Op/Ed | Horse Racing Free Tips

Fishman Has Been Sentenced. Is That the End of This Story?

Having been convicted of two counts of drug adulteration and misbranding, with intent to defraud and mislead, Dr. Seth Fishman was sentenced Monday to 11 years in prison, by far the longest sentence handed down to anyone among the many people tied up in a far-reaching doping scandal that has shaken the Thoroughbred and Standardbred industries. He will soon call a federal penitentiary home, and for a long time. Good. He got what he deserved.

But is this the end of his story or a precursor to what's to come? Are the arrests of Fishman, Jason Servis, Jorge Navarro and some 25 others just the first chapter in scandal that will bring down dozens, maybe even hundreds, of others? Some say that is inevitable.

“I have no doubt there are many arrests pending,” Jockey Club Chairman Stuart Janney III said at the 2020 Jockey Club Round Table. “Fortunately they will happen, just not as soon as we would like.”

Despite Janney's assurances, nothing is certain here. Nothing is clear cut.

Fishman is a key figure. Surely, he was dealing performance-enhancing drugs to far more people than those who were targeted, indicted and convicted of doping horses by the federal government. It can't just be Servis, Navarro and a handful of others.

In February, a list of Fishman's clients was released. But that raised more questions than it answered. There were more than 2,000 individuals on the list, and virtually all of them were from the Standardbred industry. The list included hundreds of people whose integrity has never been questioned and who have spotless records. That may be because some of those whose names were on the list purchased legal medications from Fishman. We just don't know.

So the list did not answer the key question: who was buying performance-enhancing drugs from Dr. Fishman? Fishman may decide to answer that question, to tell all. Maybe he already has. Then again, maybe that's not necessary. Is there a paper trail of not only who he sold drugs to but which drugs? One would think that would be the case. There's also the case of Louis Grasso. Another veterinarian who dealt primarily with Standardbreds, he entered a guilty plea in May on the charges of one count of drug adulteration and misbranding conspiracy. What does he know? Who, beyond those already caught up in the scandal, was he dealing his drugs to? Will we ever find out? Nailing a bunch of other cheats would seem to be a case of low-hanging fruit.

“I hope there will be more arrests and indictments,” said Meadowlands owner Jeff Gural, who has played a large part in the effort to catch the worst of the worst when it came to racing's cheats. “I would hope we will be able to find out who bought what from Fishman and Grasso. Because, clearly, they know who bought what. I am sure people bought legitimate medications, but I'm also sure others bought performance-enhancing drugs. I don't think this is the end of it at all.”

One school of thought is that the government is waiting, that it wants to first resolve all the cases against all the alleged cheaters from the original March, 2020 indictments. That includes Servis, who is set to go on trial in January. After Servis' trial is over and, if he is found guilty, and his sentence has been announced, maybe that's when there will be a fresh and lengthy list of additional horsemen, trainers and vets that have been indicted.

But here's another scenario, one that I believe is most likely.

The government probably already has a laundry list of people who bought PEDs from Fishman and Grasso. It wouldn't be hard to come up with one. And maybe Fishman and Grasso, in hopes of getting a lighter sentence, have cooperated with the authorities and named names. That's entirely possible, if not plausible. But that doesn't mean that the government has to act on that.

Does the government really want to use up even more resources on something, that in the grand scheme of things, isn't that big of a deal? Every minute they spend trying going after people who may have cheated in what is not a major sport is one less minute they can devote to going after drug dealers, money launderers, gang leaders and the likes of Ghislaine Maxwell. As much as we care about our sport and as much as we want to rid ourselves of the cheats, we really are small potatoes.

The hope is that there are a bunch more bad guys out there who are going to face the consequences for doping horses. I just don't think that's going to happen. Sure hope I am wrong.

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Op/Ed: The Triple Crown Woes…Maybe It’s the Purses?

Though not a proponent of “fixing” the Triple Crown by spacing the races further apart, I can't deny that the series has a problem. GI Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike (Keen Ice) passed the GI Preakness S. Preakness winner Early Voting (Gun Runner) won't be running in the GI Belmont S. this Saturday and not a single horse will contest all three Triple Crown races this year. The Triple Crown ends with a race that is good but could be a lot better. Lining up the best horses possible for as many Triple Crown races as possible has become immensely difficult.

But maybe the biggest problem isn't the spacing of the races but that the purses for the races, especially the Preakness and the Belmont, are not what they should be and haven't kept up with the times. If you want your races to always get the best horses and to be considered to be among the most important, most prestigious races on the calendar you're going to have to pay for the privilege. The Triple Crown tracks haven't bought into that premise.

The purse of the Kentucky Derby is $3 million. The Preakness and Belmont are worth $1.5 million each. While that may seem like a lot of money, in a sport where purses have exploded over the last 15 years or so, it's not. There are nine U.S. races that have a larger purse than the Preakness and Belmont, eight of them Breeders' Cup races and the other the $3-million GI Pegasus World Cup. That's not to mention the riches thrown around in Saudi Arabia and Dubai. Or that the Preakness and Belmont are worth only $500,000 more than four Kentucky Derby preps, the GI Blue Grass S., the GII Louisiana Derby, the GI Florida Derby, and the GII Rebel S., and just $250,000 more than the GI Arkansas Derby.

The Triple Crown races, as important as they are, should be the richest races run in the U.S. or at least the equal of any other race. To make that happen, they should all be worth $6 million, the equal of the GI Breeders' Cup Classic. It can be done. Let me explain.

With $6 million total now paid out in the three races, the Triple Crown tracks would have to come up with an additional $12 million to be able to pay out $6 million in each race. That probably wouldn't be much of a problem for Churchill Downs or NYRA, but, at Pimlico, it would be a lot to ask for them to come up with that kind of money. Simply asking the tracks to increase the purses on their own isn't going to happen.

So, why not copy what the Breeders' Cup has done?

One of the reasons why they can give away so much money at the Breeders' Cup is that, in order for a horse to be eligible to run, their sire must be nominated and they must also be nominated as foals. If not, the owners must pay a hefty fee to supplement them into a Breeders' Cup race. It costs $400 to nominate a foal. To make the progeny of a North American-based stallion eligible, a payment equal to 50% of the horse's published stud fee is required.

In the fiscal year that ended on Jan. 31, 2021, the Breeders' Cup took in $8.4 million from domestic stallion nomination fees and $2.7 million in fees for foreign stallions. Foal nomination fees added up to $4.1 million with 9,822 nominated foals. That adds up to $15.2 million.

The Triple Crown is not going to equal those numbers. There would be little incentive to nominate fillies or foreign stallions. But could asking owners and breeders to pay fees similar to what they pay to make their horses and stallions eligible to run in the Breeders' Cup yield $10 million or so? Probably. Finding another $2 million out of the track's pockets to bolster the purses and get to the $12 million figure wouldn't be asking that much.

There's also the matter of what it currently costs to make a horse eligible for the Triple Crown, a payment now due in late January of a horse's 3-year-old year. Not only would that payment still be required under this proposal, but it should be increased. It currently costs just $600 to nominate a horse to the Triple Crown. There were 312 noms this year, which adds up to only $187,200. You could raise another $500,000 or so by upping the fee to $2,500, which doesn't seem unreasonable.

The days of owners being sportsmen is long gone. The owners who dominate the top levels of the sport are businessmen and businesswomen and no matter what they may say, their decisions ultimately come down to money. The end goal is to maximize their profit on their horses and the way to do that is to create a stallion who can command a large stud fee. It is not to win as many races as possible. To get there, you need only have to have a horse with a strong pedigree who has won, perhaps, a single Grade I race. Trainers believe that the best way to have a horse primed to win a major race is to have plenty of time between starts.

A Kentucky Derby win is important, but not the be all and end all. Wins in the Preakness and Belmont are less important.

But there has to be a tipping point somewhere, where the purses are so large that the right business decision becomes running in, and not passing on, the Triple Crown races. Put up $18 million for the series and $6 million per race and people will run, even if the three races take place over a five-week span. That's how you can fix the Triple Crown.

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Op/Ed: NY Gaming Commission Gets It Wrong..Again

When the news was reported earlier in the week that a NYRA clocker had been charged with altering a published workout, it may have seemed at first that a significant penalty was in order. Workouts are an important part of a horse's history and gamblers must be able to have trust in their accuracy. The New York Gaming Commission is alleging that clocker Richie Gazer played around with the workout of a horse named Papi On Ice (Keen Ice) and suspended him for 30 days and fined him $2,500. He was charged with “altering a published work of a horse to make the horse eligible to race.”

But, in this case, dig just a little bit deeper and apply just a modicum of common sense to the situation and you'll likely conclude that Gazer did nothing wrong. Unfortunately, when it comes to the Gaming Commission common sense seems to be in short supply.

Thanks to the reporting by Dave Grening in the Daily Racing Form, we know what happened. On May 1, Papi On Ice was credited with a five-furlong work in 1:04.60 over the Belmont Park training track for trainer Randi Persaud. The work was important because the horse needed to have a satisfactory workout in order to get off of NYRA's poor performance list. The poor performance list was created in 2015 and was part of an effort to increase safety at the New York tracks.

If a horse is beaten by 25 lengths or more, the stewards have the option of placing the horse on the list. On April 16, Papi On Ice was beaten 26 3/4 lengths in a maiden special weight race at Aqueduct, finishing fifth in the field of five. To get off the poor performance list, a horse must come back with a subsequent four-furlong workout in :53 seconds or better. For whatever reason, workouts longer than four furlongs do not count.

Because, by the letter of the law, Papi On Ice had not done what was needed to come off of the poor performance list, the NYRA racing office would not accept the entry when Persaud tried to get the colt into a race. The racing office had no choice because it had to adhere to the rule, even if the rule makes no sense. If a four-furlong workout is sufficient to make the horse eligible, why would a five-furlong workout not be? The longer the work, the better the gauge of a horse's fitness and their ability to be competitive in a race.

Gazer did indeed change the workout, but not the time. He changed the distance. Gazer checked with the clockers assigned to the training track and was told that during Papi On Ice's May 1 work, the horse went the first four furlongs in :51.33, fast enough to get off the list. So, knowing that only a four-furlong workout would get the horse eligible to run again, he changed the work from five furlongs to four.

Maybe Gazer should have left the workout alone. Since the May 1 work, Papi On Ice has had two four-furlong works, one coming May 11 and the next May 25. Both were faster than the :53-second criteria, meaning the horse would have found himself off of the list in short order if the May 1 distance had not been changed. Everyone involved could have just waited it out.

But he chose to change the distance and is now facing a penalty that in no way fights the “crime.” A veteran of some 40 years clocking horses on the NYRA circuit, Gazer, in no way, was trying to deceive gamblers, the racing office or anyone else. Probably, he thought that what he did was no big deal..and it wasn't. And if the rule was not so poorly conceived this never would have been an issue. At the very worst, Gazer deserved a phone call from someone at the Gaming Commission telling him not to do this again. Nothing more.

This isn't the first time we've seen head-scratching rulings or decisions from the New York Gaming Commission. This is the same commission that ruled that aspiring jockey agent and recent college graduate Philip Miller couldn't be an agent because he had no hands-on experience on the backstretch. That doesn't make any sense. You don't need to have been a trainer, a jockey or a groom to be an agent and if the same rule had been applied over the years probably half the agents working the New York tracks now would not meet the criteria to be a jockey agent. Apply a dose of common sense and that rule goes away.

Then there was the case of jockey Trevor McCarthy and his wife, Katie Davis. Thanks to a nonsensical Gaming Commission rule, when both appeared in a race the horses they were on had to be coupled in the wagering. The rule was in place to prevent married jockeys from conspiring to alter the outcomes of races, which is preposterous. The rule, widely criticized as being outdated and sexist, led to fewer betting interests in some races, costing NYRA handle. Apply a dose of common sense and that rule never would have existed in the first place.

(The New York Gaming Commission has taken steps to change the married jockey rule, but the rule remains as it has yet to clear a number of bureaucratic hurdles. A rescission of the rule is expected shortly).

There's nothing wrong with a gaming or racing commission being vigilant and going after-rule breakers. If anything, that's the type of thing the sport could use more of. But pick the right battles. Don't go after married jockeys or a clocker who merely changed a five-furlong workout to a four-furlong workout. Not everything is so black and white. Gazer has appealed his suspension, and, hopefully, once his case is heard he will be exonerated. There was no real harm here. There should be no foul.

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Op/Ed: The King of Sports

Throughout the nation, the horse racing industry is under both increased scrutiny and pressure to reduce the number of equine fatalities and breakdowns. While progress has been made at many tracks, in recent years, i.e. Turfway, Woodbine, Golden Gate, and Gulfstream, there is less of a tolerance than ever for equine injuries and fatalities, as doping scandals have marred our most cherished events and as advocates and animal rights groups such as PETA have gained momentum.

Horse racing is under real pressure to enhance safety, with many critics seeking to outright abolish the sport. But it would be a mistake to believe that this conversation is limited to traditional critics or fringe voices. The attacks on our sport are gaining wider support and becoming more strategic. In October 2021, the San Diego Democratic Party passed a resolution calling to ban gambling on state-sponsored horse races in California. The group said they have both a moral and financial obligation to phase it out. Just weeks ago in New York, horse racing opponents in the state legislature challenged the economic benefits of the industry and proposed ending critical state subsidies. Understand, their goal is to eliminate the sport, not through an outright ban but by starving it of revenues.

Our industry has taken steps toward better regulation through the adoption of such initiatives as the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Act, but high-profile scandals and equine deaths remain weekly headlines. As we have witnessed in these turbulent times, the pace of change in our world is accelerating, not just technologically, but socially. The world can and does literally change overnight. Dating back to the colonial era, horse racing, America's oldest sport, is more at risk than ever of being relegated to the dustbin of history.

It is time for bold action to address horse safety. It is long overdue. And why shouldn't we do what we can to secure the health and safety of the horses we love; that touch our very soul. It is time we implemented a program to transition dirt tracks to safer synthetic surfaces. Synthetic tracks are indisputably safer and yet instead of growing in use, they have been phased out over recent years. Del Mar, Keeneland and Santa Anita, early adopters of synthetic surfaces, have all converted back to dirt and since then have all experienced a rise in equine injuries.

Industry leaders must make this a priority. If we don't get our head out of the sand and take action, I fear the end of our sport. Ironically, COVID and the complete shutdown of almost all sports for a period of time gave our industry an opportunity to shine. Sports fans old and new, locked down at home, found refuge in horse racing, engaging more tracks here at home and around the world. The fact is with the wide adoption of mobile betting, our industry is poised for an economic and popular renaissance. Horse racing and its wide availability is becoming an essential part of the offerings that sustain mobile betting. Industry leaders are increasingly integrating horse racing into their mobile sports betting platforms. It is the future of our sport, but to realize this revival we must first save it.

Which brings us to our logical conclusion. Churchill Downs Incorporated, a publicly traded company that in addition to owning Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby, also owns multiple tracks, including Fair Grounds and Turfway Park, as well as several casinos, and TwinSpires, a leading mobile betting app. TwinSpires players in some jurisdictions are able to bet on professional sports, including the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL and PGA, as well as collegiate sports and events from around the world–as well as horse racing. Churchill Downs Inc.–listed on the New York Stock Exchange–relies upon the content generated by a healthy racing industry and as such their board of directors and officers must recognize their responsibility to take the lead in advancing this cause and the overall cause of horse safety. This is not some altruistic plea. Churchill Downs's shareholders have the most to gain and everything to lose.

Kentucky is the economic and emotional epicenter of horse racing in America. Its legendary farms and breeders are a part of the folklore of our sport. The Kentucky Derby is the most famous and important horse race in the world. But there is a long-held cultural and business resistance to synthetic tracks in Kentucky. It makes sense. Like agriculture, the sport of horse racing is elementally tied to the earth. For a sport as old as America, steeped in our agrarian roots and rich in history and tradition, it is easy to understand why change is difficult. But change we must, and Churchill Downs Corporation, an entity synonymous with the most glorious of horse racing traditions, must lead the way. We're the King of Sports. Let's keep it that way.

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