Horse racing waits to find out if anything more will come from the investigation and indictments by the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation which nabbed 27 people involved in racehorse doping, including big-name trainers Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro.
Read the Indictments here.
There is still plenty of shock and awe.
But the shock from Monday’s arrests of trainers, vets and drug manufacturers has been matched by the shock from the majority of the those who work in racing, cover horse racing in the media, bet on the races and truly love the horses and the sport. We all knew this was going on; why did it take a federal level, one-year-plus investigation to finally break the case?
Oh, and Jorge Navarro has had 27 positive drug tests in the last 10 years.
The long and ugly story of trainer Jorge Navarro also includes that infamous YouTube video from 2017 when he was announced as the ‘Juiceman’ on a video captured at Monmouth Park where Navarro and owner Randal Gindi watched a horse win at Gulfstream trained by Navarro’s brother.
Both were fined $5,000. And that was it.
Virtually anyone who watches a lot of races, loves to play the races, have been harping on about Navarro and Jason Servis’ ability to move horses up in speed for several years. When Servis raced Gary and Mary West’s MAXIMUM SECURITY for $16,000 maiden claiming late in 2018 and then transformed the horse into a Kentucky Derby winner (albeit disqualified) and recently a $20 million Saudi Cup winner, the noise got louder.
Still, tracks wrote glowing press releases about both Servis and Navarro, NYRA even posted an interview where Navarro apologizes for the Monmouth video.
All the while, Servis and Navarro were working in cahoots with performance-enhancing drugs, ‘the monkey’ as it has been called, manufactured by non-FDA registered companies or smuggled into the country.
And racing people know there are more of them.
Racing Commissions
On Tuesday, a disheartening and mind-boggling letter from Ed Martin, CEO of the Association of Racing Commissioners International, was printed on the Paulick Report. Martin said a federal bill was not needed to make Monday’s indictments happen.
It illustrates exactly what is wrong with horse racing, not just in the US, but in Canada, too. Regulators just don’t get it.
Ed Martin:
For racing, these arrests are on par with the taking down of Lance Armstrong or the BALCO operation. This is huge. And nobody needed a federal bill to make it happen as the rules and the law already make this activity illegal and the agencies that developed and made these cases already exist.
Read his entire letter here.
The letter was met with ridicule on comment sections and on social media.
Horse Racing Integrity Act
Team Valor Racing Stables’ Barry Irwin also had a letter printed on the Paulick Report (and had called for Martin’s resignation in a comment on Martin’s letter) and the saner heads in this great sport applauded:
The alphabet groups and Thoroughbred racetracks that support the status quo allowed this nonsense to be fostered, nurtured and come into fruition. The horsemen’s groups that protected their worst elements under the misguided notion that one bad egg would tarnish them all, should be hanging their heads in shame today.
Read Mr. Irwin’s letter here.
From the Palm Beach Post, just one of numerous articles in papers that echo Mr. Irwin’s sentiments and insists the slowly moving Horse Racing Integrity Act bill be put in place.
The Horseracing Integrity Act would put enforcement under the authority of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which governs Olympians in this country and isn’t renowned for leniency
By the way, the Horse Racing Integrity Act is opposed by none other than one of the most famous tracks/companies in the US, Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby.
Churchill Downs CEO Bill Carstanjen said to Reuters in a news story last year – “the company had “serious concerns” about the bill and did not think federal legislation was “practical, reasonable, or imminent.”
In Canada
Other than Woodbine CEO Jim Lawson and the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association of Ontario, all is quiet from tracks across Canada. Expect the HBPA and Woodbine to aggressively lead a charge to attempt to shake up the Alcohol and Gaming Commission which regulates horse racing in Ontario.
Numerous times in this space, CT has addressed deaths of horses at tracks throughout the country. Nothing is ever released or discussed about why a horse died. Presumably necropsy reports are done on horses but nothing is being said, or done, about the circumstances.
There was a horrific instance in 2019 when a horse on a vet’s list in California (and a claim for him had been voided there) was quickly brought to Canada for a race and the horse dropped dead after the race. So many more could be listed.
Time and again from the days of the Ontario Racing Commission to the AGCO we have seen small fines, some suspensions for drugs or veterinary practices but eventually, things return to status quo. In both Thoroughbred and Standardbred racing, multi-time violators continue to race in Ontario.
Testing cannot be the be-all/end-all. More needs to be done; drugs are not being detected.
Currently the AGCO has been abuzz with the switch of its licensing services to an on-line process and AGCO leader Jean Major is set to retire in August.
It is the hope of the true horsepeople and racing fans in Ontario (and Canada) that the only mandate now is to clean up the sport and give it a chance to recover.
*California Horse Racing Board releases 76+ page report on horse fatalities. On Tuesday, a very thorough study on Santa Anita’s track and horses that died a year ago was released by the CHRB. While no obvious wrongdoings were found (no positive drug tests), horses had pre-existing issues and no doubt questions arise since Servis and Navarro had used undetectable drugs.
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