The integrity of the sport and the current state-to-state regulation of horse racing was called into question when nearly 30 trainers, veterinarians, and others were indicted in March on federal charges related to administering or supplying performance-enhancing drugs for horses.
Included in the indictments were high-profile grade/group 1-winning trainers Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis.
Servis and Navarro each pleaded "not guilty" in November and the case is expected to continue well into 2021. Behind horses like $3 million earner X Y Jet, Navarro had regularly ranked among the top trainers in North America by earnings and wins since 2014 while Servis was the trainer of reigning champion 3-year-old Maximum Security .
The federal case appears to have a great deal of taped evidence, including Servis allegedly discussing a substance called SGF-1000 administered to Maximum Security. On an intercepted (June 5) call between Servis and (indicted vet) Kristian Rhein, Rhein counsels Servis and reassures him that Maximum Security would not test positive for the SGF-1000 that had been administered.
"They don't even have a test for it," the indictment says Rhein said. "There's not a test for it in America."
According to the indictment, Rhein further stated that, if anything, the SGF-1000 may appear on a post-race drug test as a false positive for a different substance "Dex." (While the indictment didn't offer further detail, people commonly refer to Dexamethasone as "Dex.") The indictment later says that same day Servis discussed Maximum Security's drug test with another veterinarian who agreed to falsify records to make it appear as if the racehorse had received "Dex."
Beyond involving high-profile trainers, it's important to note that the indictments involved substances being administered to improve the performance of horses, as opposed to therapeutic medications designed to alleviate equine ailments.
Supporters of federal legislation that would see the United States Anti-Doping Association act as the enforcement agency for a newly formed Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority pointed to the case as an example of the shortcomings of the current state-to-state system that relies heavily on post-race drug tests to catch cheaters. They have said that the current regulatory approach is ill-equipped to halt designer drugs, crafted to boost performance while eluding post-race drug tests.
As one of the 44-page indictments in March put it, there was a "widespread, corrupt scheme by racehorse trainers, veterinarians, PED (performance-enhancing drug) distributors, and others to manufacture, distribute, and receive adulterated and misbranded PEDs and to secretly administer those PEDs to racehorses under the scheme's participants' control."
Just over a week before the indictments, Maximum Security won the $20 million Saudi Cup. Through Dec. 16, the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia had withheld the winning Saudi Cup purse as they plan to await resolution of the criminal charges against Servis before making a final decision on awarding the $10 million winner's purse.
Federal indictments in March also included charges of money laundering against Florida-based owner Isaac Schachtel and trainer Alfredo Lichoa and three others; a scheme that allegedly relied on the administration of illegal, performance-enhancing drugs.
The case—slowed by the large amount of evidence, number of people charged, and changes to the court schedule forced by COVID-19—is not expected to continue until mid-May.
This piece is the second in a five-part series looking back at some of the Thoroughbred industry's top news stories of 2020. Find the third installment in the Dec. 30 edition of BloodHorse Daily.
