drugs in racing | Horse Racing Free Tips

Harness Trainer Guido Gets 20 Months in Prison for Doping

Thomas Guido, III, a 57-year-old former Standardbred trainer based in the Northeast, became the third defendant in related criminal racehorse doping cases this week to be sentenced to prison.

On Thursday, a federal judge put Guido behind bars for 20 months as part of an agreement with prosecutors in which Guido pleaded guilty to one felony count of substantive drug misbranding and adulteration with intent to defraud and mislead in exchange for three conspiracy charges against him being dropped.

Guido was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine. Prior to his Nov. 17 sentencing, he already paid a $61,800 forfeiture that had been a condition of his plea bargain.

At two separate sentencings on Nov. 15, the same judge in in United States District Court (Southern District of New York) sent the former Standardbred trainer Rene Allard to prison for 27 months while the former racetrack veterinarian Louis Grasso got 50 months for his role in the same doping ring.

Had the case gone to trial, prosecutors had been prepared to prove how Guido and Grasso worked together to administer performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) to Standardbreds.

“Critically, Guido sought to obtain some of the most potent PEDs in the industry-blood builders-to administer to racehorses for the purpose of corruptly improving their race performance,” prosecutors wrote in a pre-sentencing submission.

Among the evidence that the feds intended to present if the case had gone to rial was a 2019 intercepted phone call in which the trainer and veterinarian discussed the death of a horse named Reiki, presumably after the administration of a blood-clotting agent.

“Guido appreciated the dangers of illegally administering drugs to racehorses for no legitimate medical purpose,” the prosecution's filing continued. “One of Guido's racehorses unexpectedly died with no apparent cause, leading co-defendant Louis Grasso to speculate that the horse had died after receiving a mis-administered dose of N-butyl alcohol. Guido likewise appreciated that his conduct was prohibited: over the course of his career, Guido had received multiple prior positive drug tests and fines or suspensions as punishment.”

Prosecutors had sought a 30-month prison sentence. Guido's attorney had argued for a far more lenient punishment of 12 months of home confinement. Guido's lawyer also disputed that his client had a direct role in Reiki's death.

“The government suggests that Mr. Guido was directly responsible for the death of a horse under his care,” Guido's attorney wrote. “The basis of this allegation is a conversation between Dr. Grasso and Mr. Guido recorded on October 2, 2019, in which they discuss the death of a horse owned by a friend of Mr. Guido.

“Dr. Grasso, who did not examine the horse, opines that the horse died of an improperly administered N-Butyl injection. [Reiki] died the day before [after competing in] a race at Pocono Downs.”

“Mr. Guido was not present at that race, he did not transport that horse to the track, and it's not clear whether Reiki was stabled at [his farm]. Mr. Guido did not mis-deliver an injection of N-Butyl to Reiki on October 1, 2019…. The entire conversation is speculative [and] we don't know why the horse died,” the defense filing continued.

But yet, even Guido's own attorney conceded in the same paragraph that, “What is true, however, is that similar to his facilitating others in obtaining Epogen prescriptions, Mr. Guido may have supplied the N-Butyl that Dr. Grasso had prescribed for his barn. It is conduct that he deeply regrets.”

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Chris Oakes Sentenced to Three Years

NEW YORK–Standardbred trainer Chris Oakes, who has admitted to supplying Jorge Navarro with performance- enhancing drugs as well as using illegal drugs with his own horses, was sentenced to three years in prison Thursday. In October, Oakes, 57, pled guilty to one count of misbranding and drug adulteration with intent to defraud or deceive.

The decision was handed down by Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York before a small audience that included Meadowlands owner Jeff Gural. Under the sentencing guidelines, three years was the maximum allowable sentence.

“I believe this offense is serious,” Vyskocil said. “I have taken that into account as well as the characterizations of Mr. Oakes as a human being and a person. But I do not see any compelling reason to go below the sentencing guideline.”

While the case against Oakes involved his pattern of doping his own horses, it also focused on his relationship with Navarro and the doping of Navarro's XY Jet (Kantharos). Oakes supplied Navarro with PEDs that were given to X Y Jet, including a “blocker” PED. On Feb. 13, 2019, the same day X Y Jet won an allowance race at Gulfstream, Navarro instructed Oakes to enter the Gulfstream backstretch to administer PEDs to the sprinter.

“Mr. Oakes shared misbranded and adulterated drugs with others, including, and most particularly Mr. Navarro,” Vyskocil noted. “Specifically, he helped Mr. Navarro dope XY Jet.”

While still in training, XY Jet died in early 2020. Navarro said at the time that the cause of death was a heart attack.

Addressing the court, government lawyer Sarah Mortazavi lashed into Oakes, saying that he had failed to realize the severity of his actions.

“The defendant has not grappled with the seriousness of his crimes,” she said, “Instead of remorse, we have gotten from him self-serving excuses meant to minimize his conduct. He has said that the government can't prove that I killed any horses or did something to improve their performances, so what I did was not detrimental to these horses. But he injected these horses with drugs up to and including the day of their race, putting their health at risk.”

Oakes' attorney Page Pate did not deny that his client used PEDs and broke laws but asked the court to consider that trainer had many good qualities. That, he argued, was justification for leniency.

“The offenses committed, while clearly wrong, are inconsistent with who he was as a person and as a trainer who cared for his horses,” Pate said. “It's true that he tried to win purses by using PEDs he got from Dr. [Seth] Fishman and PEDs he created on his own and that that gave him an unfair competitive advantage in his races. But the narrative became Mr. Oakes abused his horses. Looking back over his 40-year career that is not consistent with what so many people who knew him and worked with him have told the court. The things he has done for his community, his random acts of kindness, they show that he is not a criminal.”

When addressing the court, Oakes, who began to choke up, brought up what he said was a long-running battle with alcoholism.

“I drank when I succeeded and I drank when I failed and I failed a lot,” he said. “I did not ask for help because I thought that would show a sign of weakness.”

Vyskocil said Oakes would have to enter a drug and alcohol treatment program once in prison.

Oakes said he was remorseful and blamed his decisions on stress and the pressure he felt to succeed.

“I was constantly unhappy, irritated and depressed,” he said. “I wanted everything to be perfect and I demanded that of my wife, my kids and my employees. I regret the path that I followed. I allowed stress and the pressure I was under to dictate my decisions. I have no one to blame but myself. I am aware of the crimes that I have committed, and I have learned from them. I humbly ask for leniency.”

Gural, who had banned Oakes at his tracks well before he was indicted, sat quietly and listened to the testimony. Gural was instrumental in putting together the investigation that led to Oakes and more than two dozen others being indicted on charges related to doping.

“I am glad I came, if for no other reason than to see how justice works,” he said. “I thought everybody did a good job and the judge understood the severity of the situation. It is a tragedy. These horses can't talk for themselves. When I started this, I had friends who told me it was a waste of time, that it was impossible to catch these guys. Getting 5 Stones involved and the fact that so many horses died in California, that got the attention of the U.S. Attorney, and they were willing to prosecute. I spent a great deal of time talking to the U.S. Attorney and convincing them that there were people out there using drugs.”

Oakes owned a handful of Thoroughbreds before his arrest and won 14 races. His horses were trained by Navarro. Oakes was a prominent harness trainer with 1,875 career wins and $29,631,843 in career earnings.

The post Chris Oakes Sentenced to Three Years appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Hall Testimony: Fishman Doping Program Could Cost $400 To $1,500 Per Horse, Per Month

As exhibits and transcripts from the trial of Dr. Seth Fishman continue to be acquired by members of the trade media, Harness Link reported over the weekend it had acquired a copy of the testimony given by owner/trainer Adrienne Hall, who appeared as a witness for the prosecution.

The publication presented the transcript in its entirety here.

Fishman was convicted by a federal jury last week on two counts of conspiring to violate adulteration and misbranding laws and the manufacture of performance-enhancing substances given to racehorses.

His sentencing is currently scheduled to take place during the first week of May. The maximum term he may face in federal prison is 20 years.

Jeff Gural, owner of the Meadowlands, has been outspoken in his support of Hall, who admitted to purchasing PEDs from Fishman in an effort to improve her horses' performance. Hall has seen her membership in the U.S. Trotting Association revoked, but Gural does not plan to ban her from his track. A spokesman for the New York State Gaming Commission also indicated that there were no restrictions in place on Hall's license as of last week.

The transcript notes several occasions when wiretapped phone calls were played for the jury. The contents of an audio recording is not typically captured on the court reporter's transcript and is not included here.

Here are a few takeaways from the transcript:

Hall initially contacted Fishman in an effort to find a veterinarian to serve her new training operation. She contacted Lisa Ranger on a recommendation from a fellow trainer in Ohio identified as Daniel Mier and purchased electrolyte jugs, iron sucrose, folic acid, vitamin B-12, Caco Copper, Amicar, and vitamin C from Equestology through Ranger. Hall was new to Florida at the time and interested in finding a new veterinarian to do lameness examinations on her horses. She inquired about whether Fishman could do this, but he later explained he did not do lameness work due to back problems. In fact, she said, Fishman never did any kind of examination of any of her horses. Hall later found a different veterinarian to do the work but never made any inquiries as to whether he could sell her any pre-race PEDs.
Fishman later detailed to Hall that he'd been investigated by an unidentified state veterinary board.
“Here's reality,” read a text from Fishman to Hall, which Hall was asked to read on the stand. “I was tortured so much by race commission without a client ever getting a single positive other than stupid shit like Bute given by another vet. I voluntarily gave up my license and then the veterinary board had me investigated for BS. They even accused Lisa of practicing veterinary medicine. I spent $25,000 in legal fees and had a personal political favor called in to end the BS.”
Hall corresponded with Fishman anyhow in hopes he could help her with a pre-race program for her horses, which would eventually include products she understood to be VO2 Max, a blood builder, and equine growth hormone.
Those products were given to Hall in vials with instructions they be reconstituted with sterile or bacteriostatic water before being injected — a process that made Hall nervous, since she did not want to accidentally put the product into the wrong vein or into a muscle and harm the horse.
Fishman told Hall in text messages that a blood building program would run $400 to $800 per month per horse. “A good program for blood, tissue regeneration and muscle factors is normally $1,250 to $1,500 per month,” Fishman told her. He offered to discount that program to $750.
Hall said Fishman never charged her for the PEDs he gave to her. He did indicate at one stage that if she referred other trainers to him, that she could make a commission off those sales. She assumed his interest in working with her was primarily the hope she could connect him to larger-scale operations where he believed she had a connection.
Hall indicated that there were rumors that Tony Poliseno, apparently Donato Poliseno, who is a defendant on a separate indictment, was selling product trainers in Ohio believed could be suspect. Poliseno was on the Fishman client list presented as an exhibit by the prosecution during the trial.
“…By the time I had left Ohio or when I was getting ready to leave Ohio, a lot of trainers were getting fed up with Poliseno,” Hall testified. “There were rumors that he was selling them products that were not as they were labeled. Horses were having bad reactions. Some of it they thought could have just been saline, so they were wasting money. A lot of people were stopping buying from him, and that's kind of how I came across Equestology.”

Read the complete transcript at Harness Link

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A Look At Seth Fishman’s Client Lists

The Paulick Report, along with other industry publications, has acquired copies of two documents presented during the recently-concluded trial of former veterinarian Dr. Seth Fishman which prosecutors say contain lists of clients from Fishman's Equestology business.

Fishman was convicted this week of two counts of conspiring to violate adulteration and misbranding laws and the manufacture of performance-enhancing drugs intended for use in racehorses.

The documents list clients by last name. One is limited to those with New York addresses. (Fishman's trial was held in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.) The other is alphabetized by last name and includes zip codes from a variety of states and a few Canadian postal codes. Street addresses and cities have been redacted, with zip code and state data remaining.

The list includes a number of people who were also indicted in March 2020 for their roles in what prosecutors say was a widespread network of drug suppliers, distributors and end users using adulterated and misbranded products to dope Thoroughbred and Standardbred racehorses. Thomas Guido/Guido Stable, Ross Cohen, Carl Garofalo, Tony Poliseno, Rene Allard, and Richard Banca are all on the list.

Garofalo entered a guilty plea in June 2021 to one count of adulteration and misbranding and was ordered to forfeit $6.7 million. He has yet to be sentenced. The other defendants have pleaded not guilty.

A number of harness trainers and stable names appear on the list, as do the names of several veterinarians, and a few Thoroughbred racing connections.

Jeff Gural, owner of the Meadowlands, indicated to the Paulick Report he is making inquiries with each harness trainer on the list to find out what specifically they were purchasing from Fishman and when.

“Everyone told me I was wasting my time and money trying to clean [racing] up so I just assume everyone thought it was business as usual and there was no risk,” Gural wrote in an email. “Obviously, they were wrong.”

The dates on the lists indicate they were pulled in February 2020, but it's not clear whether they are limited to client accounts that were active or contained historical data. The lists also do not indicate what the clients were purchasing or whether they were the end users of the products. While prosecutors say Fishman was not actively practicing veterinary medicine, he was licensed as a vet and could have provided legitimate, legal treatments in addition to or instead of the illegal products he was found guilty of making and distributing.

See the general list here.

See the New York-specific list here.

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