Feds: Servis Even Lied About Maximum Security To Colt’s Owners

Six days before he is to be sentenced as the final–and most notoriously prominent–defendant in the 2020 racehorse doping conspiracy scandal, the barred trainer Jason Servis was described by federal prosecutors in court documents as a person who “lied, repeatedly, and persisted in his illegal conduct even when confronted with irrefutable proof that his conduct was dishonest and violated racing rules.”

Culled from a trove of wiretapped surveillance (that would have been used against him at trial had he not pleaded guilty last December as part of a plea bargain) was a newly released transcript used by prosecutors as part of their July 20 sentencing submission to underscore that Servis even “lied to Maximum Security's owner prior to the Saudi Cup” by falsely claiming the colt had never been administered any purportedly performance-enhancing substances.

Just nine days after winning that $20 million Saudi Cup in 2020, Servis was one of 31 horsemen, veterinarians, and pharmaceutical suppliers arrested and charged in a series of coordinated law enforcement sweeps. Most of them have long since pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial and are now serving their sentences.

Prosecutors had alleged (and other convicted conspirators had admitted their roles in)  Servis's administration of the substance SGF-1000 to Maximum Security during the first half of 2019, when the colt improbably rose from being a $16,000 maiden-claimer to a multiple Grade I winner and the 3-year-old champion colt.

The feds cited a series of emails from December 2019 that juxtaposed how Maximum Security's owner/breeder partnership of Gary and Mary West wanted to exercise the utmost of veterinary caution two months prior to running in the Saudi Cup, while Servis had apparently not disclosed to them that he and Maximum Security had already been the targets of investigations initiated by gaming commission regulators and the state police in New York.

The exact name of the person who sent a Dec. 17, 2019, email to Servis is redacted in the exhibit documentation, but the July 20 sentencing submission identifies the sender as Maximum Security's “owner” without specifying which of the Wests it was.

The email chain started with the owner cautioning Servis that “over there” [in Saudi Arabia] “they might consider a sugar cube illegal.” The owner then stated that “if you need any help figuring out their rules I will gladly pay for you to get whatever advice you need.”

Servis then replied, “Sounds good…just an FYI Max has never been on anything out of the ordinary.”

The owner then wrote back, “Jason, consult whoever you need to consult to be 100% certain we don't have any kind of accidental drug violation. If you have to feed Max just hay and organic carrots for a month before the race, do that too!!! I would feel horrible to win a life changing race like this for everyone only to find out we didn't do something right because we didn't know. I will gladly pay for any reasonable consulting work we need to have done to be sure we are 'squeaky clean' for the race.”

Maximum Security won the Saudi Cup. But after Servis's drug conspiracy arrest, the $10-million winning share was withheld.

The Wests initially disputed the purse hold-up, but after Servis pleaded guilty in December 2022, they released a joint statement that said, “Now that Jason Servis has entered a guilty plea, we want to make it clear that if the Saudi Cup decides to redistribute the purse, we would support that decision. Hopefully, that action will prevent future conduct of this nature. We believe the decision to take the Saudi Cup purse from Maximum Security and redistribute it is the correct one.” (As of Thursday, Maximum Security's race record on Equibase still lists him as the 2020 Saudi Cup winner.)

The prosecution's pre-sentence report stated that Maximum Security “was among the many horses in Servis's barn to receive SGF-1000: an unapproved, untested, misbranded and adulterated drug that Servis and his co-conspirators covertly used on racehorses believing it would improve their performance.”

In his own pre-sentencing submission filed with the court July 13, Servis attempted to explain away his use of SGF-1000 and other drugs by claiming he was misled by his veterinarians, a point that the government rebutted in its own court submission.

“He was under no illusions that his conduct was permissible. He was neither deceived nor manipulated,” the feds wrote.

The prosecution continued, at a different point in the submission: “The quality of Servis's acceptance of responsibility is a factor that this Court should consider in weighing the appropriate sentence. While Servis states that he accepts responsibility for his crimes and claims to display remorse, significant aspects of his submission appear aimed at contesting facts related to his guilt, casting doubt on the extent and sincerity of his contrition….

“Licensed trainers are accountable under state racing rules for the illicit doping of racehorses specifically to ensure that trainers are vigilant and liable for illicit conduct,” the feds sated. “That rule also ensures that trainers are responsible for the well-being of the horses they are meant to protect. Servis abdicated that responsibility again and again.

“Servis sought to hide his actions. And Servis enabled others who sought to hide those crimes as well. Servis ignored clear evidence of the criminality of what he was doing and continued his illicit use of adulterated and misbranded drugs up until his arrest.

“Between 2016 and March 2020, Servis abused approved and unapproved bronchodilators, namely, Clenbuterol and an unapproved, compounded version of Clenbuterol sourced from fellow [now-imprisoned] trainer Jorge Navarro.

“The abuse of those drugs for purposes of enhancing his horses' race performance was illicit and risked the health of the horses under his care. Servis' actions and words–when he did not think he was being watched and overheard–demonstrate his knowledge that his conduct was wrong.”

Prior to his plea deal, Servis had been scheduled to go to trial on two felony counts: Conspiracy to misbrand and adulterate performance-enhancing drugs, and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. He would have faced 25 years in prison on those two counts if convicted.

As part of a negotiated plea deal with the government eight months ago, he instead pleaded guilty to a felony charge of misbranding and adulterating a chemical substance (described by prosecutors as similar to the bronchodilator clenbuterol, but stronger), and to a misdemeanor of misbranding and adulterating (for the SGF-1000).

Servis, 66, now faces four years in prison when he is sentenced next Wednesday by Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil of United States District Court (Southern District of New York).

Servis's sentencing submission asked for a sentence “significantly below” those federal guidelines.

Prosecutors, by contrast, requested a sentence “greater than” the three years imposed on convicted veterinarian and SGF-1000 supplier Kristian Rhein, “though below the Guidelines Sentence of 48 months' imprisonment.”

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Navarro Gets Maximum Prison Sentence of Five Years

NEW YORK–Jorge Navarro, who catapulted to the top of the trainer ranks thanks to his widespread use of an arsenal of illegal, performance-enhancing drugs, was sentenced to five years in prison Friday by Judge Mary Kay Vsykocil of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Five years was the maximum sentence allowed after Navarro pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit drug adulteration or misbranding.
Navarro, 46, is scheduled to begin his prison sentence on or around Feb. 15. It has yet to be determined where he will serve his sentence.
Navarro's attorney Jason Kreiss asked Vsykocil to sentence his client to four years, but ran headfirst into a judge who was in no mood to show Navarro any leniency. Rather, she continually lashed out at the disgraced former trainer, calling him a callous, calculating cheater who showed no regard for the well-being of the Thoroughbreds under his care. Vsykocil went so far as to declare that she wished the applicable laws allowed her to sentence Navarro for more than five years.
“For years, Mr. Navarro, you effectively stole millions, cheating other trainers, owners and jockeys you competed against,” she said. “You also demonstrated, Mr. Navarro, a collective, callous disregard for the well-being of the horses. The bottom line is you likely killed or endangered the horses in your care.”
Navarro's defense team tried to portray him as someone who, despite the charges against him, loved horses. Vsykocil wasn't buying it.
“The reality is someone who loves horses does not subject them to such cruel and dangerous treatment,” she said.
She also brought up the brazen manner in which he operated. In their pre-sentencing letter, government lawyers said that Navarro “considered his prolific doping a badge of honor.”
“You were so open, so brazen about your crimes that you were dubbed 'The Juice Man' and even kept in your barn a pair of Crocs that had the words 'Juice Man' running across the toes,” she said.
The hearing, which lasted about 90 minutes, began with government lawyers laying out their case as to why Navarro deserved the maximum sentence. U.S. Attorney Sarah Mortazavi said that Navarro's “career as a racehorse trainer was a sham based on a fraudulent scheme” and called him “unprincipled and dangerous.” Kreiss maintained that Navarro was a skilled horseman who succumbed to the pressures of his profession and made some bad choices.
Mortazavi zeroed in on the case of XY Jet (Kantharos), who Navarro drugged before a Feb. 13, 2019 allowance race at Gulfstream and also before his victory in the G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen in Dubai. Two weeks after his final career start, XY Jet died, which Navarro claimed at the time was due to a heart attack.
“It was tragic what happened to XY Jet, but not surprising,” Mortazavi said. “He was dead of a heart attack two weeks after his last race. That was a potent reminder of Navarro's hypocrisy.”
Navarro entered the courtroom surrounded by his wife and several other family members. When it came his time to address the court, he grew emotional, openly crying.
“I was hungry to be a winner and somewhere along the line the pressure got to me,” he said. “I thought I had to win to be respected in the horse racing industry. I became a selfish person who only cared about winning and I lost my way. I chose to become a horse trainer because of my love for the horse. It was the horses that brought me my greatest joy. I take responsibility for all that I have done and apologize to the people that I have hurt. I should have quit when I started feeling all that pressure, rather than putting the horse and the people who believed in me through this.”
Navarro has also been ordered to pay $25.8 million in restitution to the owners, trainers and jockeys he defeated from 2016 to when he was arrested in March 2020. Government lawyers revealed that Navarro is to pay that money to the racetracks he competed at during the run and the tracks will then be responsible for distributing the money. It is not clear if he has $25 million, or anything close to it, at his disposal.
Kreiss admitted that Navarro “will never be a licensed trainer in the U.S. ever again.” But much of his future remains murky. He will be subject to three years of supervised release after finishing his sentence, but Kreiss reiterated his belief that Navarro, who is not a U.S. citizen, will eventually be deported to his native Panama. Navarro has been in the U.S. for 35 years and has said he has no connections to anyone in Panama. Because of his immigration status, he cold also be sent to a prison under the control of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rather than to a federal minimum-security prison in Florida, where he is now residing.

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