to current and former investigat­ors in multiple states. Investigat­ors inspect barns, search vehicles, develop informants, conduct surveillan­ce and visit stables and properties away from the tracks. They need to understand law enforcemen­t techniques like maintainin­g a chain of custody for evidence, but also must have intimate knowledge of the sport of horse racing — something many new investigat­ors lack when they join up.

Good investigat­ors can turn up evidence of drug use that’s undetectab­le by testing, or use their informatio­n to ensure outof-competitio­n testing is conducted at just the right time to catch cheating.

Leveson began as an investigat­or for the gaming commission in 1995, correspond­ing with the arrival in office of Gov. George E. Pataki, who the investigat­or said encouraged him to hunt down dopers in racing. But Leveson said during the subsequent tenures of former Govs. Eliot Spitzer, David Paterson and Andrew M. Cuomo, he was pushed to go “back to the old way of ‘Don’t make any waves.’”

Administra­tive judges, who ruled on the evidence that Leveson produced, “had been given the edict to keep the lid on things,” he said. As budgets tightened — particular­ly under Cuomo — each hire of a new investigat­or became more difficult unless they had political backing,

Leveson said.

He left his post with the commission in 2014.

Kilpack, who worked security for the New York Racing Associatio­n for multiple years while monitoring the high-profile Belmont Stakes and Travers Stakes races, called investigat­ions the perennial “whipping child.”

“It doesn’t make money for the organizati­on,” he said. “When there are cutbacks, you always cut back security . ... It’s like that at every race track.”

Kilpack agreed that politics can influence the quality of state’s investigat­ive efforts. “Do they want a big scandal?” he said. “Nobody wants a big scandal.”

One trainer, 1,710 drug instances

About a decade ago, Lou Pena was temporaril­y banned from Yonkers Raceway in New York. A leading trainer in harness racing, Pena had a remarkable win record. But suspicions had grown that his success might be fueled by doping.

Pena allegedly sidesteppe­d the ban by transferri­ng his horses to other trainers to keep them racing and bringing in winnings, a practice known in the industry as using a “beard.” State regulators began receiving complaints that Pena was using beards, said Rick Goodell, who was associate counsel to the New York Gaming Commission — and its predecesso­r, the Racing and Wagering Board — from 1999 to 2021.

The state subpoenaed veterinary records and other business documents from trainers and owners working with Pena, according to Goodell, who represente­d the state in the case. The veterinary documents revealed more than 1,710 instances between 2010 and 2012 when various drugs were recorded as having been given to Pena’s horses too close to race days.

But there wasn’t a single horse that tested positive for the drugs when samples were collected after races as part of routine checks for drug violations.

The episode highlights some of the limitation­s of drug testing. And it wasn’t an isolated case: Goodell said those situations turn up “every once in a while.”

While Goodell called New York’s drug lab an industry leader, their attorneys and investigat­ors would still sometimes pinpoint other equine drug violations that went undetected by the testing process when probing drug use identified by a positive test, he said.

While some drugs are detectable in post-race tests, some have a very short window of detectabil­ity, despite long-lasting effects. That means diligent state investigat­ors, tasked with rooting out illicit activity at tracks, are critical to ensuring the right horses are being tested at the right times when drugs are detectable in their system.

“Routine foot patrols and inspection­s and equine drug testing cannot detect all illegal activity,” Goodell said. “Even a vastly more expensive approach, such as confining all horses to the grounds and limiting access to horses and drug treatments to third-party veterinari­ans (themselves subject to constant visual and electronic surveillan­ce), would not be infallible.”

What the tracks do

The New York Racing Associatio­n, which operates Saratoga Race Course, Aqueduct Racetrack and Belmont Stakes, employs four full-time investigat­ors who share findings with the gaming commission and law enforcemen­t, said Patrick McKenna, a spokesman for NYRA.

Anthony Patricola, the associatio­n’s lead equine safety investigat­or and a former police officer, described his duties in testimony during a NYRA suspension hearing as inspecting offices, barns and tack rooms at the tracks, as well as investigat­ing incidents at race tracks with riding personnel or trainers that affect the welfare of horses.

The associatio­n also has at various times up to 40 staff trained by the Organizati­on of Racing Investigat­ors and the Racing Officials Accreditat­ion Program working on “horse watch detail” to monitor the activities of people on the backstretc­h.

“NYRA has a strong investigat­ive staff,” said Don Ahrens, director of security and parking at the Sam Houston Race Park in Houston, Texas, who has also worked security at the Belmont and Travers Stakes races. “When something gets to the stewards’ level, I believe it gets dealt with effectivel­y.”

Jeffrey Gural, a New York horse owner, breeder and operator of the Vernon Downs and Tioga Downs harness racing tracks in New York as well as the Meadowland­s in New Jersey, said he employs one investigat­or for all three tracks.

John Matarazzo, director of racing operations at the Saratoga harness track at Saratoga Casino Hotel, said it’s the prerogativ­e of the gaming commission to police for drug use at his track.

“They’re in charge of that,” he said. “They have investigat­ors on proper

Please see

“You need the boots-on-the-ground people to catch them in the act ... with the syringe — and you test that, and then you’ve got them.” — Barry Irwin, owner of Animal Kingdom, winner of the 2011 Kentucky Derby

ties; they do blood samples every race. The program they have in place is the program that we use right now, and it is up to them to really enforce the policies and the directives that they’ve stated . ... If we find that there is something ... that needs to be investigat­ed that gets brought to our attention, we immediatel­y bring it to the Gaming Commission’s attention.”

Police collaborat­ion

New York does not deploy state troopers at tracks on race days, although they often provide traffic assistance at those locations, said Beau Duffy, a spokesman for the State Police. State Police are assigned at most casinos in the state.

Other states, including Iowa, have state police units devoted to horse racing, but that’s a rarity now, according to Ahrens.

“You have cops at malls. Here you have betting, and you have no police here,” said an active race track investigat­or, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of his work. “You have nobody investigat­ing a $2 billion industry.”

Several current and former track investigat­ors told the Times Union that their collaborat­ion with law enforcemen­t is typically piecemeal and dependent on relationsh­ips with individual police officers, prosecutor­s or federal officials.

“If you make a cold phone call (to an unfamiliar law enforcemen­t office) ... they’re going to look at you like you have three heads,” Ahrens said. “You have to educate them on what these things all mean.”

In his 22 years involved in investigat­ions in New York, Leveson said that police or prosecutor­s only took cases from him less than five times, despite many more referrals. He said he was told directly they didn’t have the time or expertise in horse racing to pursue the cases.

“If it was a slam dunk, they would think about it,” he said. “Otherwise, it was very hard to coerce any of them to step out of their comfort zone.”

Sue McDonough, a former New York state trooper and investigat­or with a career spanning 1978 to 2004, specialize­d in animal abuse cases. She now gives training seminars for law enforcemen­t and others on animal abuse law. Sometimes New York horse racing investigat­ors attend her courses, she said.

“A lot of them don’t even know what the laws are,” McDonough said. “How many times have you heard that happen — that any trainer or owner or jockey has been arrested?”

Private investigat­ors

Until two years ago, arrests in horse racing doping cases were rare.

About three years ago, the Jockey Club, the premier U.S. organizati­on devoted to thoroughbr­ed breeding and racing, was eager to crack down on drug use in racing. The Jockey Club, with Gural, decided to take matters into their own hands.

They hired 5 Stones Intelligen­ce, a private investigat­ions firm staffed by former employees from the Central Intelligen­ce Agency, Drug Enforcemen­t Administra­tion and the FBI. They fed the group tips about individual­s suspected of serious doping.

“Every six months, I would call them and say ‘What’s happening? I’m paying you a lot of money,’” said Gural, who supported the Jockey Club’s efforts. “Then, finally one day, we had pretty much run out of money; I had spent at least $500,000 . ... I was paying it out of pocket. They said, ‘Don’t worry, you’re going to be very happy.’”

The February 2020 raid on the Mt. Hope Training Center and the alleged scheme it helped to uncover — involving defendants who raced, trained or treated horses in New York — stemmed in part from the work of 5 Stones, he said.

Gural said he and the Jockey Club are still paying 5 Stones to continue its investigat­ions. The U.S. Department of Justice is also continuing its efforts.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if undetectab­le, illegal medication­s are still being used in New York, since there is very little vigilance rooting out the trainers,” Gural said.

 ?? Paul Buckowski / Times Union ?? Joel Leveson, former director of investigat­ions for the New York state Gaming Commission, led the unit when investigat­ors locked down every harness racing track in New York for a comprehens­ive sweep in December 1997 — the first and only time they undertook such a massive enforcemen­t effort.
Paul Buckowski / Times Union Joel Leveson, former director of investigat­ions for the New York state Gaming Commission, led the unit when investigat­ors locked down every harness racing track in New York for a comprehens­ive sweep in December 1997 — the first and only time they undertook such a massive enforcemen­t effort.
 ?? Skip Dickstein / Times Union Archive ?? Steam comes off a horse after exercise on the main track on a cool morning June 8, 2017 at Belmont Park in Elmont. Current and former horse racing investigat­ors said the state struggles to police horse racing with its limited investigat­ive personnel and rare law enforcemen­t assistance.
Skip Dickstein / Times Union Archive Steam comes off a horse after exercise on the main track on a cool morning June 8, 2017 at Belmont Park in Elmont. Current and former horse racing investigat­ors said the state struggles to police horse racing with its limited investigat­ive personnel and rare law enforcemen­t assistance.
 ?? ?? The ‘sport of kings’ faces
increasing scrutiny
The ‘sport of kings’ faces increasing scrutiny
 ?? Will Waldron/Albany Times Union ?? Investigat­ing drug use in horse racing is primarily the responsibi­lity of the state, which stations one investigat­or at each track in New York, including harness racing at Saratoga Casino in Saratoga Springs.
Will Waldron/Albany Times Union Investigat­ing drug use in horse racing is primarily the responsibi­lity of the state, which stations one investigat­or at each track in New York, including harness racing at Saratoga Casino in Saratoga Springs.
 ?? Paul Buckowski / Times Union ?? Joel Leveson began as an investigat­or for the New York state Gaming Commission in 1995 and later became its director of investigat­ions. He left in 2014.
Paul Buckowski / Times Union Joel Leveson began as an investigat­or for the New York state Gaming Commission in 1995 and later became its director of investigat­ions. He left in 2014.

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