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Trainer Marcos Zulueta joined the growing list of those involved in the Jason Servis-Jorge Navarro doping scandal to change their plea to guilty. Zulueta did so Friday when appearing via teleconference before federal judge Mary Kay Vyskocil. In doing so, Zulueta became the ninth of 27 people indicted in March of 2020 to plead guilty.

Having pleaded guilty to adulterating and misbranding drugs with the intent to defraud or mislead, he faces up to five years in prison and will be sentenced in February.

In the original indictment, Zulueta was closely linked to Jorge Navarro and was alleged to be involved in the doping program that involved the star sprinter X Y Jet (Kantharos). However, Navarro's name was noticeably absent from most of Friday's proceedings. Instead, Zulueta spoke of his relationship with alleged drug distributor Ross Cohen when asked by Vyskocil to explain what he had done to justify his guilty plea. Cohen was among those indicted last year but his name was not included when a superseding indictment was announced last November.

“I misbranded medicine from Ross Cohen,” said Zulueta, who struggled with his English throughout the hearing. “I gave it to my horses for them to perform in training. I don't remember the specific days I gave it to the horses but I did it.”

Zulueta said he started using medications he got from Cohen in 2019, but said he stopped a few months later because he found that the drugs were having no impact on his horses. He made no mention of his dealings with Navarro.

“I realized that my horses weren't getting any better,” he said. “I didn't see any results. The last two or three months before I got arrested, I wasn't using it.”

When asked by Vyskocil whether, at the time, he knew what he was doing was illegal, Zulueta replied: “Yes, your honor. I am prepared to pay for the mistakes I have made.”

Representing the government, attorney Sarah Mortazavi told the court that investigators had compiled mounds of evidence to make their case against Zulueta and singled out evidence that Zulueta was using a drug called “monkey,” which has similar characteristics to epogen.

According to the original indictment, Zulueta was among those who where obtaining, shipping and administering misbranded and adulterated PED's for Navarro's benefit. The evidence included an intercepted phone call from February 2019 in which Navarro and Zulueta discussed Navarro's need for a customized PED referred to as a “blocker.” Zulueta assured Navarro he could get the drug for him.

On another occasion, Zulueta cautions Navarro about winning too often.

“Yeah, you should be happy-happy-happy that you are not winning all of them,” Zulueta allegedly told Navarro. “Otherwise, you will be arrested.”

Zulueta started training in 2011 and quickly became a force at Parx. In the few months in 2020 before his arrest, he had 18 winners from 58 starters, good for a winning rate of 31%.

Three individuals who have pled guilty have been sentenced. Scott Robinson and Scott Mangini each got 18 months and Sarah Izhaki got time served.

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The first hearing of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board in front of a Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine began in Ireland on Thursday, with the IHRB defending itself rigorously. The IHRB has come under pressure recently regarding concerns over doping in Irish racing following Irish trainer Jim Bolger's claims in a newspaper interview that there would be a “Lance Armstrong” moment in the Irish industry. Irish Government committee members asked questions of Horse Racing Ireland's Chief Executive Brian Kavanagh, IHRB Chief Executive Denis Egan and IHRB Chief Veterinary Officer Dr. Lynn Hillyer. The meeting began with an opening statement from Kavanagh.

He stated in part the vital nature of horse racing to Ireland's economy and “as such, the reputation and integrity of the product is of paramount importance, so the issue of drug testing is an important one with significant funds invested annually in this area.

“HRI sees its role as ensuring that the IHRB has sufficient resources, both financial, human and capital to carry out its responsibilities to the level expected of a major racing nation–and we support the IHRB to constantly improve their capacity in this area.”

Kavanagh also cited the increased spending on testing, which has spread to all winners in Ireland, as well as more out-of-competition testing at a variety of venues.

He said, “Spending on doping control has increased by 27% in the last four years, and Horse Racing Ireland has advised the IHRB that funding will never be an issue for meaningful initiatives to improve capability or increase capacity in this area.”

Egan, who recently announced he was taking early retirement, stated, “The IHRB's Equine Anti-Doping programme has developed into a sophisticated and extensive risk-based and intelligence-led strategy, in which it is not just the numbers of samples which matter but from what horse they are taken, where and when.

“Any information received by us is assessed, categorised and actioned as appropriate. It is vitally important to the IHRB that those directly and indirectly involved in the industry understand this and the fact that they can provide any information to us in a confidential manner via the confidential hotline, email or by contacting our officials.”

He added, “We have a top-class anti-doping team headed up by Dr. Lynn Hillyer–and while we continue to evidence that there is no systematic attempt to cheat through doping in Irish racing, we will continue, with the assistance of the industry and those outside, to effectively detect, disrupt and deter such behaviour. It will not be tolerated–we will continue to seek it out–and where discovered, we will take all actions within our power to combat it without fear or favour.”

Dr. Hillyer reinforced Egan's statements and said, “The process is very simple. The information can come in via a number of routes, but once it lands on a desk it is dealt with. We don't care how it comes in, but the important thing is that it comes in. We need to differentiate between information coming in and hearsay. I'm not saying we disregard either, but we have to process it and assess it–that is basically converting information into intelligence, and we work very closely with the BHA now. Every piece of information is logged.

“One of the things that rankled the most reading the piece last week was the six horses sold from Ireland to the UK who were alleged to have traces of anabolic steroids. We were alleged to be doing nothing about it, but that couldn't be further from the truth. The minute that information came to the BHA they acted on it and communicated with us–we were across it and we were prepared to act.

“They did the most extensive piece of work I think I've ever seen. They analysed tail hair, mane hair–they analysed samples repeatedly, and there was nothing.”

Not all of the pertinent questions were asked in the two-hour limit, so another meeting has been called for July 20. In addition, on July 13, the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association and representatives from the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine will also meet.

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