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Rhein Implicates Servis When Switching Doping Plea to ‘Guilty’

Kristian Rhein, a suspended veterinarian formerly based at Belmont Park, on Tuesday changed his plea to guilty on one felony count within the federal government's sprawling prosecution of an allegedly years-long conspiracy to dope racehorses.

Speaking in open court, Rhein also directly implicated five others, most notably co-defendant Jason Servis, the now-barred trainer who was his regular client and allegedly administered performance-enhancing drugs [PEDs] on practically every Thoroughbred under his control.

“I, along with Jason Servis, concealed the administration of SGF-1000 and clenbuterol from the owners by billing for other services and dispensables to avoid scrutiny by the owners,” Rhein said during an Aug. 3 teleconference before Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil of United States District Court (Southern District of New York).

“I, along with Jason Servis, were leaders and organizers [of others who performed allegedly criminal actions], which included my associate, Dr. Alexander Chan; Jason's assistant, Henry Argueta; my other associate, Juliano Suarez, and Michael Kegley [Jr.],” Rhein said.

Also revealed for the first time during Tuesday's hearing was the staggering amount of purse money-$26 million-that federal prosecutors are alleging Servis won illegally by racing horses purportedly hopped up by drugs that Rhein's practice provided.

For perspective, that massive earnings figure represents half the $52 million in purses that Servis's trainees bankrolled during his entire two-decade training career between 2001 and 2020.

And that $26-million amount will be additionally significant when Rhein gets sentenced Dec. 2.

That's because according to federal sentencing guidelines, ill-gotten monetary gains within the $25 million to $65 million range will escalate the nature of Rhein's offense by “22 levels,” assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Mortazavi told the judge.

“I am not a part of the winnings,” the 49-year-old Rhein was quick to add.

Vyskocil then curtly interjected to clarify that was not what she was asking the defendant to answer. She said she only wanted to confirm whether Rhein was “freely and voluntarily agreeing” that prosecutors were presenting $26 million as the proper amount of Servis's purse winnings. Rhein then said yes.

As part of a plea agreement, Rhein on Tuesday withdrew his initial plea of not guilty from 2020 and instead pled guilty to one count of drug adulteration and misbranding for use in the covert doping of Thoroughbred racehorses.

Vyskocil said that Rhein's maximum penalty is a term of imprisonment up to three years, plus supervised release for up to one year. The maximum fine allowed is $10,000, or two times the amount of gross pecuniary gains or twice the loss to others as result of offense, whichever is greater.

As part of his plea agreement, Rhein also has to forfeit to the U.S. the criminally gained proceeds that are directly traceable to his offense, which he agreed totaled $1,021,800. Vyskocil said he must pay at least $671,800 of that amount before his sentencing date in four months.

Rhein also agreed to pay $729,716 in restitution to an undisclosed list of other victims. Mortazavi said prosecutors will file with the court an under-seal list of exactly who those victims are at the time of Rhein's sentencing.

As she has asked other defendants to do when they have changed their guilty pleas in her court, Vyskocil asked Rhein to detail exactly what he did to constitute his crimes.

“From at least in or about December 2016 through at least in or about March 2020, in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere, I marketed and distributed in interstate commerce misbranded and adulterated drugs to trainers and veterinarians of Thoroughbred racehorses,” Rhein said.

Rhein added that this was “an effort to assist those trainers and veterinarians to improve the performances of racehorses through the administration of such misbranded and adulterated drugs while avoiding detection of that scheme by federal and state drug regulators.”

At a later point in the hearing, when Vyskocil asked Rhein if he understood how his professional standing as a veterinarian would play a role in his sentencing, Rhein admitted that he did.

“Because I was a veterinarian, I am held to a much higher standard as a professional, and I betrayed that trust to the people [who owned] not only the horses that I was taking care of, but also to all the people that listened to me and know me and trust in my professional opinion,” Rhein said.

“When you did all of what you described to me,” Vyskocil asked, “did you know that what you were doing was wrong?”

“Yes, your honor,” Rhein replied.

“And did you know at the time that what you were doing was illegal?” Vyskocil asked.

At that point Rhein paused and said he needed to confer with his attorney before answering. After a brief off-camera pause, Rhein replied, “Yes, your honor, I did.”

Rhein began his veterinary career in 2002 and soon specialized in racehorse treatment. He started a practice at Belmont Park in 2015. In 2017, he partnered to form a bloodstock services company, Empire Thoroughbreds.

Rhein is now the fifth of 28 defendants to plead guilty to charges in the federal government's prosecution of an alleged “corrupt scheme” to manufacture, mislabel, rebrand, distribute, and administer PEDs to racehorses all across America and in international races. Indictments were unsealed to coincide with a flurry of coordinated arrests nationwide on Mar. 9, 2020.

One defendant, the veterinarian Scott Robinson, has already pled guilty to conspiring to unlawfully distribute adulterated and misbranded drugs for the purpose of doping racehorses. In March 2021 he was sentenced to 18 months in prison, and also had to forfeit $3.8 million he gained from his illicit actions.

Scott Mangini, Robinson's business partner, pled guilty in April to conspiring to unlawfully distribute adulterated and misbranded drugs with the intent to defraud and mislead. The government contended that Mangini, a former pharmacist whose license was suspended in 2016, sold and shipped millions of dollars worth of “blood builders” used by trainers to increase red blood cell counts and improve a horse's endurance. He is to be sentenced Sept. 10.

Sarah Izhaki, whose role involved selling misbranded versions of Epogen, pled guilty to the same charge as Robinson and in June was sentenced to time served plus three years of supervised release. Vyskocil could have sentenced Izhaki to a prison term of 12 to 18 months, but opted for the more lenient punishment due to extenuating circumstances that included Izhaki's poor health.

Kegley, an independent contractor for a Kentucky-based company called MediVet Equine, pled guilty in July to one count of drug adulteration and misbranding. He said at his plea hearing that one of those drugs was SGF-1000, and that “I knew that the product was not manufactured in an FDA approved facility, nor was it approved for sale by the FDA.” He is to be sentenced Nov. 22.

Barred trainer Jorge Navarro, who along with Servis is the most notorious and prominent defendant in the alleged doping conspiracy, will have an Aug. 11 change-of-plea hearing at which he is expected to alter his initial “not guilty” pleas to two indicted counts. He is accused of a years-long PED doping program that allegedly involved frequent use of SGF-1000.

According to the initial March 2020 indictment, Rhein was one of those veterinarians to whom Kegley routinely sold SGF-1000, and prosecutors allegedly have Rhein on tape in July 2019 bragging that he sold “assloads” of SGF-1000.

In a separate wiretapped conversation, from June 2019, Rhein allegedly told Servis that the purportedly doped MGISW Maximum Security wouldn't trigger a positive for SGF-1000 because “they don't even have a test for it in America.”

At one point during Tuesday's hearing prior to Rhein's guilty plea, Vyskocil asked Mortazavi to outline the evidence that would be brought against the him so the defendant would know what he was up against if his case instead went to trial.

Mortazavi said the government's proof included:

“Wire intercepts of calls involving Kristian Rhein and others promoting and discussing SGF-1000, including the fact that that drug was untestable on drug tests, and including discussions on relabeling the product once there was increased law enforcement and regulatory scrutiny of the legality of using SGF-1000, particularly on racehorses.

“We would have evidence of controlled purchases of SGF-1000 made before and after there was increased law enforcement scrutiny of the drug, in which the labelling had been altered later, so that the drug was described as 'homeopathic' in order to specifically avoid regulatory detection.

“Archived web pages advertising SGF-1000 on the website of the manufacturer; promotional materials stating that SGF-1000 contained, among other things, multiple growth factors, and that it operated as a vasodilator.

“We would also have evidence of…false veterinary bills altered by Dr. Rhein's veterinary practice for racehorse owners, in which charges for SGF-1000 were hidden, as well as charges for the prescription drug clenbuterol distributed to trainers without a valid prescription….

“We would have proof of shipment of SGF-1000 into the U.S. from overseas into MediVet's distribution center in Kentucky. And we would also have shipment records of SGF-1000 across the United States,” Mortazavi summed up.

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Navarro to Change ‘Not Guilty’ Plea in Doping Scandal

Barred trainer Jorge Navarro, the most notorious and prominent defendant in the international racehorse doping scandal that rocked the racing industry when the feds arrested 28 alleged conspirators in March 2020, has just been granted an Aug. 11 change-of-plea hearing at which he is expected to alter his initial “not guilty” plea from last year.

This bombshell change in the case could mean a new pleading of “guilty” is in the pipeline for Navarro, perhaps as part of a sentencing bargain that has played out behind the scenes between federal prosecutors and defense attorneys.

Within the past week, two other alleged co-conspirators—a veterinarian and a drug distributor—have either already changed their pleas to guilty or are expected to do so at an upcoming hearing.

The news about Navarro's change-of-plea hearing arrived in the form of a July 30 court order signed by Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil that landed on the electronic docket for United States District Court (Southern District of New York) around 5 p.m. Friday afternoon.

Five separate counts are included within the government's series of indictments that allegedly involve a vast network of co-conspirators who purportedly manufactured, mislabeled, rebranded, distributed, and administered performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) to Thoroughbred and Standardbred racehorses all across America and in international races. Navarro is named in two of the counts.

Count One is being referred to in court documents as the “Navarro Conspiracy,” which alleges

a years-long doping program organized and executed by Navarro on horses that he trained and controlled.

Count Three alleges a similar conspiracy organized by now-barred trainer Jason Servis, who is accused of doping nearly all of the racehorses under his control in a similar time frame during the 2010s decade, including the disqualified 2019 GI Kentucky Derby winner Maximum Security.

That third count, the “Servis Conspiracy,” further implicates Navarro, Michael Kegley Jr., Kristian Rhein, and Alexander Chan.

Rhein and Chan are veterinarians who practiced at racetracks during the time of their alleged conspiracy. Kegley was an independent contractor for a company, MediVet Equine.

Kegley just changed his plea to guilty July 23. In doing so, he told the judge that he “sold a variety of products,” including the PED known as SGF-1000. “I sold these products to veterinarians, horse trainers,” Kegley said at last week's hearing. “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.”

On July 28—five days after Kegley's blunt admission in open court—Rhein asked for and was granted a change-of-plea hearing, which is coming up Aug. 3. The feds allegedly have him taped in a wiretapped conversation stating that he sold “assloads” of SGF-1000 to trainers, presumably then-clients at his Belmont Park base.

In other intercepted phone calls and texts between Navarro and Servis that are to be used as evidence, the two trainers allegedly coordinated the procurement and administration of SGF-1000 and purportedly warned each other about the presence of racetrack regulators and law enforcement officials at Gulfstream Park, where the two were stabled during winter meets.

According to the indictment, on Feb. 18, 2019, “Servis warned Navarro, via text message, of the presence of a racing official in the barn area where Servis and Navarro stored and administered PEDs to their respective racehorses.”

Later that same day, Navarro allegedly recounted the brush with the regulator to Michael Tannuzzo, another defendant: “He would have caught our asses [expletive] pumping and pumping and fuming every [expletive] horse [that ran] today,” Navarro allegedly said.

On March 5, 2019, another intercepted phone call between Servis and Navarro allegedly revealed their attempts to procure and administer SGF-1000.

“I've been using it on everything, almost,” Servis allegedly said in the wiretapped conversation..

Navarro allegedly replied that he's “got more than 12 horses on” that drug, but he ends the call by adding, “Jay, we'll sit down and talk about this shit. I don't want to talk about this shit on the phone, OK?”

Another alleged criminal incident involved Navarro dosing elite-level sprinter X Y Jet “with 50 injections [and] through the mouth” before a big win in the Mar. 30, 2019, GI Golden Shaheen in Dubai.

Ten months later, in January 2020, X Y Jet died suddenly, allegedly from cardiac distress that has never been fully documented or explained.

Two months after that, on Mar. 9, 2020, the feds swooped in and made multi-state arrests of the 28 alleged conspirators.

Sarah Izhaki, whose role in the alleged conspiracy involved selling misbranded versions of Epogen, pled guilty to the same charge as Robinson and in June 2021 was sentenced to time served plus three years of supervised release.

Vyskocil could have sentenced Izhaki to a prison term of 12 to 18 months, but opted for the more lenient punishment due to extenuating circumstances that included Izhaki's poor health.

At Izhaki's sentencing, Vyskocil warned other defendants that the light sentencing in Izhaki's case was a “one-off” that should not be construed as a benchmark for other defendants.

“I want to say on the record, if you are [thinking] that, you are making a mistake,” Vyskocil warned.

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Oireachtas Hearings Conclude

The last of a series of Oireachtas Hearings into horse racing in Ireland concluded on Tuesday with representatives of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine the latest to answer questions.

The independence of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) was a topic of discussion among deputies. Representatives of the IHRB were involved in two sessions this month along with Horse Racing Ireland (HRI), while the Irish Racehorse Trainers' Association (IRTA) were also invited to meet the joint Oireachtas committee. This followed a number of high profile comments made in the media by trainer Jim Bolger.

“We are satisfied with the structure of the organisation and the board which is in statute in Ireland,” said an IHRB spokesperson. “This was reiterated by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine last week in the Dáil. “During our hearings, we welcomed the opportunity to detail the regulatory structure of the IHRB and to clarify matters raised by the parliamentary committee.”

Last week Charlie McConalogue, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine in Ireland, was asked in The Dáil if he was satisfied with the current structure of the IHRB. “I am satisfied the current structure of the IHRB is sufficiently independent to ensure maximum confidence that any allegations concerning doping, animal welfare abuses or other illegitimate activities are adequately investigated and will be followed up, where necessary,” he stated at the time.

The current IHRB board comprises of H.R.D. McCalmont (Chairman), Martin P. O'Donnell (Vice Chairman), John Byrne, Philip McLernon, J.J. Power and David McCorkell.

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Dr. Rick Arthur Q&A: Part One

After 15 years as California's equine medical director, Dr. Rick Arthur has stepped away from the post.

A long-time vocal champion, both in his home state and at the international level, of tightened welfare practices in the sport, Arthur has spearheaded a slew of precedent-setting medication and equine safety reforms in California.

During those 15 years, Arthur has been at the helm of the industry's veterinary ship while California has navigated a series of tumultuous storms, including a benighted venture to switch from dirt to synthetic racetrack surfaces during the first few years of his tenure, as well as the Santa Anita welfare crisis that erupted near the beginning of 2019. Known on occasion to be pugnacious and forthright, Arthur has also endured his fair share of criticism as California racing's chief equine veterinarian, most recently concerning the case surrounding Justify's scopolamine positive subsequent to the horse's GI Santa Anita Derby victory of 2018.

Bearer of many hats, Arthur is a former private veterinarian, Thoroughbred owner and breeder, and a member of The Jockey Club. He was also a past-president of the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) and was honored with the organization's President's Award in 2014. Dr. Jeff Blea, a SoCal-based private veterinarian with 28 years of experience and another former AAEP president, has filled Arthur's vacant seat.

The following is the opening half of a conversation Arthur conducted with the TDN on his first day off the job. It has been edited only very lightly for grammatical and clarification purposes.

TDN: After 15 years as California's equine medical director, what is your main takeaway from that period?

RA: My main takeaway is that horse racing has to pay attention to the horse and develop policies and programs and regulations that put the horse first.

TDN: And looking at the totality of what's happened during those 15 years, has California been successful at doing that?

RA: If you look at the numbers objectively, we've decreased fatalities almost 75% over that period. Some of it is [due to] decreased racing, but far and away, the majority is [due to] the policies and the regulations we put in place and [by] encouraging the culture change to put the horse first.

TDN: How would you characterize that “culture change” during your tenure?

RA: Up until the Santa Anita situation in 2019, I don't think a lot of horsemen really understood that society has changed and that it's necessary to make changes that put the horse first. And there certainly was a lot of push-back when you look at things like the fatality review program, when you look at voided claims, to the continuing education program, to put more science into the art of training. All those things we had tremendous push-back on really until the Santa Anita fiasco.

Horsephotos

TDN: You bring that up. So, the last two years has arguably been the most transformative period in California in terms of medication and safety reforms, many of which you'd been trying to push through prior. You've talked a lot about the cumbersome administrative law process, but why do you think it took something like the Santa Anita welfare crisis to bring about those modifications?

RA: It is very easy to stop regulations in the way that the California Horse Racing Board [CHRB] operated previously. And if you go back and look at all those initiatives that we started–continuing education for trainers, voiding claims, third party Lasix, post-mortem review programs, restricting intraarticular injections, even banning anabolic steroids back when I first started–there was always somebody who was opposing those changes. Even lowering toe grabs that were demonstrated to be associated with increased injury. There was always push-back at every step.

As I said, it's very easy to stop a regulation. Even though everybody thinks that it's easy to add regulations, it's actually just the opposite.

TDN: Immediately after the Santa Anita crisis, these changes arrived very suddenly, a mixture of in-house rules that dictated state policy and sweeping regulations that came thick and fast. Looking back, do you think it was done in a manner that was, in its entirety, fair to the horsemen and their livelihoods, and would you have done things differently given a second chance?

RA: Well remember that many of those were initiated by The Stronach Group.

TDN: That's what I meant by in-house rules…

RA: Some of them were a major change to trainers. In reality, I think some of them were a little bit stricter than they needed to be and done a little bit precipitously. But the fact is, it did open the door for many changes that have been shown to be quite effective.

TDN: Multi-factorial is the key term in any catastrophic injury and in the case of what happened at Santa Anita, official reports point to a variety of precipitating factors. What do you see is the main factor which made that particular Santa Anita winter/spring meet so deadly?

RA: Racing on a bad racetrack.

TDN: Can you elaborate on that?

RA: Look at the weather in the first two months of 2019–the previous year, 90% of the starts were on a fast track. In 2019 for the first two months, 60% of the race starts were on a fast track. We had so much rain during that period of time, there was really not an opportunity to refurbish the racetrack.

In early March, when they stopped racing, we had a dry period. They were able to bring in their previous track superintendent to rework the racetrack. And after that period of time, we really had a relatively safe racetrack. So, the real issue was continuing to race on a compromised racetrack. And it's not just the racetrack that's responsible for that, but horsemen that actually entered their horses and trained their horses on tracks that were not ideal.

TDN: Many see The Stronach Group's ban of Jerry Hollendorfer as an act of scapegoating. Do you think they [TSG] were right to ban him?

RA: I was not involved in that decision.

[Note: Arthur explained that he's involved in ongoing litigation between Hollendorfer and several entities in California, and was therefore unable to comment further]

Horsephotos

TDN: Now, the changes have been extensive over the last two years but we've a lot more on the horizon. In exactly a year's time, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act is expected to be implemented. How do you see it fitting into California's existing regulatory and safety and welfare infrastructure?

RA: It will be very, very difficult for the [HISA] safety program to come up with a program as extensive as California's and send it around the rest of the country. That suggests to me that California will still continue to have a stricter, or let's say a more robust, safety program than HISA is going to be able to develop.

How will that actually work? In my reading of the regulation, it's hard to understand because the funds for that safety program will no longer be available to the CHRB–those are some of the nebulous aspects of the HISA law as to exactly how those funds will be developed and how they'll be distributed.

For example, in California we have monitoring veterinarians as a matter of law. As of right now, those are provided by the track associations. That [would conceivably] be something the regulatory agency would oversee. But those individuals are supervised by law and by regulation and by the CHRB official veterinarians. So, how that all mixes together I think is going to be a real challenge for HISA to sort out.

TDN: Ultimately, do you see it as a plus or a minus to California racing?

RA: I suspect it's going to be a step back. I think eventually, long-term for national racing, I certainly understand the need for HISA. I think the national state-by-state regulation of racing and organizations like the ARCI have found themselves incapable of developing a national sport. NTRA was supposed to have a legal office that never came to be either. So, having one entity with control over all of racing, I certainly understand the need for it. And I think it's really, probably, the only way racing is going to survive long term.

TDN: Arguably, the biggest problem in drug testing in the future concerns the detection of genetically engineered products like EPO that mimic the body's own hormones and proteins. If USADA is HISA's drug enforcement agency, do you think they'll do a better job of policing these substances than the sport already does?

RA: It really depends. I certainly know that USADA and WADA [World Anti-Doping Agency] have capabilities in looking at gene doping. The IFHA [International Federation of Horseracing Authorities] has gene doping committees as well. In fact, there's liaison between WADA and the IFHA that I'm involved with. I do think that genetic testing, particularly gene doping, is going to be a real challenge, very expensive. So, I do think having a central entity is going to be critical to addressing that threat.

I don't think you could do it state by state, even though the best school, UC Davis, has some very, very talented people that understand genetics very well. But it's going to take it an international effort to address the risk of gene doping and gene manipulation.

TDN: So, what you're saying is USADA brings…

RA: …They bring international cooperation. It looks as if, even though USADA is different than WADA–certainly internationally–the racing industry is teaming with the FEI [The International Federation for Equestrian Sports], IFHA and WADA to try to pool our resources and understand the risks of how detection of gene doping and gene manipulation could affect horse racing going forward, and how to test for it.

Breeders' Cup/Eclipse Sportswire

TDN: Knowing what you know, how prolific is gene doping and gene manipulation in the sport?

RA: Right now, there is no evidence that it is being used. However, this is an area that has made leaps and bounds in advancement since we started the IFHA gene doping subcommittee five, six years ago. It's an entirely different environment today.

I do think there are potential risks in terms of getting genes or administering genes to horses. The real problem with gene doping is it's easy to get a gene in a horse, but it's not easy to get it to do what you want it to do. Well, that's true of even gene therapy and other uses of gene manipulation.

Having said that, I do think it's a bigger risk today than it was five years ago. And there is a lot of advancement in this area that caused us concern. But as of right now, I know of no instance internationally of gene doping being used in horse racing. That doesn't mean it hasn't happened. That doesn't mean it's not going on. We're looking for it.

TDN: In the last month, The Washington Post has come out with a couple of reports, in one of which it's alleged that trainer Bob Baffert used political coercion against you to influence the outcome of your investigation into the series of sudden deaths among his trainees between 2011 and 2013. In the final report, you concluded that although the blanket prescribing of thyroxine to all Baffert horses does appear unusual, “The fatalities remain unexplained and there is no evidence whatsoever CHRB rules or regulations have been violated or illicit activity played a part.”

You told the Post the two things–the political pressure and the report's findings–were unrelated. If you were to conduct the investigation today, would the findings and the outcome be any different?

RA: No. If you look in the necropsy reports that are up on the CHRB website, you'll see that there's all different sorts of explanations that are associated with some of the sudden deaths.

One of them was an anticoagulant rodenticide. We had a number of cases in California over the following years that were associated with anticoagulant rodenticide poisoning, including ponies, so it's not as if somebody was trying to drug a pony with rat poison. So, the real issue is that there were no violations of CHRB rules.

That does not mean that you condone the blanket administration of thyroxine. And certainly, if you look at my comments, either during the presentation at the CHRB meeting or in the report, Bob Baffert trains his horses hard. They were all on thyroxine. A number of them were on clenbuterol at the same time. And all of that, even though there's no violation of rules, really reflects on Bob Baffert's management of his stable.

If you look, there's actually a statistical analysis that shows this was not a random event, that there's something that was associated with those horses–whether it was Hollywood Park, whether it was Bob Baffert, whether it's the way the horses were managed, thyroxine, the entire program–there was something associated with those horses that put them at greater risk than the average horse. We just didn't know what it was.

TDN: Given the ethical framework that you abide by, how would you characterize the way Baffert managed his barn?

RA: The way the barn was managed was to win races–win big races with very expensive horses.

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TDN: Ethically–by your ethical framework.

RA: How would I best answer that question. It's not the way I like to see horses managed.

TDN: Since then, has the way in which he manages his barn improved?

RA: He actually quit using thyroxine before the report, after consulting with his own veterinarians about some of the things that were going on. I do think that they did change some management practices in the barn, but if you watch the way that Bob trains horses, he trains them very aggressively.

In fact, probably, and I've said this before, Bob Baffert really changed the way that horses are trained here. They're trained much harder than they were back 30 or 40 years ago when I started practicing. He works his horses very fast, very hard. And unfortunately, other trainers who try to emulate him don't have those million-dollar yearlings that can work 58 and change.

I think it used to be, everybody tried to emulate Charlie Whittingham, the way he trained, which was a more considered approach to training horses as compared to the Bob Baffert Quarter Horse style of training.

TDN: Do you think that change ultimately has been for the better or to the detriment of the Thoroughbred racehorse in California?

RA: I'm a big fan of Charlie Whittingham, Ron McAnally, Dick [Richard] Mandella. Those types of trainers.

Stay tuned for part two of this Q&A with Dr. Arthur.

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