July, 2021 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Drug Company Sales Director Michael Kegley Pleads Guilty In Federal Doping Case

Audrey Strauss, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that defendant Michael Kegley, Jr. pled guilty on Friday to his role in the distribution of adulterated and misbranded drugs with the intent to defraud and mislead, in connection with the charges filed in United States v. Navarro et al., 20 Cr. 160 (MKV). KEGLEY pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, and will be sentenced by Judge Vyskocil on Nov. 22, 2021.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said: “Michael Kegley promoted and sold unregulated performance enhancing substances intended for use by those engaged in fraud and unconscionable animal abuse in the world of professional horseracing. This conviction underscores that our Office and our partners at the FBI are committed to the prosecution and investigation of corruption, fraud, and endangerment at every level of the horse racing industry.”

According to the allegations contained in the Superseding Information, the prior Indictments[1], other filings in this case, and statements during court proceedings:

The charges in the Navarro case arise from an investigation of widespread schemes by racehorse trainers, veterinarians, performance-enhancing drug (“PED”) distributors, and others to manufacture, distribute, and receive adulterated and misbranded PEDs and to secretly administer those PEDs to racehorses competing at all levels of professional horseracing. By evading PED prohibitions and deceiving regulators and horse racing officials, participants in these schemes sought to improve race performance and obtain prize money from racetracks throughout the United States and other countries, including in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Ohio, Kentucky, and the United Arab Emirates (“UAE”), all to the detriment and risk of the health and well-being of the racehorses. Trainers who participated in the schemes stood to profit from the success of racehorses under their control by earning a share of their horses' winnings, and by improving their horses' racing records, thereby yielding higher trainer fees and increasing the number of racehorses under their control. Veterinarians and drug distributors, such as Kegley, who worked as the director of sales for an unregistered distributor of equine drugs, profited from the sale and administration of these medically unnecessary, misbranded, and adulterated substances.

Among the misbranded and adulterated PEDs marketed and sold by Kegley was the drug “SGF-1000,” which was compounded and manufactured in unregistered facilities. SGF-1000 was an intravenous drug promoted as, among other things, a vasodilator capable of promoting stamina, endurance, and lower heart rates in horses through the purported action of “growth factors” supposedly derived from sheep placenta. Despite marketing, selling, and administering SGF-1000, Kegley acknowledged in intercepted calls that he, along with a co-defendant involved in the sale of SGF-1000, did not know the actual contents of SGF-1000. Nevertheless, Kegley's sales of that drug persisted, aided by the claim that SGF-1000 would be untestable in horses by law enforcement.

According to the Thoroughbred Daily News, Kegley's testimony during Friday's proceedings included the following statement: “Beginning in 2016, I was an independent contractor for a company, MediVet Equine. We sold a variety of products, including SGF-1000. I sold these products to veterinarians, horse trainers. When I did that I knew there was no medical prescription for those products. Also at the time, I knew that the product was not manufactured in an FDA approved facility, nor was it approved for sale by the FDA.”

U.S. Attorney Strauss praised the outstanding investigative work of the FBI New York Office's Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force and its support of the FBI's Integrity in Sports and Gaming Initiative.

This case is being handled by the Office's Money Laundering and Transnational Criminal Enterprises Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys Sarah Mortazavi, Andrew C. Adams, Anden Chow, and Benet Kearney are in charge of the prosecution.

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Level Playing Field For Eddie Read

Saturday's GI Eddie Read S. at Del Mar brings together arguably the Southern California circuit's best middle-distance horse in the form of LNJ Foxwoods' United (Giant's Causeway) and Cannon Thoroughbreds' Smooth Like Strait (Midnight Lute), clearly best at a mile, but who has run with merit over the nine-furlong trip as well.

United, runner-up in the 2019 GI Breeders' Cup Turf over a mile and a half, made last year's Eddie Read the third of a three-race winning streak and he added a victory in the 10-furlong GI John Henry Turf Championship ahead of an eighth in the Breeders' Cup Turf. The chestnut returned to action with a pace-pressing defeat of the re-opposing Say the Word (More Than Ready) in the 12-panel GIII San Luis Rey S. Mar. 20, but was a head-scratching third at 30 cents on the dollar behind Award Winner (Ghostzapper) in the GII Charles Whittingham S. when dropped back down to a mile and a quarter May 29.

Smooth Like Strait missed by a head to Domestic Spending (GB) (Kingman {GB}) in last year's GI Hollywood Derby over this course and distance, but atoned for that defeat in the GII Mathis Brothers Mile a month later. Run down in the shades of the post by Hit the Road (More Than Ready) in the GI Kilroe Mile in March, the bay was a neck behind the dead-heating Domestic Spending and Colonel Liam (Liam's Map) in the 1 1/8-mile GI Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic May 1 and exits a 1 1/2-length score over Say the Word–with Restrainedvengeance (Hold Me Back) third–in the GI Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita May 31.

Count Again (Awesome Again), winner of this track's GII Seabiscuit H. in his first run for trainer Phil D'Amato last November, and outsider Vintage Print (Curlin) round out the field of seven.

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‘Life After Imperial Hint’: Carvajal En Route To Tallying Personal Best Number Of Wins In A Season

If Luis Carvajal, Jr., had any doubts about the direction his training career would take following the retirement of multiple Grade 1 winner Imperial Hint they have long disappeared.

With nine horses entered over Monmouth Park's three-day racing weekend – including Prendimi in the featured Irish War Cry Handicap for Jersey-breds on Saturday – the 49-year-old native of Santiago, Chile is well on his way to setting a personal best for victories in a season.

He has 22 wins overall from 135 starts so far, having gone 9-for-52 at the current Monmouth Park meet, after a career-best 24 winners a year ago.

“There's definitely life after Imperial Hint. Definitely,” Carvajal said. “Now we've just got to find the next one.”

Imperial Hint, who retired after racing just once in 2020, finished with 14 wins in 25 starts and $2,209,055 in earnings. He left a void in Carvajal's barn that is almost impossible to fill with just one horse. So Carvajal has compensated with more horses than he has ever had in a career that began in 2006.

The result has been what looks to be the fourth straight year that Carvajal will increase his overall win total.

“That's what happens when you have more horses,” he said. “If you get more horses you have more chances to run in different races and more chances to win. I probably have 10 more horses than I had last year. It makes a difference.”

Just as Imperial Hint made a difference in his career.

“A horse like that can help pull you up as a trainer, because it shows you can win Grade 1 races,” said Carvajal, whose barn is adorned with a Fleur-de-lis, as are some of the hats he wears. 'Once you get your name out there for doing that it helps with everything you do. It keeps your name out there. Definitely, Imperial Hint gave my career a boost.”

These days, Carvajal is relying more on allowance horses, claimers, Jersey-breds and maidens.

He entered Expect to Be Ready in tonight's third race, a maiden special weight sprint on the turf, and Give It a Go in the sixth race, a maiden $25,000 claimer.

He has five entered on Saturday's 13-race card (including one MTO entrant) and two on the 10-race Sunday program.

“It's been busy for us,” he said. “Like I said, when you have more horses to run you can be busy. It's going to be a busy weekend for us. We like that. You can't make money if you don't race.”

In Saturday's $85,000 Irish War Cry he will be trying Prendimi on the turf for just the second time. The gelded son of Dance With Ravens is Carvajal's second all-time money-earner behind Imperial Hint with $360,480 banked so far,

That race is at a mile on the grass.

“Prendimi is my big boy now,” said Carvajal. “We tried him once on the grass before this. He was not horrible. He was coming off a layoff and was too close to the pace and they were really rolling. So I'm going to throw out that race and I'm hoping he runs a good race on the grass.”

The post ‘Life After Imperial Hint’: Carvajal En Route To Tallying Personal Best Number Of Wins In A Season appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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No Summertime Blues For Del Mar’s Intern Quartet

They are four students representing three universities – Syracuse in the East, Wisconsin in the Midwest and Arizona in the Southwest.

Like all their peers, they've endured an academic-year-plus under the unique circumstances predicated by the COVID-19 pandemic. But now, they're out in the Southern California sunshine as the 45th group of Del Mar Thoroughbred Club summer interns since the program was started in 1977. They're the group that re-starts a program that was, like many others, discontinued in 2020 due to COVID restrictions.

Let's go by school, from East to West, and learn a little more about them.

Whit Ellis, 20, from Petaluma, and Joey Bottini, 20, from Phoenix are headed into their senior and junior years, respectively, at Syracuse. They're fraternity brothers at Delta Kappa Epsilon. Ellis is majoring in sports business management, Bottini is in the Newhouse School of Communication with studies encompassing TV, radio and management and technology. They're the first Orangemen to intern at Del Mar, making Syracuse the 32nd university to be represented.

They both spent a lot of time at the castle-like DKE house off campus during the COVID situation and have mixed feelings about the experience.

“School had us pretty much locked down, but it was better off campus than on,” Bottini said. “They were really strict in the dorms, but at least we were able to see our friends and have some fun. It felt like it took away a year from us with no sports or games to go to – which are a huge part of school pride – and not being able to be on our really beautiful campus.”

Ellis' plans to study abroad for his junior year were scuttled, as was the 2020 internship that was in the works here. When Bottini heard that Ellis' internship was reinstated for this summer — at an elite, sports-related place – he took a “shot in the dark” and started networking. He was informed in mid-June of a late opening that he filled.

Ellis' family and the one of Craig Dado, DMTC vice president, marketing and chief marketing officer, are longtime neighbors and acquaintances in Petaluma in the Bay Area, but Whit's previous exposure to racing consisted mainly of once-a-year trips to the Sonoma County Fair.

Del Mar's a little different.

“This place is massive, it's like a maze,” Ellis said, a few days into the internship. “And there's something going on everywhere. I'm well aware it's a unique opportunity. Most people don't get an opportunity to do something like this and learn the ins and outs of a place like this.”

Jake Rome, 20, from Irvine, is headed for his junior year at Wisconsin, a journalism and communication arts major. Wisconsin thus becomes the 33rd school to produce a Del Mar intern.

Rome spent most of 2020 in a Madison apartment with roommates and described the routine as: “Schoolwork during the day, maybe a few friends we felt safe with over at night.

“It wasn't the worst thing in the world, not the most negative. I had a lot of time with myself and I had to grow up a little bit quicker. I'd rather not sit in front of my laptop for 12 hours a day and learn by computer. I don't think it's the most effective way for me or a lot of other people to learn.

“But I understand it's what we needed to do.”

Now it's time to listen up “Clones.”

Jake is the son of nationally renowned radion and TV sports talk show host Jim Rome. The senior Rome had Thoroughbred ownership success with two-time Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint winner Mizdirection, as well as Shared Belief, an Eclipse Award winner as 2-year-old male champion in 2013 and the $1 million TVG Pacific Classic in 2014. Jim Rome is a member of the DMTC Board of Directors.

Jake was in more than few winner's circle pictures after big races from the early elementary to junior high school years, but the memories – even of the Pacific Classic – are not vivid.

“I knew it was a big race, he was a great horse and my dad got to hold up a big trophy,” Jake said. “But I was a little too young to fully process everything and back then I didn't like horse racing as much as I do now.”

Jake might following in his father's footsteps, but possibly along a different path.

“I'm interested in working in TV, but not necessarily in sports, which always comes as a bit of a shock to people,” he said. “I'm more into news and pop culture … but I think I can transfer whatever I learn here to whatever I do later on.

“I didn't expect too much coming in. I knew I had landed a phenomenal gig, but I didn't think I'd fall in love with the track and all the people around it as much as I have.”

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Diego Diaz-Colwell, 21, from Phoenix, will be a junior at the University of Arizona. His school-in-the-time-of-COVID experience was similar to the others with one exception.

“I had COVID in the month of September,” he said. “It hit me pretty hard. But now I'm fully vaccinated and looking to move on, so I can't complain.”

For Diaz-Colwell, the internship figures to be part of a transition from basketball, which he played well, to a career that may or may not touch on the world of sports.

A point guard, Diaz-Colwell was on the varsity roster at Corona Del Sol High in Tempe, Arizona for 2 ½ years during a 2012-2015 run during which the school won four straight state championships, was Top-10 ranked nationally and sent a dozen or so players on to the NCAA Division I ranks.

There, and at subsequent stops at a prep school and Pima Community College, Diaz-Colwell played with, as back-up to, or against NBA-bound Marvin Bagley (Sacramento Kings) and Saben Lee (Detroit Pistons) among others.

“It was a nice journey, but it's over for now,” he said. “I still play basketball, but just for fun. I'm a business major and I probably will go for something in sports, but for now (the focus) is on business and marketing in general.”

Horse racing is, for Diaz-Colwell, a whole new ballgame.

“I love sports, but I've been so wrapped up in playing that I didn't develop a wide interest outside of basketball,” he said. “(Horse racing) is new for me, like it is for a lot of the younger generation, but from what I've seen here so far, I like it.”

The strongest connection to horse racing for Diaz-Colwell before now can be found a few branches up on the maternal side of his family tree. He is the great grandson of acclaimed actor Anthony Quinn and Katherine DeMille.

Which makes him a second cousin to DMTC CEO Joe Harper, the grandson of legendary director and producer Cecil B. DeMille.

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