Fishman, whose 26 months as a defendant have been hallmarked by minor courtroom dramas, various attempts to prevent or delay the trial, and accusations that he continued to peddle purported performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) while free on bail, had argued that he was tried twice for the same crime because the first count was contained within the second, much broader conspiracy.

Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil of United States District Court (Southern District of New York) didn't see it that way. Her May 31 ruling against Fishman's motion paves the way for his June 30 sentencing, at which he faces up to 20 years in prison.

“Fishman now moves pursuant to Rule 29 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure for acquittal on Count One, arguing that Count One is multiplicitous of Count Two,” Vyskocil wrote in her order. “That motion is DENIED because a rational trier of fact could find, based on the evidence at trial, that Fishman participated in two distinct conspiracies.”

Fishman, along with six other veterinarians, 11 trainers, and nine others, was charged in 2020 with being a key figure in an international network of purported PED suppliers who allegedly conspired to dope racehorses in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Ohio, Kentucky, and the United Arab Emirates.

Count One alleged a four-year conspiracy (2016-20) with Jorge Navarro, Erica Garcia, Marcos Zulueta, Michael Tannuzzo, Christopher Oakes and unnamed others. Count Two alleged a broad, 18-year conspiracy (2002-20) with Lisa Giannelli, Jordan Fishman, Rick Dane, Jr., and unnamed others based on Fishman's Florida online drug-selling portal.

Although a number of defendants in the wide-ranging racehorse doping conspiracy pleaded guilty prior to Fishman, he was the first to stand trial and to be found guilty by a jury.

“The defendant filed several pretrial motions, but he never argued that the Indictment was multiplicitous,” Vyskocil wrote. “The defendant also never raised the issue of multiplicity in connection with any of the Court's instructions to the jury at the trial. Indeed, the instructions relevant to this motion were jointly proposed by the defendant and the government…

“In charging the jury at the end of the case, the Court stressed that the Indictment contained two separate counts, that each count charged a 'separate' conspiracy, and that the jury was required to consider each count 'separately' and 'return a separate verdict on each count.' The Court explained that while there might be 'facts in common to different counts, each count must be considered separately.'

“The Court further explained that while '[m]uch of the law' applied to both counts, the Court would point out differences and 'provide specific instructions' about 'particular elements or findings,'” Vyskocil wrote. “The Court also instructed the jury that the Indictment charged the defendant with continuing the conspiracy charged in Count Two while he was released on bail.

“The Court stressed that whether the jury found Seth Fishman 'guilty or not guilty' of one charged conspiracy 'should not affect [the jury's] verdict' as to the other conspiracy charged in the Indictment. The defense consented to all of these instructions in advance, never objected to them during the trial, and never otherwise raised the issue of multiplicity with respect to the jury charges,” Vyskocil continued.

“The jury convicted Seth Fishman of both of the charged conspiracies, found that he had intent to defraud or mislead with respect to each conspiracy, and found that he continued the Count Two conspiracy after he was released on bail,” Vyskocil summed up.

Fishman's sentencing was supposed to be May 5, but got pushed back to May 26 when he claimed he did not receive financial forms from the feds that are necessary for his pre-sentencing report. Then he requested another new date after pandemic-related lockdown conditions were imposed upon the cell block where he is being detained in New York.

Previous legal maneuverings included the Florida-based veterinarian being inexplicably absent from court on the day that he was found guilty. A cryptic comment from Fishman's attorney to the judge during closing arguments led to speculation that Fishman had to be hospitalized.

In December 2021, Vyskocil had modified Fishman's bail conditions after federal prosecutors presented evidence that backed up allegations he was still selling PEDs while awaiting trial.

On two other occasions in 2020 and 2022, Fishman had unsuccessfully petitioned the court to adjust scheduling for pandemic-related reasons, at first arguing that his right to a speedy trial was being hindered, and then wanting to delay the trial over concerns related to not wanting to get sick with COVID-19.

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Fishman's Mar. 8 filing in United States District Court (Southern District of New York) is likely the first of several legal steps leading to a formal appeal of his convictions. He faces 20 years in prison upon sentencing May 5.

“As relevant here, a multiplicitous indictment 'charges the same crime in two counts,'” Fishman's letter motion stated, “when 'only one crime has been committed' in 'law and fact.'”

Fishman's filing–almost two years to the date of his Mar. 9, 2020, arrest–argued that the dual counts could lead to “multiple sentences for the same offense,” and that the two counts might have “improperly prejudice[d] a jury by suggesting that a defendant has committed not one but several crimes.”

Fishman, along with six other veterinarians, 11 trainers, and nine others, was charged with being a key figure in an international network of purported performance-enhancing drug (PED) suppliers who allegedly conspired to dope racehorses in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Ohio, Kentucky, and the United Arab Emirates.

“The indictment in this case accused Dr. Fishman of participating in overlapping but ostensibly independent conspiracies to illegally distribute a variety of customized PEDs–untestable, adulterated and misbranded–to racehorse owners and trainers in America and abroad,” Fishman's motion stated.

“Count Two alleged a broad, 18-year conspiracy–lasting from 2002 through 2020–with Lisa Giannelli, Jordan Fishman, Rick Dane Jr. and unnamed others. Count One alleged a subsidiary, four-year conspiracy–lasting from 2016 through 2020–with Jorge Navarro, Erica Garcia, Marcos Zulueta, Michael Tannuzzo, Christopher Oakes and unnamed others…

“Yet throughout the trial–from the start of the prosecutor's opening to summation–the government framed the case as one involving 'a single, ongoing conspiratorial' agreement: namely, an encompassing 18-year arrangement among Dr. Fishman, his employees, suppliers and customers to manufacture, buy and sell the same menu of adulterated and misbranded PEDs through Dr. Fishman's company, Equestology LLC, rather than 'two separate schemes operating independently…'

“The government thus presented an integrated, 'overall' agreement with one primary object–trafficking in prohibited substances designed to boost racehorse performance and avoid regulatory detection–that violated a 'single statute' over a lengthy period.”

The filing continued: “Perhaps most significant, the government's summations graphically confirmed its mixing and matching the charged conspiracies–its blending their vague contours, blurring their fuzzy boundaries and otherwise presenting the two as an interwoven, indivisible whole…

“Even more striking, the prosecutors opted to address the charges in 'reverse,' starting with the sprawling conspiracy alleged in Count Two [before finally getting around to] Count One…

“On this record–even when construed most favorably to the government and drawing all inferences in its favor–the only plausible conclusion is that the lesser conspiracy charged in Count One was 'simply a species' or subset of the greater one alleged in Count Two.”

Fishman's multiplicity motion suggested a remedy of merging his two convictions so that only a single sentence will be imposed.

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Zulueta, 53, had pleaded guilty in October to one felony count of adulterating and misbranding drugs with the intent to defraud or mislead.

As part of a plea agreement, he had previously agreed to forfeit $47,525.

At his Feb. 24 sentencing, the remaining two open felony charges against him were dropped, which was also part of the agreement.

At the time of his guilty plea in in United States District Court (Southern District of New York), it was announced that Zulueta faced up to five years in prison. But because the statutory maximum for his crime was three years, prosecutors and the defense ended up agreeing that based on federal sentencing guidelines, his actual range called for 30 to 36 months.

However, subsequent to that agreement, when a routine presentence investigation report revealed (unbeknownst to prosecutors) that Zulueta got convicted in 2018 for driving while intoxicated while already on probation for another offense, it triggered an increase in his criminal history calculation for the doping offense, so his minimum sentence based on the guidelines got bumped up to 33 months instead of 30.

The feds had advocated for a sentence within that range; the defense argued for a variance that would allow for a sentence below the guidelines. Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil gave the minimum allowable sentence.

'I got creative'

A separate presentencing report issued by the feds included snippets of secretly recorded phone conversations between Zulueta and Navarro.

In some of those starkly candid discussions, Zulueta admitted to fears that he was admitting purportedly performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) so recklessly that he was afraid he was going to kill his own horses, either by injecting medications improperly or performing nasogastric tubing that went into the lungs instead of the stomach.

“I didn't want to tell you because you were going to [expletive] scold me,” Zulueta admitted to Navarro in an intercepted May 5, 2019, phone call. “I got creative, I gave them more medicine but I drown them–I drown them instead…. I didn't tell you about it because I knew you were going to get on my back…. I lost [expletive] lots [of] money. But, well, forget it–that's done.”

According to the government, Navarro had already warned Zulueta at least once to tone down his doping.

“Marcos, we need to clean up things because they are going to [expletive] us up. They are going to kick us out of the business if we keep up with the craziness,” Navarro said in a Mar. 10, 2019, call.

Zulueta agreed with Navarro, and Navarro persisted, “You have already made money…. Stop inventing [new ways to drug horses].”

Yet on other occasions, it was Zulueta who cautioned Navarro about keeping a lower profile.

“Yeah, you should be happy–happy–happy that you are not winning all of them,” Zulueta said, according to a wiretap transcript. “Otherwise, you will be arrested.”

Zulueta's words ended up being prophetic: On March 9, 2020, both trainers, plus several dozen others, were taken into federal custody in a coordinated series of arrests related to an international racehorse doping conspiracy. Listed below are the Thoroughbred-related guilty pleas and convictions that have resulted so far:

In March 2021, the guilty-pleading Scott Robinson, a veterinarian, got 18 months in prison and had to forfeit $3.8 million in profits.

In June, Sarah Izhaki was sentenced to time already served for selling misbranded versions of Epogen.

In September, Scott Mangini, a pharmacist who had pleaded guilty to one felony count related to creating custom drugs for racehorses, got sentenced to 18 months in prison and a forfeiture of $8.1 million.

In December, Navarro wept in court after getting the maximum sentence of five years imprisonment. Navarro had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to administer non-FDA-approved, misbranded and adulterated drugs, including PEDs. Navarro was also ordered to pay $25.8 million in restitution (an amount he will likely never be able to pay) and could face deportation to Panama.

On Jan. 5, 2022, Kristian Rhein, a veterinarian formerly based at Belmont Park, got sentenced to the maximum three years in prison after pleading guilty to one felony drug charge. Rhein must forfeit $1.02 million and pay $729,716 in victims' restitution.

On Jan. 6, Rhein's brother-in-law, Michael Kegley Jr., the former sales director for a Kentucky-based company that marketed and sold the alleged PED known as SGF-1000, got sentenced to 30 months in prison and a $3.3 million forfeiture.

The Florida-based veterinarian Seth Fishman faces 20 years in prison after being found guilty Feb. 2 on two counts of conspiring to violate adulteration and misbranding laws.

'Success story' gone wrong

Although not a “headline” trainer like the graded stakes-winning conditioners Navarro or Jason Servis (who maintains he is not guilty and has a trial date looming), Zulueta won an outsized number of races on smaller circuits. In early 2020, just prior to his arrest, Zulueta's horses were winning at a gaudy 31% clip, primarily at Parx.

“Until the time of his involvement in the activity charged in the Indictment, Marcos Zulueta was an American success story,” his legal team wrote in a presentencing report.

“Born in Cuba in 1968, he experienced a very difficult and impoverished childhood,” the defense report continued. “His father left his family when Marcos was one. As the oldest of his brothers and sisters, it fell on Marcos' shoulders to work to support his family. He engaged in all forms of manual labor and finally became proficient in working with horses, with the money he earned going straight back to his family.

“With the goal of escaping the restrictions and deprivation of freedom in Cuba, Marcos emigrated to the United States in 1994 [and in 2011] became a successful horse trainer. Aside from a DUI and two summary offenses committed in a brief time frame, Marcos led a crime free life…”

The feds framed Zulueta's story differently in their own presentencing report:

“Although Zulueta did not earn as much in purse winnings as other defendants in this matter, including his co-conspirator Jorge Navarro, he nonetheless engaged in precisely the same conduct as Navarro: (1) procuring a variety of PEDs with which to dope his racehorses, including blood builders; (2) redistributing certain PEDs to other trainers, such as Navarro; (3) experimenting with novel PEDs by administering them to the horses under his care; (4) 'cleaning' the livers of horses he had doped to counteract the deleterious effects of his doping; and (5) using dangerous methods of administration, such as 'drenching.'”

The prosecution's report continued: “Zulueta was so attuned to the dangers of his conduct that he was reluctant to tell even Navarro–his co-conspirator, a trusted friend, and a prolific doper–that he had over-medicated his horses. Zulueta's private conversations underscore the callousness he displayed to the horses under his care…”

The feds further argued that “As with other defendants in this matter, it is not the case that the defendant's crime was the result of a single lapse in judgment, nor is it the case that he ceased his criminal conduct of his own volition. Zulueta continued to order and receive PEDs up until shortly before his arrest, and there is no indication that he would have otherwise stopped.”

Zulueta reports to prison May 24. The judge has recommended he be incarcerated at Fairton, a medium-security facility in New Jersey.

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The government lawyers did their job and they did it well, and they want no mercy for the Juice Man. Read the sentencing letter and the first conclusion you will come to is probably the same one I had–that five years is not nearly enough.

We already knew what Navarro was doing. He was pumping every toxic chemical he could find into every horse he had, all in an effort to win more races and collect more purse money, never once concerned about the welfare of the animal.

“Jorge Navarro's case reflects failings, greed, and corruption at virtually every level of the world of professional horse racing. For money and fame, corrupt trainers went to increasing extremes to dope horses under their care,” the filing begins.

It continues: “Navarro's aggressive pursuit of PEDs–and his eagerness to use racehorses under his care to test the potency of novel PEDs–displayed a particularly callous disregard for the well-being of the horses under his care and control.”

What we didn't know until the latest court filing was released was just how brazen and unrepentant he was. It may not seem possible, but Navarro's core was even more rotten than we had thought.

The government maintains that Navarro “considered his prolific doping campaign a badge of honor.” How else do you explain why he owned a pair of shoes emblazoned across the front with the words “#JUICE MAN.”? Or that in 2018 he sent a text to trainer Marcos Zulueta that included pictures of monkeys, rockets, syringes, horses and pills, apparently a reference to a drug he was using called “monkey.” The pictures were proceeded by the words “Te encanta,” Spanish for “You love it.” Or that he received via text a GIF from an unnamed associate that showed a syringe loaded with money?

“The intensity of Navarro's doping was matched by his apparent glee in this illicit conduct,” the government writes.

The government also wants Navarro to pay $25.8 million in restitution to those he cheated out of purse money. It's not clear how they came up with that number or who exactly is entitled to the money. It's also highly unlikely that Navarro has $25.8 million, or anywhere close to that. So this part of his punishment may not go anywhere, but it's good to see that the government is also going after whatever money he has.

Then there was the prediction from Navarro's lawyer in a filing that the trainer will most likely be deported to his native Panama after serving his sentence. Good riddance.

Earlier this month, in a pre-sentencing report of their own, Navarro's defense team asked the judge to limit his sentence to 3 1/2 years. In doing so, they painted a much different picture of their client. They say he loved his horses and that his insatiable desire to win tainted his judgment.

Their filing included statement from several individuals who vouched for his character. One came from veterinarian Joel Lugo, who recalled Navarro's reaction to the death of star sprinter XY Jet (Kantharos). The horse died in January, 2020 from what Navarro said was a heart attack.

“I remember the day when XY Jet passed away,” Lugo wrote. “Jorge called me crying to tell me directly the news. I know Navarro was devastated because he truly loved XY Jet.”

Jockey Jose Ferrer wrote of Navarro that he “admired his hard work ethic and love for both the sport and the animal.”

Such sentiments are laughable. Anyone who can do to these animals what Navarro did does not love their horses. Navarro abused his horses.

“These are among some of the factors that put the lie to Navarro's submission and his multiple letters of support quoted in and appended to Navarro's sentencing submission, in which third parties claim that Navarro made decisions for the health and well-being of his horses,” the government wrote. “That notion simply does not comport with the hundreds of conversations wherein Navarro sought PEDs to use on his horses, discussed administering novel PEDs on his horses, pushed horses in poor physical shape to compete, and displayed indifference at the physical ramifications of administering PEDs to horses.”

One can only hope that Vyskocil agrees. Send him to prison for five years. Deport him. Take away his money. It's time for the Juice Man to get what he deserves.

And What About Navarro's Owners?

The government's sentencing letter includes a recapping of a conversation with the owner of a horse named Nanoosh (Paytner). The unnamed owner and Navarro discuss the horse's recent poor form and the owner asks him if he was “giving them [Nanoosh] all the shit?” The owner also asked Navarro, “Is this horse jacked out? Is he on fucking pills or what or are we just fucking -,” Navarro responded, “Everything…he gets everything.”

The same exchange was also referred to 21 months ago when Navarro was originally indicted. According to Equibase, the horse was owned by the partnership of Rockingham Ranch, Zayat Stables LL and David A. Bernsen LLC. Rockingham Ranch and Bernsen are still active owners. Zayat, due to problems unrelated to Nanoosh, is not active in the sport.

Doesn't anyone in the sport want to get to the bottom of this? It can't be that hard to find out who the owner was that had the discussion with Navarro. Once the name is revealed, that person should be barred from the sport immediately and permanently.

The Remsen Fiasco

Protests seeking to overrule stewards' decisions usually don't get very far, but the case of this year's GII Remsen S. is one where the New York Gaming Commission should absolutely reverse the order of finish. The Aqueduct stewards got this one wrong.

The race came down to Mo Donegal (Uncle Mo) and Zandon (Upstart), who were noses apart as they headed toward the wire. Aboard race winner Mo Donegal, jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. appeared to go out of his way to intimidate his rival. The two bumped near the wire with, according to the Equibase chart, Ortiz throwing “repeated exaggerated crosses with the left rein near the face of the runner-up…”It got so bad that Ortiz appeared to strike Zandon with his elbow.

Mo Donegal won by a nose.

Zandon's owner Jeff Drown filed his protest last week and maintained that his horse would have won if not for Ortiz's antics. He's not wrong.

It's not just that the stewards blew this decision. That it involved Ortiz was not a surprise. A day earlier, riding a horse named Gran Casique (Algorithms), he dropped another rider when, down the backstretch, he came over several paths on his way to trying to maintain a position on the rail. For that ride, he was hit with a 30-day careless riding suspension.

For months, Ortiz's critics have been calling him out for his overly aggressive riding style and, in particular, his penchant for herding other horses and riders. Yet, until the Gran Casique race, the NYRA stewards had more or less looked the other way. That appeared to embolden Ortiz.

Yes, the stewards did the right thing when they gave Ortiz the 30-day suspension. But they reverted to form in the Remsen. They didn't take Mo Donegal down and they didn't suspend or fine Ortiz for his ride. Once again, when it came to Ortiz, the wrong message was sent.

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“Jorge Navarro's case reflects failings, greed, and corruption at virtually every level of the world of professional horse racing,” the document, filed Dec. 10, began. “For money and fame, corrupt trainers went to increasing extremes to dope horses under their care. Unscrupulous owners, who stood to profit directly, encouraged and pressured trainers to win at any cost. Veterinarians sworn to the care and protection of their patients routinely violated their oaths in service of corrupt trainers and to line their own pockdets. Assistants and grooms all witnessed animal abuse in the service of greed, but did little to stop such conduct, and engaged in myriad ways to support notoriously corrupt trainers. Structures designed for the protection of the horses abused in this case failed repeatedly; fixtures of the industry — owners, veterinarians, and trainers — flouted rules and disregarded their animals' health while hypocritically incanting a love for the horses under their control and ostensible protection. Standing as the keystone for this structure of abuse, corruption, and duplicity was Jorge Navarro, a trainer who treated his animals as expendable commodities in the service of his 'sport.'”

Navarro is due to be sentenced Dec. 17 after entering a guilty plea to one count of drug and adulteration misbranding conspiracy. He was charged with two counts in a November 2020 superseding indictment. Last week, his defense team filed its recommendations to U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, including 100 pages of character testimony from family, friends, former employees, and former owners, many of whom claimed Navarro cared deeply for his horses.

The prosecution takes issue with that characterization, laying out new details about Navarro's doping program and his attitude about his ongoing use of medications he seemed to know were illegal.

Friday's sentencing documents say that Navarro's program, which stretched back to at least 2016, included blood builders allegedly made by co-defendants Gregory Skelton and Dr. Seth Fishman, vasodilators, baking soda drenches, bleeder pills from Fishman, SGF-1000, “an imported, misbranded bronchodilator” and other substances.

Navarro was also on the lookout for new substances, the filing reveals, making inquiries about a new, pink-colored pain medication as well as “an experimental topical cream on a horse that was anticipated to have the same effects of a baking soda drench.”

Horses subjected to the program included X Y Jet, War Story, Shancelot, Sharp Azteca, and Nanoosh, according to the documents.

Prosecutors focused particularly on the medications given to X Y Jet, which were detailed somewhat in the federal indictments. Friday's document provided a few more details on what the horse experienced in early 2019.

A few days before a Feb. 13, 2019, allowance optional claiming race at Gulfstream Park, Navarro contacted co-defendant Marco Zulueta and said, 'I have a problem and you need to get me out of it,” asking for a bottle of a pain blocker to use on X Y Jet because the other 20 bottles he had ordered had not arrived. Zulueta promised to overnight the drug so it would be available to Navarro in time for the horse's race. Navarro then allegedly called fellow trainer and co-defendant Christopher Oakes, saying the horse had tied up for the first time that day. The pair discussed administering a baking soda “drench” to the horse immediately and another on race day. Zulueta tried to convince Navarro not to race the horse after his tying-up incident, but Navarro dismissed his concerns, saying he had treated the horse right away.

The prosecution's account continued:

“The next day, on February 12, 2019, the day before the race, Navarro reached out to yet another individual and solicited items that could be used to drench X Y Jet: 'I need the tube, the pump and the bucket.' When Navarro was asked if someone else would be 'tubing' the horse, Navarro responded: 'Yes. No, you cannot — cannot tube him because you will go to jail, man. My friend is going to tube him. My friend is going to prepare a milk shake for him,' later adding, 'This is between you and I.' On a separate call with a representative of one of X Y Jet's owners, Navarro confirmed that he planned to milkshake the horse, and when asked whether the horse would then test positive, Navarro responded, 'Don't worry about it. I use something that covers the baking soda, the bicarb.'”

On race day, in correspondence with Zulueta, Navarro said he wanted to learn how to “tube” horses because “I would tube all my horses.” Zulueta warned Navarro that “You have to be [expletive] careful. I tried — I tried to do that and I almost killed the horse — the horse, man. It went to the lungs.” Navarro responded simply, “Yes.”

X Y Jet won his race that day, and in his next start won the Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen, which had a US$2.5 million purse. For that race, Navarro said he did not tube the horse, but gave him “50 injections” which were “through the mouth” to avoid detection — apparently a reference to what prosecutors say was Navarro's strategy of giving certain drugs orally if he had reason to suspect a racing official may detect a needle mark on a horse's neck.

X Y Jet, who had had three knee surgeries by the time of the allowance race in question, suffered a sudden death following a workout in Florida in January 2020, two months before Navarro's arrest. The horse's connections ordered a necropsy, not the state's Department of Pari-Mutuel Wagering, so the report has not previously been subject to public records request. Friday's documents revealed the “necropsy could not determine a cause for the heart attack; notably, Navarro's communications in the first quarter of 2019 indicated that, even one year prior, X Y Jet … was struggling, but was then medicated so he could race competitively.”

It is not uncommon for necropsy reports in the cases of “sudden” or “apparent cardiac” deaths to be inconclusive as to the horse's cause of death, particularly in absence of any physical abnormalities in the heart or other organs.

The document also references an anonymous individual who adopted a former Navarro trainee and said that after leaving the trainer's barn the horse was “disfigured and unable not only to race competitively, but to do very much at all” and that it “suffers from recurrent and painful physical problems.” In the horse's last race with Navarro in September 2019 the unidentified horse ended the race with a serious injury that required him to be vanned off.

Although he was constantly on the lookout for new substances and techniques to get a performance edge, the documents state, Navarro apparently spent some time worrying about whether his communications might be monitored, urging contacts to be careful in their discussions of the medications, and discussing steps he took — like having products shipped to people other than himself — to make it harder for regulators to catch him.

At the same time though, Navarro appeared to have no qualms about bragging about his activities to close friends. A search of his barn revealed a pair of customized shoes with the phrase #Juice Man across the toes.

In 2017, Navarro and owner Randal Gindi were fined $5,000 by Monmouth Park stewards for a video captured of the pair cheering on a horse trained by Navarro's brother, Marcial Navarro winning a race at Gulfstream Park.

“Adios, amigos. Adios, amigos,” Gindi was heard saying in the video. “The juice man!”

Navarro responded: “Is that a Navarro? Is that a Navarro? Is that a Navarro at 2-1? That's the way we do it.”

“That's the juice. That's the vegetable juice,” replied Gindi.

“We f – – k everyone,” said Navarro.

“We f – – k everyone, and I line my pockets with the bookie with another twenty thousand,” said Gindi. “Oh, yeah! Life is great.”

At the time, Navarro complained to the Paulick Report that the statements overheard in the video were a type of strange congratulation.

“Everyone wants to pick on Navarro when I win a race,” Jorge Navarro told the Paulick Report at the time. “They call me the 'juice man,' even when my kids are around. My son is 10, my daughter is 7. How many fingers do you have to count the number of times I hear that stuff? But I'm going to keep winning races.”

Navarro himself texted the following image to Zulueta in July 2018, apparently partly in reference to a misbranded substance the two referred to simply as “monkey.”

On January 26, 2019, the day two Navarro horses ran at Gulfstream and Tampa Bay Downs, an unnamed Navarro associate sent the trainer a gif depicting a syringe's plunger pulling back and loading the syringe with dollar bills.

It also seems clear that prosecutors believe Navarro was well aware of the risks associated with the adulterated and misbranded substances he was using – some of which were injectables so far removed from a Food and Drug Administration-approved manufacturing facility that they were simply in plain plastic bottles with instructions written on them in permanent marker.

In one case, Navarro was overheard on wire taps referring to a pain medicine Navarro had been offered that was so powerful “the guy [offering Navarro the drug] says he has killed about four horses already … he is saying the horses can't take it, and die.”

In another conversation, Navarro compared notes with Zulueta on the physical side effects to one intravenous performance enhancer, asking whether the horses “start sweating, get warm.” Zulueta relayed his horses were soaked wet with sweat after receiving injections, to which Navarro asked whether the drug was working.

In reference to his administration of steroids to horses, Navarro declared he is “a man who destroys” and who “is racing against the best horses in the United States.”

Prosecutors are requesting the maximum prison sentence outlined in an agreement with Navarro's attorneys at the time of his plea change – five years in federal prison – and are also requesting a three-year supervised release condition that would require him to relinquish his racing license for that period of time.

Navarro's attorneys said in their filing last week that it's very likely the Panama native will be deported at the conclusion of his sentence.

Additionally, Navarro has already agreed to forfeit a total of $70,000, which represents the value of drugs he allegedly obtained and gave to racehorses. He has also agreed to pay restitution of $25,860,514 – representative of the amount of purse earnings he got during the illegal doping conspiracy. For the first time, Friday's documents revealed this restitution would be paid to “those entities from whom purse winnings were obtained through the immediate effect of Navarro's fraud.” A list of those entities and a schedule for payment was filed under seal.

Navarro's sentence will be determined on Dec. 17. The judge is not bound by the agreements between the prosecution and defense, and will take both sides' reports under advisement.

Read the full document filed by the prosecution here.

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Zulueta faces a maximum of three years in federal prison and fines of up to $100,000, in addition to a forfeiture of more than $47,000. Forfeiture amounts in this federal case have typically been based on the amount of financial gain prosecutors believe a defendant accrued from a crime.

According to a report by The Blood-Horse's Bob Kieckhefer, Zulueta did not provide many details on his crimes beyond admitting to administering drugs to racehorses without prescriptions at Parx. Zulueta said he got the substances from co-defendant Ross Cohen.

Read more at The Blood-Horse

In other news related to the federal adulteration and misbranding case, former Standardbred trainer and co-defendant Christopher Oakes requested a plea change hearing this week, which seems likely to result in his changing his plea from not guilty to guilty.

The change would make Oakes the ninth of more than two dozen defendants named in the March 2020 indictments to switch from a not guilty to a guilty plea, according to the Thoroughbred Daily News.

Oakes was allegedly overheard on wire taps speaking to Jorge Navarro about the distribution and use of performance-enhancing drugs to Thoroughbreds. Specifically, the TDN reported that Oakes and Navarro were overheard making plans to administer performance-enhancing substances to X Y Jet, who later died suddenly.

Navarro changed his plea from not guilty to guilty this summer, but has not yet been sentenced.

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Having pleaded guilty to adulterating and misbranding drugs with the intent to defraud or mislead, he faces up to five years in prison and will be sentenced in February.

In the original indictment, Zulueta was closely linked to Jorge Navarro and was alleged to be involved in the doping program that involved the star sprinter X Y Jet (Kantharos). However, Navarro's name was noticeably absent from most of Friday's proceedings. Instead, Zulueta spoke of his relationship with alleged drug distributor Ross Cohen when asked by Vyskocil to explain what he had done to justify his guilty plea. Cohen was among those indicted last year but his name was not included when a superseding indictment was announced last November.

“I misbranded medicine from Ross Cohen,” said Zulueta, who struggled with his English throughout the hearing. “I gave it to my horses for them to perform in training. I don't remember the specific days I gave it to the horses but I did it.”

Zulueta said he started using medications he got from Cohen in 2019, but said he stopped a few months later because he found that the drugs were having no impact on his horses. He made no mention of his dealings with Navarro.

“I realized that my horses weren't getting any better,” he said. “I didn't see any results. The last two or three months before I got arrested, I wasn't using it.”

When asked by Vyskocil whether, at the time, he knew what he was doing was illegal, Zulueta replied: “Yes, your honor. I am prepared to pay for the mistakes I have made.”

Representing the government, attorney Sarah Mortazavi told the court that investigators had compiled mounds of evidence to make their case against Zulueta and singled out evidence that Zulueta was using a drug called “monkey,” which has similar characteristics to epogen.

According to the original indictment, Zulueta was among those who where obtaining, shipping and administering misbranded and adulterated PED's for Navarro's benefit. The evidence included an intercepted phone call from February 2019 in which Navarro and Zulueta discussed Navarro's need for a customized PED referred to as a “blocker.” Zulueta assured Navarro he could get the drug for him.

On another occasion, Zulueta cautions Navarro about winning too often.

“Yeah, you should be happy-happy-happy that you are not winning all of them,” Zulueta allegedly told Navarro. “Otherwise, you will be arrested.”

Zulueta started training in 2011 and quickly became a force at Parx. In the few months in 2020 before his arrest, he had 18 winners from 58 starters, good for a winning rate of 31%.

Three individuals who have pled guilty have been sentenced. Scott Robinson and Scott Mangini each got 18 months and Sarah Izhaki got time served.

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On Thursday, Zulueta, formerly based in the mid-Atlantic region, was granted an Oct. 15 change-of-plea hearing in United States District Court (Southern District of New York).

If Zulueta does indeed end up pleading guilty, his flip will be the eighth in the wide-ranging case that initially included 28 defendants listed in the original indictment from March 2020.

Although not considered a “headline” trainer like fellow defendants Jorge Navarro (who has admitted to doping horses and faces five years in prison when he is sentenced in December) or Jason Servis (who maintains he is not guilty and has a trial date approaching in 2022), Zulueta's name surfaced frequently in wire-tapped conversations secretly recorded by federal investigators before they charged him with one count of drug adulteration and another for conspiracy to defraud using misbranded drugs.

According to a trove of phone conversation transcripts released as evidence by the government in September court documents, on Apr. 3, 2019, Zulueta and Navarro allegedly discussed the testability of a drug administered to the elite-level sprinter X Y Jet (Kantharos), who was trained (and admittedly doped) by Navarro.

X Y Jet died suddenly eight months after that call while still under Navarro's care. The circumstances of the horse's death have never been fully explained.

In another conversation between Navarro and Zulueta from around the same time frame, Navarro and Zulueta allegedly discussed a performance-enhancing “drench” that Navarro described as “a milkshake that…won't show up” that is to be administered “the day of the race.”

At one point, Navarro allegedly boasted, “Marcos I drenched two today and [the creator of the substance] says you can take their blood and nothing will come out,” unlike other drenches where “they catch you.”

During another wire-tapped call, Zulueta allegedly cautions Navarro about the dangers of winning too often with doped horses.

“Yeah, you should be happy-happy-happy that you are not winning all of them,” Zulueta allegedly said, according to the transcript. “Otherwise, you will be arrested.”

Zulueta's words ended up being prophetic: On March 9, 2020, both trainers, plus 26 others, were taken into federal custody in a coordinated series of arrests.

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At Wednesday's hearing, Navarro admitted he administered illegal medications to racehorses between 2016 and March 2020, including top runners X Y Jet, War Story, Shancelot, Sharp Azteca, and Nanoosh. Specifically, he admitted that he gave X Y Jet “blood building” substances before an allowance optional claiming race on Feb. 13, 2019, at Gulfstream Park and the Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen.

X Y Jet died suddenly in January 2020, at which point he had earned over $3 million. Navarro said at the time the horse was “part of my family.”

Additionally, Navarro admitted he gave bronchodilators to co-defendant Jason Servis. Servis recently filed a motion seeking to have wiretaps taken by the FBI suppressed on the basis that the federal agency was misleading at the time of its application for those wiretaps.

Navarro said he shipped a blood doping agent from his home in Florida to co-defendant Michael Tannuzzo in New Jersey, and also that he gave drugs to co-defendant Marcos Zulueta. When asked whether he provided drugs to other trainers, Navarro paused and said, “I don't recall” before saying he had provided bronchodilators to Servis.

The misbranded or adulterated substances included blood doping agents, vasodilators, misbranded bronchodilators, “bleeder pills” and SGF-1000, according to Navarro. The blood doping agents were produced by Seth Fishman and Gregory Skelton, per Navarro. Some of the substances, he said, were shipped in from outside the United States, including Panama and the Dominican Republic. Navarro did not clarify which substances originated outside the U.S.

Had the case proceeded to trial, prosecutors revealed they had a recording of a phone conversation between Navarro and an unidentified owner of Nanoosh made in May 2019 in which Navarro and the owner agreed to continue giving the horse illegal drugs in hopes of improving his performance. Nanoosh, who was owned in partnership between Zayat Stables, Rockingham Ranch, and David A. Bernsen, was the winner of the Zia Park Derby. In May 2019 he finished sixth in the G3 Salvator Mile and would later be third in his final career start in an allowance optional claiming race.

Vyskocil did not sentence Navarro at the Aug. 11 hearing but did outline the parameters of the sentencing guidelines that he agreed to in his plea deal with prosecutors. According to statute, the charge he pleaded guilty to comes with a maximum prison sentence of five years, and that was the maximum outlined in the sentencing guidelines. However, Vyskocil made it clear that she could choose to assign penalties beyond the sentencing guidelines and this would not empower Navarro to withdraw his plea.

Navarro could also face a period of supervised release after serving his prison sentence, and that release may come with a number of conditions. Violation of those conditions would result in Navarro going back to prison with no credit for time served on supervised release.

There are a number of elements to Navarro's crimes which had suggested a longer sentence in federal prison. The government uses a formula to help suggest a possible sentence depending on aggravating or mitigating factors, and the elements of Navarro's crime could have escalated his prison sentence to 14 to 17.5 years, but Vyskocil said the maximum allowed by statute was five, and that's what was written into the agreement Navarro signed with prosecutors. Aggravating factors or “enhancements” in Navarro's case included his use of “sophisticated means” to conceal his crimes, his abuse of public trust, and his role as an organizer of the conspiracy.

Federal prison sentences, according to Vyskocil, require that at least 85 percent of the sentence be served; although a prisoner may have the sentence shortened slightly for good behavior, they are not eligible for parole.

There are also likely to be financial penalties to Navarro as a result of his plea. He agreed he will be subject to a fine ranging from $40,000 to $400,000. He has also agreed to forfeit $70,000, and is further on the hook for $25,860,514 in restitution payments. The latter amount represents the amount of purse money won by Navarro's horses as a result of his crime. As with fellow defendant Dr. Kristian Rhein, prosecutors will provide a list of victims of the crime at the time of sentencing, which is scheduled to take place in December.

Vyskocil also noted that Navarro may face additional consequences to his guilty plea as a result of his immigration status. Navarro, 46, is not a citizen of the U.S. but is a citizen of Panama. Vyskocil said immigration authorities could choose to detain or deport him at the conclusion of his prison sentence.

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“Given the volume of discovery that we are still reviewing, I respectfully request that the Phase Two Motions schedule be modified as follows: defense motions due June 28, government response due July 28, and defense replies due on Aug. 11,” attorney Rita Glavin, who represents the disqualified GI Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Jason Servis, wrote in a request to modify the briefing schedule.

Glavin wrote that the request has the support of the attorneys for the remaining 13 defendants in the alleged conspiracy to manufacture, mislabel, distribute and administer performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) to Thoroughbreds and Standardbreds across America and in international races. She added that the prosecuting attorneys have consented to the extension.

The time extension was granted Mar. 12 by U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, which effectively pushes back the start of a trial until after Labor Day.

On Mar. 9, one year to the date of the nationwide that sting resulted in the first arrests in the case, Scott Robinson, a drug manufacturer and distributor who had earlier pleaded guilty to one count of drug adulteration and misbranding, was the first defendant to get sentenced for his crimes. A federal judge imposed 18 months in federal prison and ordered Robinson to forfeit $3.8 million in PED sales proceeds for his role in the alleged doping network. The maximum sentence for that offense is five years.

Of the remaining defendants, the headline-grabbers are Servis, who transformed Maximum Security from a $16,000 maiden-claimer into a MGISW star during the time the feds collected evidence on his alleged stable-wide doping practices, and the now-barred but formerly above-norm-win-percentage trainer Jorge Navarro, whom the government allegedly has on tape boasting about dosing elite-level sprinter X Y Jet “with 50 injections” of PEDs prior to a win in the 2019 GI Golden Shaheen in Dubai.

The 12 other defendants are drug manufacturers, distributors, stable employees, and veterinarians allegedly involved to various degrees in the five counts listed in the indictment: Erica Garcia, Christopher Oakes, Michael Tannuzzo, Marcos Zulueta, Rebecca Linke, Kristian Rhein, Michael Kegley, Jr., Alexander Chan, Seth Fishman, Jordan Fishman, Lisa Giannelli and Rick Dane, Jr.

Right now the court case is in the midst of a preliminary round of hearing “dispositive motions” that the defense has thus far filed to try and put an end to some of the charges. A secondary round of motions dealing only with requests to suppress evidence and expert testimony is the time frame that got extended on Friday. The next status hearing in the case is May 14.

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