Jason Servis | Horse Racing Free Tips

Servis Negotiating with Feds for Plea Bargain

The barred trainer Jason Servis, the final–and most notoriously prominent–defendant awaiting a trial or sentencing in the 2020 racehorse doping conspiracy scandal, is negotiating with federal prosecutors for a plea bargain agreement to adjudicate the three felony drug misbranding and fraud conspiracy charges he is facing for allegedly drugging almost all the Thoroughbreds under his care in 2019.

The disclosure was revealed late Friday afternoon in an otherwise routine court filing asking for an extension of time to file motions in Servis's upcoming trial, which has a Jan. 9 start date.

“The Government and counsel for defendant Jason Servis are currently in discussions regarding a potential pre-trial disposition, which may obviate the need for trial,” wrote United States Attorney Damian Williams in his letter to the court.

The request for extra time was granted by Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil of United States District Court (Southern District of New York).

The Dec. 2 filing also referenced a change-of-plea hearing that same judge had granted the day before to the New York-based veterinarian Alexander Chan, who is accused of his own trio of felony charges related to injecting purported performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) into Servis's horses and then hiding the charges from billing and veterinary records.

Chan, as part of his plea change, could very well implicate his former client, Servis, during his Dec. 5 hearing.

That's what another veterinarian who worked for Servis, Kristian Rhein, did in August 2021 when he changed his own plea to guilty on one felony count within the federal government's sprawling prosecution of an allegedly years-long conspiracy to dope racehorses. Rhein got the maximum sentence of three years imprisonment for his crimes.

Chan and Servis were scheduled to be tried together next month.

“In light of the foregoing, the parties respectfully contend that a brief adjournment of the upcoming deadline [to file motions] will facilitate the parties' ongoing efforts to reach a resolution short of trial,” Williams wrote to the judge.

The feds have already disclosed they have a trove of wiretapped evidence involving Servis speaking about his doping regimens to Rhein, Chan, and the now-imprisoned trainer Jorge Navarro, who in December 2021 was sentenced to five years behind bars for his rampant criminal usage of equine PEDs.

Some of those secretly recorded phone conversations involved the MGISW Maximum Security, who crossed the wire first in the GI Kentucky Derby, but was DQ'd for in-race interference.

One of the elixirs of choice for both Servis and Navarro was SGF-1000, a custom-made, purported PED intended to promote tissue repair and increase a racehorse's stamina and endurance beyond its natural capability. The two trainers discussed this PED in an intercepted call on March 5, 2019. The transcript reads as such:

Servis: I'll tell you what, Jorge. I'm using that [expletive] shot. What is it, SGF?

Navarro: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I got, uh, I got more than 12 horses on that so I'll let you know, okay?

Servis: I've been using it on everything, almost.

Navarro: Jay, we'll sit down and talk about this [expletive]. I don't want to talk about this [expletive] on the phone, okay?

Servis: All right. You're right.

On June 5, 2019, a call between Servis and Rhein went like this, according to the feds:

Servis: Are you by yourself?

Rhein: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just walked out of the barn.

Servis: Hey. So they've been doing some out-of-competition testing, which I have no problem with. Um, they took Maximum Security Monday and they came back again today. But Monday he got the KS. I just want to make sure we are all good with that.

Rhein: Wait, what did he get?

Servis: I'm sorry, I said “KS.” The, you know, your shot. The…

Rhein: Oh, the SG.

Servis: Yeah, that stuff.

Rhein: Yeah-no, no, no. The Jockey Club tested it, and I met the guy who tested it way back when. It comes back as collagen. They don't even have a test for it.

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With Trial Looming, Chan, Former Vet for Servis, Now Wants to Change Plea

Seven weeks before the start of the final remaining high-profile trial in the federal doping conspiracy case from 2020, the New York-based veterinarian Alexander Chan, whose client list included co-defendant trainer Jason Servis, has changed his mind about having a jury decide his fate on three felony charges for alleged participation in drug adulteration, misbranding, and wire fraud conspiracies.

On Thursday, Chan asked for and was swiftly granted a Dec. 5 change-of-plea hearing in United States District Court (Southern District of New York), at which he will likely either plead guilty to or enter into a possible plea-bargained agreement instead of going to trial.

That will leave Servis alone to face the jury when his trial begins Jan. 9.

The nationwide sweep in March 2020 has already resulted in numerous prison terms, but Servis has always been the most prominent name among the indicted individuals. He amassed gaudily high win percentages during the 2010s decade prior to getting arrested on three felony drug misbranding and conspiracy to commit fraud charges.

According to a trove of wiretap evidence (plus implicating testimony from plea-bargaining defendants who are already imprisoned) Servis allegedly doped almost all the horses under his control in early 2019, including MGISW Maximum Security, who crossed the wire first in the GI Kentucky Derby, but was DQ'd for in-race interference. One of Servis' elixirs of choice was allegedly SGF-1000, the adulterated, misbranded and purportedly performance-enhancing drug (PED).

Chan is alleged to have assisted by performing injections and hiding the charges from billing and veterinary records. It is possible that he could implicate Servis at his plea change hearing.

That's what Kristian Rhein, a veterinarian formerly based at Belmont Park, did to both Servis and Chan in August 2021 when he changed his own plea to guilty on one felony count within the federal government's sprawling prosecution of an allegedly years-long conspiracy to dope racehorses.

“I, along with Jason Servis, were leaders and organizers [of others who performed allegedly criminal actions], which included my associate, Dr. Alexander Chan…” Rhein told Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil at his 2021 plea change.

Rhein got the maximum sentence of three years imprisonment for his crimes.

Vyskocil, who sentenced Rhein, is the same judge who will hear Chan's plea change on Monday.

Rhein, Chan and Servis at various times during 2019 were recorded on wiretaps discussing aspects related to Servis's alleged doping regimen. At times the two veterinarians rationalized to each other and to Servis that if the administered substances couldn't be detected via racing commission testing, then they weren't considered illegal.

Chan had filed a motion in August 2021 to suppress the use of those wiretapped calls as evidence, but the court denied his motion.

One conversation between Chan and Servis from Aug. 14, 2019, went like this, according to court documents:

Servis: Well, is it okay to use that?

Chan: Use what?

Servis: The SGF.

Chan: Yeah, like New York rules, there is nothing like against, like it's, you know, like it says unless it's not specifically written in there then it's seven days, you know. So like, it's not illegal.

According to the original indictment, “Chan and Rhein coordinated the sourcing and administration of SGF-1000, and engaged in efforts to secretly distribute and administer adulterated and misbranded PEDs and to counsel racehorse trainers and/or owners on the use of such substances, including the covert administration of such substances to avoid detection by the FDA and state regulatory authorities. They did so in furtherance of Servis and other trainers' efforts to administer adulterated and misbranded PEDs, for the purpose of secretly enhancing race performance.

“In connection with that scheme, Chan provided false billing records that did not reflect drugs Chan had injected into racehorses under Servis' control, and falsified his own prescription records as to which of Servis' racehorses received a particular prescription drug, concealing from potential investigators the true nature and means of administration of the PEDs that Chan provided and administered at Servis' direction,” the indictment stated.

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If HISA Goes, Honest Horsemen Will Be The Losers

The National HBPA and its affiliates got their wish Friday. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) is unconstitutional. As a result, HISA is on life support and very well could be finished. Within hours of the decision being announced, the National HBPA was taking a victory lap, declaring that this was a win for horsemen across the country.

“Today's ruling shows the HISA regulations are not in the best interest of thoroughbred racing's participants and, as Judge Doughty noted, will cause harm to the participants,” National HBPA CEO Eric Hambelback said in a statement.

That's what Hamelback and anti-HISA forces have been saying all along, while never really clarifying what potential harm would be caused by HISA. They fail to acknowledge that horse racing has a serious integrity problem and the cheaters are winning. HISA is designed not to hurt horsemen, but to rid the sport of its worst actors and in the process protect the overwhelming majority of owners and trainers who play by the rules.

Have we learned nothing from the FBI investigation and the subsequent arrests of Jorge Navarro, Jason Servis and more than two dozen others? According to the indictments, Servis and Navarro gave virtually every horse in their barns performance-enhancing drugs and did so for years. They won with 30% of their starters not because they were superior horsemen but because they, allegedly, had potent drugs at their disposal.

Servis and Navarro operated under a system where state racing commissions were in charge. They were never caught and never were going to be. It's been proven that the racing commissions do an inadequate job and are helpless to catch the bad guys. That's because with most, the primary tool at their disposal is post-race drug tests. The same tests that never come up with anything more serious than overages of therapeutic medications. With hundreds of undetectable drugs available, it's far too easy to beat the system. Yet, the National HBPA is essentially saying they are fine with the status quo.

HISA was set to replace the old system with a new one under the watch of the Horse Racing Integrity and Welfare Unit, which was going to go well beyond drug testing and have some actual teeth. The plan includes working with 5 Stones Intelligence, which played a large role in the investigation that caught Servis and Navarro.

“The Horse Racing Integrity and Welfare Unit is also building their own internal capability, their own internal investigations team, which is very strong and is going to include some well-known and well-established faces,” HISA CEO Lisa Lazarus said. “I think probably why you ask the question, and it really resonates with me, is that you want to know if the new program is going to be very much intelligence and investigations based. It's not going to be based solely on conducting a whole lot of tests. If you look at all the top-end programs in the world, equine and otherwise, you'll see that the successful ones that really deliver integrity to their sports rely heavily on investigations. That's great. What 5 Stones has uncovered over the past couple of years has really changed this industry for the better. They truly have. They have certainly done a terrific job and we're lucky to have them as part of the sport.”

If HISA can't find a way to reverse the decision that declared it unconstitutional, we will go back to the old way of doing things, with state racing commissions leading the way while failing to do job of adequately policing the sport.

HISA was never going to wipe out all cheating in the sport, but it represented a huge step in the right direction and was sure to make it a lot tougher to break the rules. HISA was going to look out for the same people, HBPA members, who were robbed of purse money every time Jorge Navarro won a race, cheating hundreds of owners and trainers. Who's looking out for them now?

“It is the duty of the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association to protect horsemen across the country and that is not a responsibility I take lightly,” Hamelback said after the court decision.

He's right. But that means doing everything possible to ensure there is a level playing field and that HBPA members who play by the rules are never at a competitive disadvantage. That should be priority No. 1. If the National HBPA truly wanted to “protect horsemen across the country” then it would be backing HISA, not trying to undermine it.

Why Flightline Has My Horse of the Year Vote

Turf writer Gary West sent in a blistering letter to the editor to the TDN last week in which he wrote that he would not vote for Flightline (Tapit) for Horse of the Year because he did not want to reward his owners after they had retired him after just six career starts.

He wrote: “Whenever owners yield to avarice and whenever they focus on the sales ring rather than the racetrack, the sport shrinks a little more. And horse racing will continue to shrink into insignificance if its leaders, or so-called leaders, will not sacrifice their personal interests for the sport's good. That's why I cannot and will not vote for Flightline.”

West makes a valid point and the rush to retire racing's stars is bad for the sport. That means you can be unhappy with the ownership group but not that you should penalize the horse.

Though he raced just three times during the year, Flightline's accomplishments embody what it means to be the Horse of the Year. He was brilliant and dominating and he captivated the sport like no horse has done since Secretariat. As most would have done if they were in the same position, the owners opted to cash in on the millions coming their way from a stallion career. That's a shame but it is also the reality of what horse racing has become in the modern era. And it takes nothing away from what Flightline accomplished. He will be a very deserving Horse of the Year.

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Harness Trainer Dane Gets 30 Months in Prison

Former harness trainer Richard Allen “Rick” Dane Jr., was sentenced to 30 months in a federal prison Sept. 9. He had previously entered a guilty plea to one felony count related to the 2020 international racehorse doping conspiracy sting that has already netted two dozen related convictions or guilty pleas.

Dane, 41, has additionally been ordered to pay a monetary judgement of $33,912. As part of a plea bargain, a second felony charge against Dane was dropped.

Dane is to report to prison Jan. 9, 2023-the same day that the last remaining high-profile defendant in the case, the barred trainer Jason Servis, is set to begin his trial.

But with respect to the plea bargaining that took place, federal prosecutors and Dane differed as to how useful to the government his cooperation actually was.

United States attorneys detailed in a court filing that after his March 2020 arrest, Dane made initial attempts to cooperate with them by providing information related to the cases of other defendants.

But by early 2022, the feds wrote, “The Government determined that the defendant was not completely forthcoming, and thus was unable to provide 'substantial assistance.'”

On that basis, prosecutors did not extend a cooperation agreement to Dane, who then pleaded guilty on Feb. 18.

According to the government's sentencing submission, Dane “joined in a conspiracy with Lisa Giannelli and, by extension, Seth Fishman and others at Equestology that he knew was wrong and illegal.

“The defendant not only purchased performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) and prescription drugs from Giannelli that he was using to dope his horses, the defendant also served as a trusted resource for Giannelli by providing background on potential new clients who could be considered 'trustworthy.'

“One of the means by which Dane's co-conspirators evaded detection was by vetting buyers to ensure they would be discreet and would not report Equestology to relevant racing and drug regulatory authorities, or otherwise act recklessly and invite scrutiny of Equestology's drugs,” prosecutors wrote.

“Dane facilitated these efforts by providing Giannelli with background information on such individuals. The defendant consistently purchased adulterated and misbranded PEDs from Giannelli and others, all in efforts to corruptly dope his racehorses and earn hundreds of thousands of dollars in purse winnings,” the feds wrote.

The government had recommended that “a sentence slightly below the Guidelines Sentence of 36 months' imprisonment is appropriate to serve the purposes of sentencing when balancing all the factors relevant to the defendant's guilt, including the relatively limited role he played in facilitating Equestology's operations as compared to Seth Fishman and Lisa Giannelli, both of whom had more extensive involvement in the promotion and sale of Equestology's drugs, and who partook in their offense conduct for a significantly longer period of time.”

Fishman was sentenced in July to an 11-year prison stint, and an appeal is in the works. The day prior to Dane's sentencing, on Sept. 8, the same federal judge sentenced Giannelli to 3 1/2 years behind bars.

Dane's own sentencing submission written by his legal team offered a different perspective, while asking for a more lenient sentence “that is below the guidelines due to the extraordinary mitigation present in Mr. Dane's life.”

Dane's lawyers wrote that, “Since he was 16 years old, Mr. Dane has worked with at various tracks as a farrier and horse trainer. He loves working with horses and is passionate about his career. Mr. Dane always put the horses before himself and worked hard to ensure that his horses were cared for.”

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