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Regulatory Roundup: Jose Delgado, Saffie Joseph Jr., Douglas Nunn, Mario Serey Jr. Sanctioned

Regulators in New Jersey and Maryland have issued a number of rulings in recent months for medication violations involving trainers Jose H. Delgado, Douglas Nunn, Saffie Joseph Jr., and Mario Serey Jr.

Two horses were disqualified from stakes wins for medication violations.

The Critical Way's victory in the June 19 Get Serious Stakes at Monmouth Park was taken away after the 7-year-old gelding tested positive for levamisole. Trainer Jose H. Delgado was given a 15-day suspension from Oct. 11-Oct. 25 and he was fined $500.

The Critical Way, who went on to win two subsequent stakes, including the Grade 3 Parx Dash on Aug. 31, is owned by Randal Gindi's Monster Racing Stables. Gindi in 2017 was fined $5,000 for “conduct detrimental to racing” in connection with a cell phone video in which he Jorge Navarro, his trainer at the time, could be heard joking about giving “juice” to horses and Gindi said he bet on them through a bookmaker Navarro recently pleaded guilty to federal charges of drug adulteration and misbranding.

Delgado was suspended an additional 15 days, from Sept. 26-Oct. 10 and fined $500 for a second incident in New Jersey when Glory Roll tested positive for an overage of phenylbutazone in a post-race sample from a June 13 race in which the mare finished fifth as the 3-2 favorite. Glory Roll is owned by Carole Star Stable.

Trainer Douglas Nunn was suspended 15 days from Oct. 16-30 and fined $500 after Team Effort tested positive for flunixin following a second-place finish in a May 31 Monmouth Park race.Team Effort, owned by Winner Circle Stables LLC, was disqualified from purse money in the race. The horse is entered to race Oct. 15 at Meadowlands with David Nunn as trainer.

Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. was fined $1,000 and the horse Wind of Change was disqualified from his victory at Monmouth Park in the Mr. Prospector Stakes on May 29 after testing positive for aminocaproic acid (better known as Amicar), an adjunct bleeder medication. Wind of Change is owned by Daniel Alonso.

The sanctions against Delgado, Joseph and Nunn were first reported by Bloodhorse.com.

Earlier this year, trainer Mario Serey Jr. was sanctioned in Maryland for two clenbuterol violations. Amen Corner, second in a May 20 race at Pimlico, was disqualified and placed last after testing positive for the bronchodilator. Family Fortune was disqualified from a May 21 win at Pimlico. Serey owns Amen Corner, while Family Fortune is owned by K12 LLC.

For both violations, Serey was fined $500. He received a 15-day suspension that was stayed, provided he does not pick up another Class 3 violation within a 365-day period. Serey served a 165-day suspension in 2019 after receiving a number of clenbuterol positives in Pennsylvania.

All of the positive tests were reported by Industrial Laboratories of Wheat Ridge, Colo. Industrial replaced Truesdail Laboratories of Irvine, Calif., as the official testing lab in a number of states over the past year, including New Jersey and Maryland.

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Jordan Fishman Enters Guilty Plea To Drug Adulteration And Misbranding In Federal Case

In a hearing before U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil on Oct. 6, Jordan Fishman changed his plea from “not guilty” to “guilty” to one count of drug adulteration and misbranding in the March 2020 federal case that saw over two dozen trainers, veterinarians and others charged in connection with a racehorse doping ring.

Fishman, 63, said he is of no relation to veterinarian Dr. Seth Fishman, who is also under indictment and with whom he had a working relationship. Jordan Fishman said he has a PhD in carcinogenesis and toxicology.

According to his testimony on Oct. 6, Fishman said from 2017 to March 2020 he formulated misbranded and adulterated drugs per Seth Fishman's instructions. Seth Fishman provided the materials and the instructions, he said, and Jordan Fishman followed the instructions to compound what he said were vitamins, amino acids, nutraceuticals, steroids and anti-inflammatory drugs. Jordan Fishman admitted he shipped the finished products to Seth Fishman's base in Florida and sometimes overseas, although he did not specify where. (Seth Fishman is known to have business contacts in the United Arab Emirates, according to documents filed in court.) These products, he said, were sent to Seth Fishman in unlabeled containers as he said Seth preferred to handle the labelling himself.

Jordan Fishman said the products were distributed by Seth Fishman through his company called Equestology. He said he did not know initially that the products he made were specifically destined for Thoroughbred racehorses, although he did know that Seth Fishman's business involved racehorses.

Prosecutors revealed that had the case gone to trial, they would have presented wiretap evidence from Seth Fishman's phone, evidence from a Dropbox account used to store documents related to Equestology, as well as emails exchanged between the two men which acknowledged investigative interest in their activities from the Food and Drug Administration.

Jordan Fishman was based in Massachusetts, where he was president and majority shareholder in Twenty First Century Biochemicals. The company specialized in the production of customized “peptides and amino acids” according to documents filed in a civil suit by Seth Fishman against Jordan Fishman and Twenty First Century Biochemicals. In that suit, which was filed two months after the federal indictments, Seth Fishman accused Jordan Fishman of falsely inflating the value of stock in Twenty First Century, and of failing to repay loans or complete pre-paid work. That suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, indicated that Seth Fishman had paid at least $1.25 million to Jordan Fishman's company since the start of their partnership in 2011. That case settled out of court in January 2021.

Jordan Fishman will face sentencing in February 2022. Per statute, the maximum prison sentence he may face is three years with up to one year of supervised release. Financial penalties by statute could include a fine of $10,000, twice the financial gain to Fishman or twice the cost to victims, whichever amount is greatest. Attorneys indicated that they have an agreement in place with Fishman that they will seek no more than 12 to 18 months in federal prison and a fine between $5,500 and $55,000, although that agreement does not bind the judge to confine her sentencing to those terms.

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West Virginia Officials Awaiting Split Sample Results On Georgina Baxter-Trained Charles Town Oaks Winner

Georgina Baxter, one of five Florida-based trainers sanctioned on Oct. 1 by Gulfstream Park for violating the track's house rules on clenbuterol, may be in jeopardy of losing her biggest career win after a horse in her care, R Adios Jersey, tested positive for the anti-inflammatory flunixin (trade name Banamine) following the $400,000, Grade 3 Charles Town Oaks in West Virginia on Aug. 27.

West Virginia Racing Commission steward Denver Beckner confirmed the initial finding from Industrial Laboratories in Colorado and said officials are awaiting results of a confirmatory split sample before conducting a hearing to consider possible disqualification of R Adios Jersey and sanctions that could include a fine and/or suspension of Baxter.

R Adios Jersey, a Florida-bred 3-year-old filly by Adios Charlie, is owned by Averill Racing LLC and ATM Racing. Her front-running, 3 1/4-length victory under Paco Lopez was her fourth victory without a defeat. R Adios Jersey earned $230,400 and paid a $12.80 mutuel for the Charles Town Oaks win.

Banamine is a Class 4 drug with a Category C penalty under Association of Racing Commissioners International guidelines. For flunixin, under those guidelines, if the sample tests higher than 5 ng/ml, the recommendation is for a disqualification and loss of purse in the absence of mitigating circumstances. A trainer faces a maximum fine of $1,000 for a first offense in any jurisdiction and a $1,500 fine and 15-day suspension for a second offense in a 365-day period in any jurisdiction, under the ARCI guidelines.

Baxter, a native of England who was a jockey and exercise rider, took over the stable of Ralph Ziadie in 2018 after the latter was denied a license renewal by the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering because of multiple medication violations. Ralph's son, Kirk Ziadie, who won numerous South Florida training titles during his career, is serving a six-year license suspension for multiple clenbuterol violations that runs through Jan. 10, 2022.

According to the MyFloridaLicense.com website, Baxter has had six complaints filed against her for Class 4 medication violations since August 2018, most recently on Nov. 5, 2020. She served a 25-day suspension earlier last year for three violations that involved impermissible levels of flunixin and phenylbutazone.

According to Equibase, Baxter has won 132 of 502 starts (26%) and her horses have earned $3,999,741.

On Friday, Baxter was one of five trainers suspended by Gulfstream Park for violating the track's house rules concerning clenbuterol. The bronchodilator was detected in 12 horses from five of the 10 stables tested out-of-competition using hair and blood samples. The other trainers sanctioned were Rohan Crichton, Daniel Pita, Peter Walder, and Gilberto Zerpa.

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Gulfstream Park Suspends Five Trainers For Violating Clenbuterol Policy

Gulfstream Park has suspended five trainers for violating the Hallandale Beach, Fla., house rules concerning use of the bronchodilator clenbuterol. The track announced the suspensions after conducting out-of-competition tests, using both blood and hair samples, in 10 different barns – with five of the 10 trainers returning clean tests. A total of 12 horses from the five suspended trainers tested positive for the drug that is designed to treat airway obstruction but can have anabolic steroidal effects.

Suspended were Georgina Baxter, Rohan Crichton, Daniel Pita, Peter Walder and Gilberto Zerpa. The suspensions range from 10 to 40 days depending on the number of violations a trainer and went into effect Oct. 1. Gulfstream did not identify the length of each trainer's suspension. The trainers also have been fined $1,000 per violation, with the money going directly to support Thoroughbred aftercare initiatives.

Gulfstream Park enacted the restriction on clenbuterol as a house rule at the beginning of the 2019/2020 championship meet to further address and implement improved safety, transparency and accountability standards.

“As we have said before, individuals who do not embrace the rules and safety measures that put horse and rider safety above all else will have no place at any 1/ST racetrack,” said Aidan Butler, chief operating officer, 1/ST Racing, which owns Gulfstream Park, Santa Anita, Pimlico, Laurel Park, and Golden Gate Fields. “At 1/ST we are committed to achieving the highest standard of horse care and safety. We expect that the stakeholders who race and train at our facilities share in that commitment.”

Horses entered by the suspended trainers will be scratched and they will not be permitted to enter any horse they train for any race at 1/ST Racing venues until the completion of the suspension.

On Oct. 1, six horses were listed as stewards scratches, including three trained by Crichton, two by Baxter, and one by Walder.

To return to racing, the horses must also submit to follow up testing and have clean blood and urine samples. The twelve affected horses will be permitted to train as a part of their daily care and exercise routines.

Because of the absence of a racing commission and deregulation imposed by former Gov. Rick Scott, many of the rules that govern Florida racing are done by the racetracks in the way of house rules. It isn't clear if suspensions resulting from violation of house rules are automatically recognized by other racing states. Gulfstream Park did not indicate whether a suspended trainer's horses (those that did not test positive) would be allowed to race under the name of another trainer during the period of suspension.

Additional barns have been tested, with results pending.

Click here for the current Gulfstream Park Condition Book Rules.

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