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60 Minutes Airs Expose On Horse Racing Doping

The CBS news program “60 Minutes,” which aired Sunday evening included a segment that covered horse racing's worst problems, horses breaking down and dying and the use of performance-enhancing drugs on horses. 60 Minutes often reaches as many as 12 million viewers. The segment was hosted by correspondent Cecilia Vega.

Though the program gave ample time to Jockey Club Chairman Stuart Janney III, Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority CEO Lisa Lazarus, Meadowlands owner Jeff Gural, and others who have been working to solve the problems, it left no doubt that the sport has pressing issues that if left unsolved threaten its existence.

“Horse racing has reached its moment of reckoning and we wanted to know, `can the sport really be reformed or is it too late?'” Vega said.

What followed was a recantation of the rash of fatalities that surrounded the GI Kentucky Derby and other major events, which included graphic footage of horses dying on the track.

“People who are not in your world see this headline of more than a dozen dead horses and they think, `what is going on in that industry?'” Vega asked Lazarus.

“My response is that HISA is here now and we're going to address it,” she said.

She continued: “There's clearly a problem that needs to be addressed and now we have some tools to fight it. We really owe it to those trainers who have spent their lives in this sport who have an incredible amount of integrity to get rid of those who tarnish this sport.”

It was not hard to get industry leaders to admit that doping is a major issue that has yet to be brought under control.

“(Doping) is a big problem,” Janney said. “It strikes at the integrity of the sport. There's nothing about it that is acceptable.”

Asked how the sport can clean itself up, Janney replied: “You put people away. You send them out of the sport and some of them go to jail.”

That very process began in March of 2020 when more than 33 veterinarians, trainers and drug distributors were charged by the Justice Department for using and manufacturing performance-enhancing drugs.

“The FBI said this led to broken legs, cardiac issues and in some cases death,” Vega said.

The show played wiretaps of conversations between convicted trainer Jorge Navarro and a another trainer in which Navarro bragged about how the drugs he was using made his horses run faster.

“I (expletive) gave it to this horse and this horse (expletive) galloped. He galloped,” Navarro said to the unidentified trainer.

“Amino acids?” the other trainer asked.

“Yeah, some amino acid injectable. Small bottle,” Navarro replied.

They also played wiretaps from harness trainer Nick Surick in which he spoke of how he was put in charge of disposing of horses that Navarro had killed.

The FBI was assisted by 5 Stones Intelligence, which was hired by The Jockey Club and Meadowlands owner Jeff Gural. Janney said 5 Stones was told to not be afraid to go after the biggest names in the sport, like Navarro and Servis.

“I said I'm not interested in you going in an finding a relatively unimportant person working in someone's barn who has made a bet they shouldn't have made or has done something immaterial to what we're talking about,” he said. “I want you to go after the important people that I think are corrupting the sport.”

Before they were arrested, Servis and Navarro were clearly worried they could be caught and that the penalties could ruin their careers. A wiretap caught them saying the following:

Servis: We can't do it in broad daylight, we got to do it like…”

Navarro: “I know. I'll keep it at my…I'll keep…I'll keep it in my car. I ain't worried about that.”

Servis: What about, what I am-I don't want people to see that (expletive). We are dead. We are dead.”

Shaun Richards, who was the lead FBI agent on the case that nabbed Navarro, Jason Servis and others, spoke a hopeful note, that the progress made with the arrests has put investigators, HISA and others on the right trail.

” We're right where we need to be,” he said. “We have a really good subject identified and we are getting fantastic evidence.”

Vega asked Lazarus “How long will it take to clean this up?”

“It will probably take years to be truly confident that we've got a fully clean sport,” she said.

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After Document Review, Meadowlands Bans 33 Owners/Trainers

Effective Dec. 1, the Meadowlands will ban 33 harness horsemen after evidence and exhibits track officials acquired from the U.S. Attorney's Office revealed the names of trainers and owners who had purchased banned substances from individuals who were charged with manufacturing and selling performance-enhancing drugs.

The delay in imposing the ban was put in place in order to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest because many of the trainers are pointing horses to races run at the Meadowlands during November in which they could meet horses owned by Meadowlands owner Jeff Gural. The delay will also give owners time to transfer their horses to new barns.

The Meadowlands requested access to evidence presented during the trials of Dr. Seth Fishman and one of his assistants, Lisa Giannelli. Fishman was sentenced to 11 years in prison and Giannelli was given a sentence of 42 months. They were among more than 30 people charged with crimes related to the use of performance-enhancing drugs on horses after a widespread investigation by the FBI and others.

Meadowlands owner Jeff Gural said that he has so far received information only from the Giannelli trial and predicted that when information from the Fishman trial is released far more names could be involved.

According to a press release issued Friday by the Meadowlands, the evidence obtained by the track revealed the identity of persons who had purchased prohibited substances Epogen and Thymosyn.

Those who will be excluded for the alleged use of EPO are Dylan Davis, Nick Devita, Gareth Dowse, Jeff Gillis, Brian Malone, John Mungillo, Eric Prevost, Richard Silverman, Leroy Slabaugh and Howard Taylor.

Those who will be excluded for the alleged use of Thymosyn are Ryan Bellamy, Anthony Buttitta, Franck Chick, Jamen Davidovich, Eddie Dennis, Brady Galliers, Rick Howles, Anthony Lake, Betty Jean Davis Lare, Kevin Lare, John Leggio, Gregg McNair, Cynthia Milano, Anthony Napolitano, Howard Savage, Arthur Stafford and Trevor Stafford.

Additionally and according to the Meadowlands press release, the Federal government conducted its own collection of blood and urine samples from racehorses, both post-race and from out of competition testing, during its investigation. Six individuals allegedly had horses test poistive for banned substances and also will be excluded from the Meadowlands. The following is a list of those individuals and the drugs their horses allegeldy tested positive for: Al Annunziata (Propantheline); Jenn Bongiorno (Ethamsylate); Bob Bongiorno (Ethamsylate); Scott DiDomenico (Ethamsylate); Jeff Gillis (Ethamsylate); Nick Sodano Sr. (Cobalt).

The 33 could face even more penalties as the information uncovered by the Meadowlands will be turned over to the various state racing commissions covering the tracks where the individuals compete.

Asked why there were no thoroughbred horsemen among the names uncovered by the Meadowlands, Gural speculated that Giannelli's clients were primarily Standardbred horsemen and that once names linked to Fishman are released they could involve thoroughbred trainers and owners.

Fishman, a Florida veterinarian, was sentenced for what United States Attorney Damian Williams said was due to “his role at the helm of an approximately twenty-year scheme to manufacture, market, and sell to racehorse trainers and others in the racehorse industry 'untestable' performance enhancing drugs for use in professional horseracing.”

While the evidence against Fishman was enough for him to be sentenced to 11 years in prison, the government's case didn't shed much light on who was buying what from Fishman and his company. The one exception was Jorge Navarro, who was directly linked to Fishman. In a Department of Justice press release it was revealed that “Fishman aided Navarro in doping XY Jet, a thoroughbred horse that won the 2019 Golden Shaheen race in Dubai before dying of sudden heart attack in January 2020. As established at trial, Fishman sold tens of thousands of dollars' worth of PEDs to Navarro over the course of several years, and Navarro specifically credited Fishman for XY Jet's performance at the Golden Shaheen.”

“The whole thing is terrible,” Gural said. “It's unfortunate. They lucked out that I kept the Meadowlands open, but their luck ran out because I am honest. We spent $2.5 million of our own money on this investigation. It's sad because there are people who had no choice but to cheat. They felt they had to feed their family and they couldn't win a race. What's really sad is Howard Taylor. He's not a trainer, he's an owner. He had to be giving EPO to his trainers to use and not a single trainer picked up the phone and said I have an owner who wants me to use EPO on his horses. He has 150 horses and he uses a lot of trainers. You would have thought at least one trainer would have picked up the phone and told us what's going on.”

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The Week in Review: With Forte Non-DQ, NYRA Stewards Owe Public an Explanation

Why didn't the NYRA stewards disqualify Forte (Violence) from his win in a controversial running of the GII Jim Dandy S. Saturday at Saratoga? The wagering public bet $3,167,647 on the race and that doesn't include any of the horizontal wagers. After Forte and Irad Ortiz Jr. bulled their way off of the rail near the top of the stretch, bumped Angel of Empire (Classic Empire) and took away his path, it looked like the horse deserved to come down. But that didn't happen.

The bettors deserved an explanation. But none has been offered or, likely, ever will be.

Racing needs to do a better job with this. In the four major sports, when the umpires or referees review the replay of a play, they are required to announce their decision to the fans in the stands and those watching at home. They don't just tell you whether a player was safe or out, but why he was safe or out. The fan may or may not agree with the call, but, at least, they know why the officials ruled the way they did.

At Saratoga? Crickets.

Any time there is an inquiry or an objection, whether a horse is disqualified or not, the stewards should be required to come on in-house television and explain why they made the call that they did. It doesn't have to be that difficult or complicated. Something like, “the four horse bore in in the stretch, caused the jockey on the three horse to steady and cost that horse second-place, and that's why we disqualified the four horse and placed him third,” would suffice.

After the running of the 2019 GI Kentucky Derby, the Churchill Downs stewards disqualified Maximum Security (New Year's Day) and placed him 17th for interference. It took them an agonizing 22 minutes to reach a decision and they were not required to make their reasoning public. Worse yet, they met with the media and Kentucky Horse Racing Commission steward Barbara Borden read a brief and meaningless statement and refused to answer any questions.

The situation couldn't have been handled any more poorly, but at least they tried do better going forward. There have been instances at the Kentucky tracks when the stewards have gone on television to explain their rulings and the stewards there publish a daily report on the racing commission website which offers a brief explanation for any decisions they made during the course of a card.

The NYRA stewards could do the same thing, but they've apparently stopped trying. Starting in September of 2016, the NYRA website started posting what it called the Stewards' Corner, which offered explanations of the decisions made by the stewards during a race day.

This is what was posted for the 10th race on July 9, 2022.

“Stewards' inquiry into the stretch run. Late stretch #12 Heymackit'sjack (Irad Ortiz Jr.) drifts out under left handed crop forcing #5 Feathers Road(Jose Lezcano) to take up. After reviewing the video and speaking to the riders involved, the Stewards felt that #12 Heymackit'sjack did cost #5 Feathers Road a placing. #12 was disqualified from 2nd and placed 4th. The race was made official 4-1-5-12.”

That was the last item posted to the Stewards' Corner. Every decision since has gone unexplained. Why?

Such information is especially important in a situation like the Jim Dandy, a race in which the consensus seems to be that they made the wrong call. Here is the New York Gaming Commission rules regarding when a horse comes over and bothers another horse: “A horse crossing another may be disqualified, if in the judgment of the stewards, it interferes with, impedes or intimidates another horse, or the foul altered the finish of the race.”

Isn't that exactly what happened when it comes to Forte and Angel of Empire? Ortiz clearly came over, bumped and pushed Angel of Empire out, and could have cost him a placing. Despite the incident, Angel of Empire finished third and lost by just a half-length.

Worse yet, on Thursday at Saratoga, Ortiz was involved in an incident very similar to what happened in the Jim Dandy and, this time, was taken down. It happened in the seventh race, a $25,000 claimer, and Ortiz was riding a horse named Eyes on Target (Exaggerator). Ortiz got his horse hemmed in on the inside, but muscled his way out in the stretch, came over a couple of paths and bothered two horses. Eyes on Target was disqualified and placed eighth. Why was Thursday's incident cause for a DQ, but the Jim Dandy incident was not?

The stewards are allowed to make mistakes and dealing with Ortiz cannot be easy. He might be the most talented jockey in the sport, but he has no problem crossing the line. Many believe he does what he does because the NYRA stewards don't hold him accountable. Which takes us back to the Jim Dandy? Do they give Ortiz more leeway than other jockeys? Are they less inclined to take a horse down in a major race like the Jim Dandy than in a $25,000 claimer on a quiet Thursday afternoon? Or did they have a good reason for not taking Forte down, one that, when explained, might have shed some light on why they ruled the way they did?

Wouldn't it be nice to know?

Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil is a Rock Star

When Jason Servis was sentenced to four years in prison Wednesday by Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, it marked the final chapter in the long and sordid affair that began in March of 2020 when more than two dozen individuals were arrested on charges related to using performance-enhancing drugs on race horses. Getting caught was the worst thing that could have happened to these cheats. The second worst was that their cases were heard by Vyskocil.

One after another, they paraded in and out of her courtroom in lower Manhattan with their excuses and mea culpas, some of which included the defendants breaking down in tears. From the judge, they asked for some compassion and some leniency. They never got any. Not a one of them.

“You cheated, you lied and you broke the law,” Vyskocil told Servis. “You did endanger the horses in your care. Luckily, they didn't break down. You tried to gain an unfair advantage. I hope you accept that, but I don't think that you do. At the end of the day, unquestionably, you undermined the integrity of horse racing.”

It was what we had come to expect from the judge. She got it. These people were lairs and cheaters who broke the law and there was no defending what they did. And they were people who put the lives of the horses they were entrusted with in danger by using potent drugs that had the capability of doing great damage to the animal. She bristled any time one of the defendants told the court how much they loved their horses.

“You also demonstrated, Mr. Navarro, a collective, callous disregard for the well-being of the horses,” she told Jorge Navarro before sentencing him to five years in prison. “The bottom line is you likely killed or endangered the horses in your care.”

She said she would have liked to give Navarro more than five years, but that was the maximum sentence she was able to hand down. Servis also got the maximum sentence. Now, Navarro is rotting away in a federal prison and, in November, Servis will begin serving his term. They got what they deserved and that's because they came before a judge who clearly understood what had transpired and how awful these crimes were.

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More Than Three Years After Original Indictments, A New Name Surfaces

In the case involving high-profile thoroughbred trainers Jorge Navarro, Jason Servis and more than two dozen others, Standardbred horseman Brandon Simpson has pled guilty to one count of drug adulteration and misbranding conspiracy for his role in a scheme to provide horses with performance-enhancing drugs.

What makes the Simpson case unusual is that his guilty plea came some three years after the original charges against Navarro, Servis et. al. were unsealed and there was no mention of Simpson's name in the indictments released at that time. Court records released this week show that Simpson came to the government's attention as early as mid-November, 2020 when the government and Simpson's attorneys agreed on a bail package. What happened over the next several months and why was Simpson's name omitted from the original indictment remain unanswered questions. The Simpson development also raises the question as to whether or not more new names will surface in the near future when it comes to those being indicted as part of the drugging scandal.

Simpson both trained and drove, winning 1,643 races as a driver and 375 as a trainer. He last drove in 2017 and it appears that around that time he accepted a job as an assistant to trainer Rene Allard. Allard is among the bigger names caught up in the scandal and is currently serving a 27-month prison sentence after he previously plead guilty to one felony count of misbranding and altering drugs.

In a particularly troubling chapter in the Allard scandal, the Federal Bureau of Investigation intercepted a phone conversation in which two other alleged conspirators discussed the deaths of horses trained by Allard after they had been given illegal drugs. One reference caught on wiretap described the trainer's operation as the “Allard death camp.”

Court documents released this week detailed Simpson's activities, which included purchasing drugs at a pharmacy in South Carolina and then shipping them to a training center located in the Southern District of New York. Simpson also, the government claims, “administered prescription drugs to racehorses under Simpson's and others' control without a valid veterinary prescription, for the purposes of enhancing the horses' race performance.”

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