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PHBA Donates $150K to New Bolton

The Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association donated $150,000 to the Equine Pharmacology Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine's (Penn Vet) New Bolton Center that will support continued research in equine biomarkers.

The new round of PHBA funding will bolster three key research initiatives focused on improving the health and safety of equine athletes and enhancing integrity in racing. One area of research seeks to identify novel mRNA biomarkers that can help proactively predict if a horse is at risk for injury, even for injuries that are difficult or impossible to detect using conventional methods. Ultimately, researchers hope to develop a rapid stall-side blood test that could be administered prior to a race, helping racing officials accurately detect horses that may be at an elevated risk.

The funding will also support Penn Vet's sample collection for continued development of an Equine Biological Passport through the expansion of the Equine Pharmacology Laboratory's BioBank. Samples from the BioBank are analyzed to determine baseline levels of blood-based biomarkers found in racehorses. Once established, these baseline levels can be used to determine if blood samples taken from a horse pre- or post-race show any variations from baseline indicative of illness, injury or prohibited substances.

“The PHBA is very proud to continue its partnership with Penn Vet by providing an additional grant of $150,000 to fund this incredibly important and timely research program,” said Deanna Manfredi, PhD, a member of the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association's Board of Directors. “This research program has the potential to have a very positive impact on the sport we all love and ensure its continued success through advances in preventing breakdowns, promoting equine health, and enhancing racing integrity.”

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Letters to the Editor: Barry Irwin

Regarding T. D. Thornton's Weekly Roundup, I would like to chime in to say that, as opposed to baseball in their juice era, Thoroughbred racing has only begun its purge. Only the tip of the iceberg has been shown so far. Wait until investigations reach the Midwest and the West Coast. The round up of miscreants is going to be very large in terms of numbers of cheaters who will be forced to find something else to do in life besides doping horses and robbing honest horse trainers and owners. Until the game is purged of its obvious bad guys, it cannot hope to move forward.

Barry Irwin
CEO, Team Valor International

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Judge Upholds Meadowlands Ban of Owners Associated with Indicted Trainer

A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit filed by eight harness owners who were banned at the tracks owned by Jeff Gural due to their ties with indicted trainer Rene Allard. Gural owns the Meadowlands in New Jersey and Tioga Downs and Vernon Downs in New York.

The case was dismissed without prejudice, meaning the plaintiffs may file a subsequent suit on the same grounds.
Despite the allegations against Allard, he had been cleared by the U.S. Department of Justice to train horses at a South Florida training center, as long as the horses under his care were not preparing to race. On Mar. 6, Gural announced that any owners who had horses with Allard would be banned at his tracks and their horses would be ineligible to race there. He also announced a ban against anyone who continued to have horses in partnership with the eight owners.

“To learn that people actually give this guy horses to train after what was discovered by the Federal investigation boggles the mind,” Gural said at the time. The owners, Kap Singh, Lawrence Dumain, Ira Wallach, Brian Wallach, Yves Sarrazin, Erin Hill, Bruce Soulsby and Allen Weisenberg filed suit, alleging violations of federal antitrust laws and state competition laws. The group alleged that Gural was attempting to “sanitize their illegal actions by attempting to smear Plaintiffs with the misdeeds of Rene Allard.”

United States District Judge Lawrence Khan disagreed, upholding the ban. “Judge Kahn clearly saw that this antitrust theory has no legs and did the right thing by dismissing the whole case,” Gural said in a statement. “This lawsuit and its outcome have only reinforced my resolve to purge PEDs from our industry even if it means defending baseless lawsuits like this or initiating my own legal actions against those who pose obstacles to our efforts, should I have to. Our industry requires, in my view, owners to be beyond reproach and held accountable for the training decisions they make.”

More so than any other track owner or manager in either Harness or Thoroughbred racing, Gural has been vigilant in his efforts to keep alleged dopers out of his tracks. Several of the Harness horsemen who were indicted in March, 2020 for their alleged involvement in a widespread scheme to dope racehorses had already been banned at the Gural tracks. Allard had been banned at the Meadowlands since 2013.

He has 4,570 career wins and his horses have earned over $53 million.

Allard, 36, was charged with misbranding and drug alteration, which carries a maximum sentence of five years. He continues to fight the charges.

During its investigation of Allard, the FBI intercepted a disturbing phone conversation between Ross Cohen and Louis Grasso, two others under indictment, discussing the deaths of horses trained by Allard who died after being given illegal drugs. Cohen referred to Allard's operation as the “Allard death camp.”

According to a deposition given by FBI agent Bruce Turpin, a raid of Allard's barn produced multiple empty syringes, the drug Glycopyrrolate, epinephrine and vials labeled “Thymosine Beta” and “for researching purposes only.”

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Judge Modifies, But Does Not Revoke Fishman’s Bail Conditions

After federal prosecutors alleged that indicted Florida veterinarian Seth Fishman is still selling purportedly performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) while awaiting trial in the international racehorse doping conspiracy case, the judge in the case Wednesday ordered new bail modification conditions after hearing both sides of the issue at a Monday hearing that could have–but didn't–result in Fishman's bail being revoked.

Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil of United States District Court (Southern District of New York) wrote in a Dec. 22 order that the following added terms shall apply to Fishman's pretrial release:

“The defendant shall surrender all drugs and/or substances now stored at [the address for his Boca Raton business] to an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Food and Drug Administration, or the designee of either the FBI or the FDA, within two weeks of Dec. 20. At all times prior to the surrender of the drugs or substances … the defendant, his agents, and any employees of any business controlled by the defendant shall refrain from entering the [Boca Raton business]. For the duration of the period of his pretrial release, the defendant, and all entities that he controls, shall refrain from the manufacture and/or distribution of any drug or substance, and from the administration of any drug or substance, apart from the drugs and substances that the defendant may administer to himself in the course of self-treatment for his own medical conditions.”

Fishman is charged with two felony counts related to drug alteration, misbranding, and conspiring to defraud the government. His trail is tentatively expected to begin in January.

On Dec. 6, federal prosecutors asked the judge overseeing the case to consider revoking the bail terms of Fishman's pretrial release. The basis for that request was that an employee of Fishman's had informed the government that Fishman was still allegedly creating pharmaceuticals for foreign distribution, and an FBI search of Fishman's business permitted by that employee allegedly turned up some of the same drugs that had formed the basis of Fishman's originally charged offenses.

One week later, Fishman's legal team denied the charges while alleging that the move by the feds to get Fishman's bail revoked was a ploy to undermine his legal preparation for the upcoming trial.

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