horseracing integrity and safety act | Horse Racing Free Tips

Breeders’ Cup Prohibiting Lasix In Challenge Series Races

The 2021 Breeders' Cup “Win and You're In” Challenge Series races will be run without Lasix, it was announced Wednesday. Breeders' Cup officials also revealed that graded stakes points for the purposes of selection by committee into a Breeders' Cup race will only be awarded for graded races that are contested Lasix-free.

Horses that raced on the 'Future Stars Friday' program of the 2020 Breeders' Cup World Championships were forbidden from running on Lasix, in addition to a large number of juvenile races across the country over the course of the racing season. The passage of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) last December presents a framework for the American horse racing industry going forward. Under HISA, Lasix-free racing will be the standard as of July 2022.

“Even before HISA was signed into law, running the World Championships Lasix-free was a goal of Breeders' Cup,” said Drew Fleming, President and CEO of Breeders' Cup Limited. “Extending this standard to all races associated with the Breeders' Cup World Championships will hopefully set an example for other racetracks and stakeholders to embrace forthcoming safety and integrity measures, including the elimination of race day medication, as a new, safer era for our storied sport approaches.”

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Navarro, Alleged Doping Co-Conspirators File Motions to Dismiss

Jorge Navarro and Seth Fishman, DVM, the federally indicted trainer and veterinarian whose alleged litanies of racehorse doping date to at least 2002, both filed Feb. 5 motions to dismiss the drug alteration and misbranding conspiracy charges levied against them in United States District Court (Southern District of New York).

According to federal prosecutors, one of their alleged conspiracies involved Navarro allegedly dosing elite-level sprinter X Y Jet “with 50 injections [and] through the mouth” of a performance-enhancing drug (PED) allegedly manufactured and distributed by Fishman before a big win in the 2019 G1 Golden Shaheen in Dubai.

According to wiretaps, Navarro allegedly texted immediate thanks to Fishman for his role in the victory, then four days later allegedly requested “1,000 pills ASAP,” purportedly for use on other horses in his 29% three-year-average win-rate stable.

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

And two months after that, in March 2020, the feds swooped in.

In a multi-state simultaneous sting, they arrested Navarro, Fishman, and 27 others in an alleged “widespread, corrupt scheme” that centers on Navarro, the 2019 GI Kentucky Derby-disqualified trainer Jason Servis, and a vast network of co-conspirators who allegedly manufactured, mislabeled, rebranded, distributed and administered PEDs to racehorses all across America and in international races.

On Nov. 6, a superseding indictment replaced the version from March, adding wire fraud charges against Servis and two veterinarians involved in the scheme to allegedly drug race horses. Five individuals named in the original indictment were not included in the superseding indictment, raising speculation that the five were cooperating with law enforcement authorities and could testify against the remaining defendants.

A motion to dismiss Counts 1 and 2 of the superseding indictment (both of which deal with drug alteration and misbranding conspiracies) got filed Feb. 5 on behalf of Fishman and Lisa Giannelli. Her role allegedly involved using Fishman's veterinary license to distribute prescription drugs without a valid prescription.

Soon after the Friday filing, Navarro's attorney tacked on a letter announcing his client was legally joining the motion to dismiss.

It is possible other defendants will also legally join that original motion. As of Friday night's deadline for this story, no related filings were apparent on the federal court database–but there were inaccessible files marked “sealed document placed in vault.”

Fishman is charged in both Counts 1 and 2. Navarro is charged in Count 1, and is charged in Count 3, another alleged drug conspiracy. Giannelli is charged in Count 2.

According to the Feb. 5 memorandum of law in support of the motion to dismiss filed jointly by Fishman and Giannelli's attorneys, there are three independent grounds for the motion:

“First, Counts 1 and 2 fail to allege that Dr. Fishman, Ms. Giannelli, and their alleged co-conspirators committed acts or conduct that are within the scope of the applicable federal criminal statute, Section 333(a)(2) of the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA).

“As discussed…an agreement aimed at the distribution of misbranded and/or adulterated products with the intent to mislead or defraud state racehorse commissions and racetracks is not a federal crime within the scope of the felony provisions of the FDCA.

“Second, application of the rule of lenity bars prosecution of Dr. Fishman and Ms. Giannelli for the conduct alleged in Counts 1 and 2.

“Third, Section 333(a)(2) is unconstitutionally vague as applied to the conduct alleged in Counts 1 and 2.”

One of the supporting sub-points seemingly argues that the yet-to-be-implemented regulatory body borne out of the Horseracing Safety and Integrity Act (HISA) is actually the proper arm of the federal law that should be handling the case.

The memorandum states: “The HISA of 2020 Gives the FTC Plenary Authority over Horse Racing.”

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Iowa HBPA’s Moss Wants To Stop Recently Signed HISA Law From Being Implemented

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, signed into law on Dec. 27, 2020, has been billed as the impetus for significant changes in the United States horse racing industry. The Iowa Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association executive director Jon Moss isn't sure that's a good thing, according to radioiowa.com.

“This new group that is being formed is unchecked in how much they can charge us as the state of Iowa in order to actually regulate the racing industry within the state,” Moss told radioiowa.com. “There's going to be a reckoning coming — we're going to be in a tough position. We may reach out and request something of your assistance to try and help stop this from being implemented.”

By law, the latest HISA can go into effect is July 1, 2022. The previously formed nominating committee is in the process of selecting the nine members who will comprise the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (five independent members from outside of the horse industry, four from within the industry but without current investments or conflicts of interest). The Authority has been charged with contracting with the United States Anti-Doping Agency to oversee the anti-doping/medication control program on a national basis.

Two working committees also will be named. For more information on what comes next, read answers to frequently asked questions, as supplied by Marc Summers, vice president and general counsel for The Jockey Club, which helped steer the legislation through Congress.

The Jockey Club President Jim Gagliano Joins TDN Writers’ Room

There are few positions more prominent or scrutinized in racing than president of The Jockey Club, and that goes double for years as tumultuous for the sport as 2019 and 2020 were. With a plethora of game-changing topics to discuss, The Jockey Club’s president and chief operations office Jim Gagliano joined the TDN Writers’ Room presented by Keeneland Wednesday in the show’s first episode of 2021. Appearing as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Gagliano discussed how the industry can potentially pay for the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, the rationale behind a 140-mare cap for stallions, racing’s inability to permanently do away with repeat-offender trainers and more.

“I don’t think it should come out of the horseplayers’ pockets,” Gagliano said of the HISA cost. “Every state funds its regulation differently. The problem that we faced when we were considering that matter, is there’s really no one-size-fits-all that we could push down to the states. The most important thing we want to do is make sure we capture first the current expenses, and then that those were brought forward. After that, the Authority will work with each state and through its racing commission to determine what the number is. I suggest the simplest way is to share [the costs] between the tracks and the horsemen. But honestly, there’s a lot of details to be considered.”

Now that the HISA is a reality, Gagliano was asked what else The Jockey Club will focus on in the coming years.

“There’s plenty,” he said. “How we market the sport. The opportunity of television, which thank goodness, during this pandemic, to see the amount of live televised hours of horse racing has been a godsend. We’ve talked about scheduling. We need to put the product in a place where it can have the best showcase. Other areas: HISA is going to put USADA into a role and there are now rules that will be in place that will change the sport, we believe. Investigations, that’s something that racing has not done very well over the last bunch of years. I anticipate The Jockey Club will continue to invest in those kinds of resources to make sure that things we don’t want to happen in our sport, don’t happen.”

Elsewhere on the show, in the West Point Thoroughbreds news segment, the crew reacted to some huge performances on the track over the past few weeks and the surprisingly positive handle numbers in 2020, plus host Joe Bianca announces that he and producer Patty Wolfe have won an Eclipse Award. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version.

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