Robin Goodfellow’s racing tips: Best bets for Saturday, December 3
Sportsmail's racing expert Robin Goodfellow delivers his tips for Saturday's meetings at Sandown, Aintree, Chepstow, Wetherby, and Wolverhampton.
Month: December 2022
Baltas Suspended a Year, Fined $10,000 for Alleged Medication Violations
Trainer Richard Baltas is facing a one-year suspension and a $10,000 fine for the alleged race-day administration of substances to his horses 21 times over roughly a three-week span this past spring at Santa Anita Park, according to a ruling posted Friday on the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) website.
Baltas told Daily Racing Form that he's “terribly disappointed” and plans to appeal.
In a bit of an odd legal twist, timing-wise, Baltas is already engaged in a legal fight with the CHRB over essentially these very same allegations.
Back on Aug. 17, some 3 1/2 months before the Dec. 2 ruling was even issued, Baltas sued the CHRB, its commissioners, and executive director for at least $12 million in damages, claiming that the CHRB “destroyed” his reputation by issuing the 47-count complaint that led to Friday's ruling.
That lawsuit stated the CHRB allegedly violated Baltas's civil rights and kept materials from him that were related to the accusations, “thereby forcing Baltas to proceed with information and documents that are being withheld and concealed from him…”
The CHRB's original June 21 complaint stated that “Between the dates of 4/15/2022 to 5/8/2022, 23 horses trained by RICHARD BALTAS were administered a substance on days they were entered into races. Surveillance video captured all administrations by employees of BALTAS's barn. The substance was analyzed by University of California, Davis, who reported the presence of Higenamine and Paenol.”
The Dec. 2 ruling stated that Baltas's suspension will run from Dec. 9, 2022, to Dec. 8, 2023, for allegedly violating the following CHRB rules: #1887 (Trainer to Insure Condition of Horse), #1902 (Conduct Detrimental to Horse Racing), and #1843.5 (Medication, Drug, and Other Substances Permitted After Entry in a Race).
More specifically, Baltas was cited for “Oral administrations of 'X-Treme Air Boost' and other substances on race day.” (While the original complaint listed “23 horses,” the ruling stated “21 counts”).
Back when the complaint was issued nearly a half-year ago, Baltas's lawsuit stated that, “None of the counts in the CHRB Complaint are valid, and each of them reflect a malicious intent by the Defendants.”
Baltas has not started a horse since July 15, at Lone Star Park.
His lawsuit stated that on May 10, “Aidan Butler, [acting] on behalf of Santa Anita, notified Baltas that he was prevented from entering any horses at Santa Anita.”
On June 22, 2022, the CHRB filed an ex parte application with the stewards at Los Alamitos Race Course to refuse the entry of two horses trained by Baltas, the lawsuit stated.
The stewards at Los Alamitos summarily denied these two entries “without a hearing or any form of due process,” the lawsuit stated. “The denial constituted a de facto summary suspension.”
Ballas then sent stock to compete at Churchill Downs. But, according to his lawsuit, track management there “issued a de facto suspension…a decision made, once again, without any due process.”
In July, in the wake of the CHRB complaint, a Los Angeles Superior Court Judge denied a request by Baltas to order the CHRB to allow him to enter horses in the state.
Baltas's lawsuit gave the following timeline of events regarding the allegations:
“Baltas had a horse called Noble Reflection scheduled to run in the 10th race at Santa Anita Park on May 8, 2022. A few hours before the race, one of Baltas's employees were seen on videotape administering an oral dose syringe into the horse's mouth.
“A syringe was subsequently recovered from a feed bag that was tested and had allegedly traces of Higenamine and Paeonol, which are organic liquids that are found naturally in Chinese herbs. Notably, after Noble Reflection was scratched from the race, it was tested and the test results were 'clean,' and neither Higenamine nor Paeonol were found in the horse,” the lawsuit stated.
“Based on the film footage of Noble Reflection…on May 10, 2022, the Santa Anita and/or the CHRB and its agents went back retroactively to review videotaped footage of Baltas's horses from April 15, 2022, up through May 8, 2022, and allegedly saw 22 horses trained by Baltas receiving an orally administered liquid that they contend was X-Treme Air Boost, which is a product advertised for use in horses in the Santa Anita Condition Book,” the lawsuit stated.
“Unlike the situation with Noble Reflection, there was no syringe found in the other 21 instances to be tested. Instead, the CHRB assumed the substance in the other 22 cases going back to April 15, 2022, was the same that was found in or on the outside of the syringe found on May 8, 2022. None of the 21 horses that raced ever tested positive for a Controlled or Prohibited Substance,” the lawsuit stated.
“The CHRB has never explained its decision for going back in time to find violations in the past, and its conduct demonstrates that they and/or the Defendants herein intended to target Baltas to find as many violations as possible. Such conduct demonstrates malice and oppression on the part of the CHRB and its Agents,” the lawsuit stated.
The post Baltas Suspended a Year, Fined $10,000 for Alleged Medication Violations appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
Churchill Downs EHV Update: Two Additional Barns Quarantined, Dedicated Training Hours Set Up
The following update was posted on the Equine Disease Communication Center's website on Dec. 2, 2022:
As previously reported, testing of 13 horses that resided on the backside of Churchill Downs in Barn 37 with the EHV index case did identify five additional positive horses. This brings the number of affected horses to six. The index case remains hospitalized. The five additional positive horses were immediately placed in secured isolation at Barn 42. The eight remaining horses testing negative continue to be housed in Barn 37, while being monitored multiple times daily for any evidence of illness. Thus far, all have remained alert, responsive, and have shown no symptoms of EHV infection.
In addition, an epidemiologic investigation did identify two barns as having an elevated risk due to potential indirect transmission having occurred as a result of individuals working and caring for horses in the affected barn (Barn 37), as well as two additional barns (Barns 36 and 38). As a result of this elevated risk, Barns 36 and 38 have also been placed under quarantine to restrict horses stabled in those barns from having contact with the general population.
Kentucky Department of Agriculture continues to closely monitor the exposed horses in Barn 37. If no evidence of illness is found, this group of horses will be resampled as they approach 14 days since last known exposure. If this group tests negative, the imposed restrictions will be rescinded on those horses.
Horses in Barns 36 and 38 are considered to have had indirect exposure. To date, there have been no clinical cases suspected in either barns 36 or 38, and all horses appear alert, responsive, and with no fevers reported. Kentucky Department of Agriculture will continue monitoring these horses and will immediately test if symptoms appear or illness is suspected and has provided two approved protocols to qualify horses in these two barns for release. As described above, these horses can qualify for release by testing negative 14 days since last opportunity of indirect exposure. Alternatively, assuming no clinical cases develop or are suspected in Barns 36 and 38, these horses could qualify for release 28 days after last opportunity of indirect exposure. Kentucky Department of Agriculture currently identify Nov. 30, 2022, as last known indirect exposure with Dec. 1, 2022 being day one post indirect exposure.
Additionally, beginning Friday morning Dec. 2, 2022, Churchill Downs has amended training hours to allow horses in Barns 36, 37 and 38 access to the track. Training hours for the general population will be 5:30 – 8 a.m. Horses from Barns 36, 37 and 38 will have restricted access to the track between 8:30 – 10:30 a.m. with a dedicated outrider pony. Horses testing positive for infection in Barn 42 will remain in isolation with no scheduled access to the track.
Churchill Downs has implemented heightened biosecurity measures and will lift exit restrictions on horses from the unaffected barns provided they have a valid Health Certificate issued within 24 hours of departure beginning Dec. 3, 2022. The Stable Gate will retain copies of Health Certificates for departing horses. We appreciate the continued efforts, understanding and cooperation of our Kentucky horsemen as we work together to maintain a healthy racing environment. As we've demonstrated in the past, mitigating risk of disease transmission in environments such as this requires a 'team effort' and success is dependent on all parties working in unison.;
The post Churchill Downs EHV Update: Two Additional Barns Quarantined, Dedicated Training Hours Set Up appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
Servis Negotiating with Feds for Plea Bargain
The barred trainer Jason Servis, the final–and most notoriously prominent–defendant awaiting a trial or sentencing in the 2020 racehorse doping conspiracy scandal, is negotiating with federal prosecutors for a plea bargain agreement to adjudicate the three felony drug misbranding and fraud conspiracy charges he is facing for allegedly drugging almost all the Thoroughbreds under his care in 2019.
The disclosure was revealed late Friday afternoon in an otherwise routine court filing asking for an extension of time to file motions in Servis's upcoming trial, which has a Jan. 9 start date.
“The Government and counsel for defendant Jason Servis are currently in discussions regarding a potential pre-trial disposition, which may obviate the need for trial,” wrote United States Attorney Damian Williams in his letter to the court.
The request for extra time was granted by Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil of United States District Court (Southern District of New York).
The Dec. 2 filing also referenced a change-of-plea hearing that same judge had granted the day before to the New York-based veterinarian Alexander Chan, who is accused of his own trio of felony charges related to injecting purported performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) into Servis's horses and then hiding the charges from billing and veterinary records.
Chan, as part of his plea change, could very well implicate his former client, Servis, during his Dec. 5 hearing.
That's what another veterinarian who worked for Servis, Kristian Rhein, did in August 2021 when he changed his own plea to guilty on one felony count within the federal government's sprawling prosecution of an allegedly years-long conspiracy to dope racehorses. Rhein got the maximum sentence of three years imprisonment for his crimes.
Chan and Servis were scheduled to be tried together next month.
“In light of the foregoing, the parties respectfully contend that a brief adjournment of the upcoming deadline [to file motions] will facilitate the parties' ongoing efforts to reach a resolution short of trial,” Williams wrote to the judge.
The feds have already disclosed they have a trove of wiretapped evidence involving Servis speaking about his doping regimens to Rhein, Chan, and the now-imprisoned trainer Jorge Navarro, who in December 2021 was sentenced to five years behind bars for his rampant criminal usage of equine PEDs.
Some of those secretly recorded phone conversations involved the MGISW Maximum Security, who crossed the wire first in the GI Kentucky Derby, but was DQ'd for in-race interference.
One of the elixirs of choice for both Servis and Navarro was SGF-1000, a custom-made, purported PED intended to promote tissue repair and increase a racehorse's stamina and endurance beyond its natural capability. The two trainers discussed this PED in an intercepted call on March 5, 2019. The transcript reads as such:
Servis: I'll tell you what, Jorge. I'm using that [expletive] shot. What is it, SGF?
Navarro: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I got, uh, I got more than 12 horses on that so I'll let you know, okay?
Servis: I've been using it on everything, almost.
Navarro: Jay, we'll sit down and talk about this [expletive]. I don't want to talk about this [expletive] on the phone, okay?
Servis: All right. You're right.
On June 5, 2019, a call between Servis and Rhein went like this, according to the feds:
Servis: Are you by yourself?
Rhein: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just walked out of the barn.
Servis: Hey. So they've been doing some out-of-competition testing, which I have no problem with. Um, they took Maximum Security Monday and they came back again today. But Monday he got the KS. I just want to make sure we are all good with that.
Rhein: Wait, what did he get?
Servis: I'm sorry, I said “KS.” The, you know, your shot. The…
Rhein: Oh, the SG.
Servis: Yeah, that stuff.
Rhein: Yeah-no, no, no. The Jockey Club tested it, and I met the guy who tested it way back when. It comes back as collagen. They don't even have a test for it.
The post Servis Negotiating with Feds for Plea Bargain appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
