Jorge Navarro | Horse Racing Free Tips

Cibelli Denied Stalls At Monmouth Park: ‘When One Door Shuts, Another One Opens’

Jane Cibelli, leading trainer at Monmouth Park in 2011 and '12, has been denied stalls at the Oceanport, N.J., track that has served as her stable's summer home since 2002.

Cibelli said she was notified of the decision by John Heims, Monmouth Park's racing secretary and director of racing.

“Heims told me, 'I'm tired of it, you always want things your way,'” Cibelli said. “I told him, 'That's what I get paid to do to survive. I'm looking out for my owners' best interests.”

“I won't deny I said that,” Heims said. “Overall, her conduct is not necessarily conducive to the atmosphere we want here at Monmouth Park. It's a lot to take and not worth the aggravation. It's too much.”

Cibelli said she was once “ambushed” by Heims and Monmouth Park general manager Bill Anderson over shipping horses from her stable at Monmouth to race at other tracks.

“They said, 'You ship a lot.' I asked them which horses and they said they didn't know. I told them I hadn't shipped any horses that Monmouth had races for. I had 40 horses and 30 of them are turf. Monmouth has 12 races a week on turf. When my horses are ready to run, I want to run them. The majority of my horses have run at Monmouth.”

Cibelli admits to be “a little testy” and a review of rulings against her shows that she has been fined for behavioral issues and altercations with other licensees. In 2020, she said, she had additional stress and fatigue while undergoing what she called “triple dose chemo” that began in Tampa, Fla., and continued in New Jersey to treat ovarian cancer. For now, she says, she is cancer free.

“I made an effort to support the Monmouth meet in 2020 after so many bailed because of COVID,” she added.

Cibelli ranked in a tie for sixth in the 2020 trainer standings at Monmouth with 12 wins from 48 starters. The previous year she was eighth, winning 14 races in 66 starts.

“At first I was upset (about being denied stalls),” Cibelli said. “A couple of owners told me to call Bill Anderson. I said, 'I'm just not doing it. I've spent my whole life in this business, I'm almost 60 years old, and I'm not going to beg for stalls.'”

Cibelli said she was also going up against a culture at Monmouth Park that was “always a bit of an old boys' club.”

The track had no problem, for example, allocating stalls for 2018 to then leading trainer Jorge Navarro after he was fined $10,000 for conduct detrimental to racing when caught on a September 2017 video while watching a simulcast race from Gulfstream Park with owner Randal Gindi. Navarro's brother had just won the race and Gindi said, “That's the juice. That's the vegetable juice.” Navarro responded: “We f – – k everyone.” Gindi replied “We f – – k everyone and I line my pockets with the bookie with another $20,000. Oh yeah, life is great.”

Navarro, along with another Monmouth Park mainstay, Jason Servis, was indicted in March 2020 in connection with an FBI probe into doping of racehorses. Some of the incidents described in the federal indictment took place at Monmouth.

“I might lose a couple of owners by not going back to Monmouth Park,” Cibelli said, “but when one door shuts another one opens.”

She indicated she will likely maintain her stable at Palm Meadows in South Florida for the time being, race at Gulfstream Park, and then look to summer meets at other mid-Atlantic tracks including Colonial Downs, Laurel Park and Delaware Park.

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Robinson Gets 18 Months in Prison in First Sentencing from 2020 Indictments

One year to the day that the bombshell indictments against 27 individuals allegedly involved in a scheme to use performance-enhancing drugs on racehorses were announced, Scott Robinson became the first of those involved in the scandal to be sentenced to prison. In a decision handed down Tuesday by Judge J. Paul Oetken in U. S. District Court in Lower Manhattan, Robinson was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison plus an additional three years of supervised release. Robinson is required to surrender himself to authorities on Sept. 7, 2021.

Robinson, a drug manufacturer and distributor, had pled guilty to one count of drug adulteration and misbranding. The maximum sentence for that offense is five years.

According to the sentencing memo filed by the U.S. Department of Justice by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the drugs Robinson distributed “included anabolic steroids and performance-enhancing drugs ('PEDs') marketed to racehorse trainers, veterinarians, and others. These drugs were not manufactured in sanitary, government-approved facilities; they had not been tested and approved for use in humans or animals by the Food and Drug Administration ('FDA'); they were not distributed pursuant to lawful prescriptions; nor were they properly labeled.”

The judgment against Robinson also included a forfeiture of $3,832,318.90, which he must pay to the government. The total represents the value of the drugs he illegally sold.

The government also charged that Robinson was dishonorably discharged from the Navy for selling steroids.

“I want to apologize to the horse racing industry,” Robinson said when given a chance to address the court. “Horse racing is the only thing in my life that I have ever truly loved. From the first time I went to the racetrack, I fell in deep love with horse racing and this negative attention is not what I am about, and I sincerely apologize for that. For the last 15 years plus, I have promoted horse racing and tried to increase its popularity. I take full responsibility for the actions I have taken.”

Sarah Mortazavi, the attorney representing the government, argued for a harsh sentence.

“Unfortunately, his conduct up to this point illustrates that he is not contrite or remorseful and that he viewed his conduct as, really, no big deal and believed that no consequences would follow,” she said. “We ask the court to send a different message, both to Mr. Robinson and members of the community, that this type of conduct can lead to ill effects, that this type of conduct will not be tolerated and that it is taken seriously by the government and the court.”

Before announcing his sentence, Oetken said he took into consideration the fact that Robinson had no prior record and the many letters he received in support of the defendant, but in the end concluded that a prison sentence was warranted. Robinson's attorney, William Butler, asked the court to issue a non-custodial sentence that would not include any prison time

“The criminal conduct here was serious, the defendant engaged in a scheme to market and sell misbranded and adulterated drugs across the country, including performance-enhancing drugs to racehorse trainers and others,” Oetken said.

He continued: “I do conclude that this is a sufficiently serious crime extended over a lengthy period of time such that serious punishment is warranted…I don't think a five-year sentence is needed to serve the purposes that I have mentioned. I also think that a 36-month sentence is greater than necessary to serve those purposes. Weighing everything I have mentioned, I believe that a sentence of 18 months imprisonment is an appropriate sentence and is sufficient to meet the characteristics while taking into account the positive factors that I have mentioned.”

Robinson pled guilty on Sept. 16, 2020, making him among the first to end their fight against the government. That he did so at the time raised speculation that Robinson was cooperating with the government, which would result in a lenient sentence. During Tuesday's proceedings, it remained unclear whether or not Robinson had in fact made a deal to cooperate.

The original indictment included 27 individuals, most notably trainers Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro. Robinson was indicted along with his former business partner, Scott Mangini. The government charged that Robinson and Mangini engaged in a scheme to “create, manufacture, sell and ship adulterated and misbranded PEDs intended to be secretly administered to racehorses for the purpose of improving those horse's race performance…”

The only other person involved in the case to enter a plea is Sarah Izhaki, who has also been charged with illegally distributing adulterated and misbranded drugs.” She is set to be sentenced May 19.

Tuesday's hearing was conducted via Skype and Robinson was in Florida. His attorney asked that he be sent to a prison near his home in the Tampa area. There are four minimum-security federal prisons in the state.

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Feds Slam Alleged Dopers’ Assertion That HISA Creates Loophole

Prosecutors in the racehorse doping conspiracy case that ensnared 29 racetrackers, veterinarians and pharmaceutical brokers one year ago tried to convince a federal judge Friday that recent motions made by some of the defendants to dismiss drug alteration and misbranding charges are “without merit” and represent “an effort to invent a statutory limitation where none exists.”

The government's memorandum of law filed Mar. 5 in United States District Court (Southern District of New York) addresses a number of alleged legal flaws in the defendants' motions to dismiss, including several that prosecutors state would be more appropriately argued when the case goes to trial, not before it.

The defendants' motions, prosecutors allege, “do not actually seek the dismissal of the Indictment, but are more accurately described as premature motions regarding the sufficiency of the Government's evidence to be presented at trial…. The Second Circuit makes clear that a challenge to whether a statutory element has been satisfied is a matter for trial.”

The government's filing continues: “Defendants Seth Fishman, Lisa Giannelli, Jordan Fishman, Rick Dane, Jr., Christopher Oakes, Jorge Navarro, and Erica Garcia each ask that this Court insert novel, unsupported, and self-serving language into the text of [federal drug laws] in an effort to avoid felony liability for their illegal misbranding conspiracies.” The memo notes that a dismissal motion filed by defendant Michael Tannuzzo on different grounds should also not be granted.

The filing takes aim at the defendants' creative assertion that government prosecutors are overstepping their legal boundary by bringing charges under the applicable federal statute–the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA)–when instead, the defendants argue, the case should instead fall under the authority of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Back on Feb. 5, the defendants made the somewhat surprising legal argument that the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act of 2020 (HISA)–which was signed into law a full nine months after the arrests were made–allegedly gives “plenary authority,” or absolute regulatory power, to the FTC in all federal matters pertaining to horse racing.

The government's Mar. 5 filing laced into that assertion: “The defendants' respective discussions of the passage of what is commonly referred to as [HISA] in the Fishman Motion and the Oakes Motion shed no light on the purpose or application of the FDCA. That is because the 116th Congress's passage of the HISA in 2020 has no bearing upon the intent of the 75th Congress's passage of the FDCA in 1938, and no implication for the plain language of the FDCA's provisions criminalizing misbranding and adulteration of animal drugs.

“As an initial matter, the Supreme Court disfavors reliance on subsequent legislative history in assessing the language and meaning of prior statutes,” the government's filing continues. “In particular, while 'subsequent legislation can of course alter the meaning of an existing law for the future' and 'can even alter the past operation of an existing law' (constitutional objections aside) if it makes that retroactive operation clear…it cannot inferentially amend the purpose behind passage of a prior statute, as defendants wish.

“The dangers of such post-hoc analysis are plain here. Congress did not–in either the FDCA or the HISA–indicate its intent either to acknowledge or create a 'racehorse industry' exception to the criminal prohibition against the distribution of adulterated and misbranded drugs with the intent to defraud or mislead in the FDCA, nor did it so indicate with respect to any other federal criminal law.

“The defendants' arguments in this respect reflect what seems to be a purposeful misreading of both the HISA and the charges against them: the defendants are not charged with violating state racing anti-doping rules and regulations, for which no federal analogue existed prior to the passage of the HISA; they are charged with felony misbranding and adulteration of drugs in interstate commerce in violation of the FDCA. No interpretative gymnastics are required to 'make sense' of one statute in light of the other.”

The government's filing sums up: “The HISA contains no criminal penalties because Congress determined sufficient criminal penalties were already provided for in existing federal criminal laws, laws which the HISA expressly does not modify. Ultimately, though, no reading of the Congressional tea leaves is required. There is no contradiction between the FDCA and the HISA, and no retrospective ambiguity in the text of the former arises from the text of the latter.”

Other counts of the government's case against the alleged dopers are not affected by this recent series of motion to dismiss, and trials are expected to begin in the second half of 2021. But one defendant, Scott Robinson, who has already pleaded guilty to conspiring to unlawfully distribute adulterated and misbranded drugs for the purpose of doping racehorses, has a sentencing hearing scheduled Mar. 9.

The multi-state simultaneous sting netted the high-profile arrests of trainers Navarro and the 2019 GI Kentucky Derby-disqualified trainer Jason Servis, plus a vast network of co-conspirators who allegedly manufactured, mislabeled, rebranded, distributed and administered PEDs to racehorses all across America and in international races.

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Prince Bandar Addresses Maximum Security 2020 Purse Issue

Interviewed on the world feed coverage of the Saudi Cup, Prince Bandar Bin Khalid Al Faisal, chairman of the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia, said that he expected there to be “movement” on the U.S. case against Jason Servis which had been holding up the payment of last year's Saudi Cup purse.

Servis was the trainer of 2020's inaugural winner of the Saudi Cup, Maximum Security (New Year's Day), who has never been awarded prize money for the victory. Two weeks after the race, Servis was one of 27 people named in a criminal indictment for “widespread, corrupt scheme by racehorse trainers, veterinarians, PED distributors and others to manufacture, distribute, and receive adulterated and misbranded PEDs and to secretly administer those PEDs to racehorses under scheme participants' control,” by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.

While the rest of the field was paid their share of the purse, including runner-up Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute), Maximum Security's $10-million winning payout has been withheld.

Nick Luck, the host of the program, asked Prince Bandar about the issue.

“It was a wonderful night last year,” said Luck. “We all left here with a real spring in our step. It was a terrific horse race between Maximum Security and Midnight Bisou, but racefans around the world are familiar with what has happened since, because Maximum Security's then-trainer was indicted on very serious illegal medication charges, just a couple of weeks later. What is your position at the moment, because you have withheld the purse money from Maximum Security's owners up to this point?”

“That is true,” said Prince Bandar, “and we are sort of in a hold position now waiting for the U.S. authorities to move forward with that case. We understand in the coming six weeks there will be some kind of movement on it which will allow us to move forward and bring this to a close. I feel we don't have long to wait for it, but as you said, it's an unfortunate situation. I had a soft spot for that horse. I thought he got a raw deal in the Kentucky Derby. It was fair, but he was the best horse on the day. Here, he was the best horse on the day and he was a victim of circumstances that have nothing to do with the horse himself, but we have to abide by the international rules and regulations and somebody will get the prize money. We have paid out all of the other positions, and I feel that within six weeks, hopefully, we'll put this issue to a close.”

Jim Gagliano, the president and chief operating officer of The (American) Jockey Club, said that he had not been informed on any movement on the case. “These are government proceedings and they don't provide updates,” said Gagliano.

The most recent news on the case came on February 5, when Jorge Navarro and Seth Fishman, DVM, the trainer and veterinarian indicted on the same charges, both filed motions to dismiss the drug alteration and misbranding conspiracy charges levied against them in United States District Court (Southern District of New York).”

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