Letter to the Editor: Jenine Sahadi

Since the FBI announced in 2020 that their years-long federal investigation into cheating allegations in horse racing had caught admitted “doper” Jorge Navarro, suspected “doper” Jason Servis and a host of other co-conspirators, the lines separating these criminals and most of the rest of the industry's participants with largely minor legal drug positives have been significantly blurred.

Fast forward to the 2021 Kentucky Derby, a full 14 months after Navarro and Servis were arrested and charged with federal conspiracy charges related to drugging of their horses, social media erupted with rumors that Medina Spirit had tested positive for a “banned substance.” The information leaked just days after his victory and seemingly before the colt's trainer, Bob Baffert, had been notified there was a post-race positive.

From that time until now, much of the information that has trickled out has come mostly from speculation or been based on half truths and information twisted to suit a negative agenda. Rarely have details involving Medina Spirit been based on fact. Factor in the press tour Bob Baffert went on defending himself and his position that nothing nefarious was in play–for better or worse–and the perfect storm had developed.

Baffert's record as a trainer–which by industry standards has been cleaner, safer and better than most–was attacked, twisted and manipulated. His personal life–especially his wife and children–came under an all-out assault and was subject to a sea of the most horrific hate imaginable. None of which had anything to do with a post-race positive of a legal therapeutic medication in the Kentucky Derby.

My history with Bob Baffert is well-documented and I haven't always been his biggest fan. However, I knew, in all likelihood, the people saying those things had never met the man. Strangers unconcerned by what it actually means to be a “doper” or “cheater” hurled those epithets as if they actually knew him not only as a person, but also as a trainer.

That said, my disdain for the behavior of his harshest critics is clear and I continue to have the same questions. What is the definition of a cheater? What does it mean?

In what has been one of the most bizarre scenes I've ever witnessed, racing media, political actors, paid social media trolls, disgruntled bettors, along with powerful horsemen's groups and others have perpetuated or fostered a false “Lance Armstrong” narrative about Baffert. They compare Medina Spirit's overage of a legal therapeutic medication to actual blood doping and cheating. I don't really understand why, though I have my suspicions, and for the life of me I cannot fathom how he became the worst thing about horse racing.

Perhaps if we define what a “cheater” or “doper” is, reckless and uninformed attacks on trainers would stop. Educating the media and public on what constitutes cheating versus what is an unintentional overage of a therapeutic medication might actually be a positive development for horse racing. Instead, the industry sits idly by as shows like Saturday Night Live call betamethasone, a medication the industry allows and regulates, to be portrayed as a performance enhancing anabolic steroid. There is never any industry pushback on false narratives.

We have heard from racing's leadership organizations and also from the federal government that untestable drugs may be in use daily. This may be true, although we have yet to see any proof of it up to this point. In the meantime, we have allowed anti-horse racing activists and those who want to end horse racing altogether to spew damaging lies and perpetuate false narratives. These extremists don't hold everyone to the same standards. In fact, some trainers with multiple significant violations seem to get a pass, while others are vilified.

What do I mean by not holding everyone to the same standards? For example, are multiple class 4C positives (e.g. betamethasone) as harmful as one Class 2 (e.g. metformin) positive? Is it a recency equation? If so, are multiple class 4C positives more harmful to both the horse and the image of racing in the public eye than one Class 2 positive? Are we certain that class 4C positives are

“masking” more powerful drugs like EPO, as some allege, and if that's the case, where is the science to support that? Where did this narrative originate? Even more confusing to me is why we even have classifications if we are going to lump all positives into the “doping” narrative? What purpose do the classifications serve, if not to protect the horse and integrity of the game in general?

For years, many of the industry's participants, including myself, have been begging the decision makers for uniform rules and penalties in all racing jurisdictions. This would certainly solve the double-standard issue. It is a daunting task for sure, but certainly one worth the effort from industry leaders–those actually in a position to be heard and effect change in the best interests of the industry. So why hasn't it happened? We have literally had decades to get our ducks in a row and those with the most strength, power, and influence have continued to bury their heads in the sand, or alternatively, added fuel to the fire that is swiftly burning down our industry.

That's not to say all leaders have ignored the issues.

In California, for example, horses are now routinely subject to the most exhaustive pre-race medication and soundness exams in the country. Out-of-competition and thorough testing has become standard and, in rare cases, trainers are being cited for drug overages in workout tests. Is there any other jurisdiction in the country that demands the same strict level of oversight and protocols that California does? If there is, I certainly don't know about it.

California doesn't get sufficient credit from the industry in this area. Critics appearing more concerned with field size than the safety of horses bang the loudest drum to drown out the state's accomplishments. We know equine safety can only help to grow field sizes, as well as, positive public perception. Again, racing industry leadership–or a lack thereof–has played a major role in getting us to this point.

Social media, mainstream and horse racing media, and “experts”, who harbor their own animosity for individuals and the industry, have taken us to a very dark place. Anonymous accounts on social media aim to destroy who and what they don't like. Anyone who presents a rational argument supported with facts is labeled an apologist or far worse. I personally know people who have received death threats. Others have been told they've had background checks run on them. Many have had profane slurs hurled at them. Some of these folks shouting the same vitriol every day are provided cover and support by leadership groups and members of the media who claim to be impartial and to want what's best for the industry. Attacks on owners, who have for decades lost their money with a smile on their face, have ramped up, as well. I will never be convinced this is a good strategy in the short or long run, yet here we are, with many passionate and well intentioned owners accused of being complicit criminals.  Interesting to note that the attackers usually have their own set of immoral behaviors that fly under the radar, but hypocrisy is in full view in 2022.

I don't know where this all ends, but I believe if we can't answer the simplest of questions, like what defines a cheater, or work to achieve uniform rules and regulations throughout the industry, then we are doomed. Change is needed, but we can't allow uninformed critics and activists, who would love nothing more than the collapse of racing to win.

The same standards need to be applied equally for all, in every jurisdiction, from coast to coast. In California, the lessons learned over the past few years have been plentiful. To the racing associations' credit they actually did something–many things–to help the horses and the industry as a whole. Meanwhile, virtually every other jurisdiction continues the status quo while hoping that the frenzy surrounding Bob Baffert will distract from their own breakdown rates and medication violations. Oddly enough, some states have almost no medication violations. Other states should learn from California's mistakes and implement the changes they made to move the industry in a positive direction for a change.

Bob Baffert isn't horse racing's problem, no matter how many times anonymous trolls armed with hatred and half-truths say so on Twitter. Cue the mob.

Sincerely,

Jenine Sahadi

Retired Trainer

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Jordan Fishman Sentenced to 15 Months in Prison

Jordan Fishman, the Massachusetts-based drug formulator who made the illicit substances that were then injected into racehorses by the likes of convicted horse doper Jorge Navarro and the accused doper Jason Servis, got sentenced to 15 months in federal prison Tuesday for his role in the international drugging conspiracy.

Back in October, Fishman, 64, had pleaded guilty to one count of adulteration and misbranding of purportedly performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). He faced a maximum sentence of three years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

Instead, Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil of United States District Court (Southern District of New York) incarcerated Fishman for a time frame squarely in the middle of the prosecution's advised range of 12 to 18 months. Fishman's legal team had argued for a sentence of probation only.

Beyond a $100 court assessment, Fishman was not fined or ordered to pay restitution to victims. He must report to a to-be-determined prison May 9. The court has recommended Devens, the federal correctional facility that is closest to his home.

Jordan Fishman—described by his legal team in a Jan. 24 sentencing document as “a brilliant scientist who went to college at age 16 and holds PhDs in Biochemistry and Carcinogenesis/Toxicology”— is not related to the veterinarian Seth Fishman, who faces 20 years in prison after being found guilty Feb. 2 on two counts of conspiring to violate adulteration and misbranding laws.

But the black-market scientist had previously admitted in court that he was an integral part of the convicted drug-dealing veterinarian's conspiracy.

“Seth Fishman provided the materials and formula requests,” Jordan Fishman told the judge when he pleaded guilty Oct. 6, 2021. “And then I made the solutions consistent with those formulas.”

Jordan Fishman said that between 2017 and his arrest in March 2020, the various substances he created contained vitamins, amino acids, nutraceuticals, and, at times, steroids.

Here's how the feds summed up Jordan Fishman's involvement in their own sentencing submission Feb. 1:

“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. Jordan Fishman brought to bear his specialized training, experience, and his access to a laboratory capable of manufacturing drugs at a large scale.

“His contributions to the conspiracy were crucial for the time period in which Jordan Fishman joined in the conspiracy. The defendant may have taken false comfort in holding the end user at arm's length as justification for continuing his crimes. But Jordan Fishman was under no illusions as to the intent of the conspiracy, or his role within it.”

The alleged international “corrupt scheme” to manufacture, mislabel, rebrand, distribute, and administer PEDs to racehorses all across America and in international races began with a blitz of coordinated Federal Bureau of Investigation arrests nationwide on Mar. 9, 2020.

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

In June, Sarah Izhaki was sentenced to time already served plus three years of supervised release for selling misbranded versions of Epogen.

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

In December, the barred trainer Jorge Navarro wept in court after Vyskocil handed down a maximum-allowable sentence of five years imprisonment. Navarro had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring with others to administer non-FDA-approved, misbranded and adulterated drugs, including PEDs that Navarro believed would be untestable and undetectable. Navarro was also ordered to pay $25.8 million in restitution and could face deportation to Panama.

On Jan. 5, 2022, Kristian Rhein, a veterinarian formerly based at Belmont Park who was caught on a wiretap bragging about selling alleged PEDs, got sentenced to a maximum sentence of three years imprisonment after pleading guilty to one felony charge in the conspiracy to dope racehorses. Rhein also must forfeit to the U.S. the criminally gained proceeds that are directly traceable to his offense, which totaled $1.02 million, plus pay $729,716 in victims' restitution.

The following day, 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 after pleading guilty to one count of drug adulteration and misbranding. He also got hit with a $3.3 million forfeiture (but will be exempt from that full amount of he pays $192,615 within two years of his release from prison).

Seth Fishman, his crimes detailed above, is scheduled to be sentenced May 5, barring an appeal.

Lisa Giannelli, an assistant to Seth Fishman, was supposed to go on trial at the same time as Seth Fishman, but she had her case declared a mistrial in January after her attorney tested positive for COVID-19. Federal prosecutors are in the process of trying to assign Giannelli to one of the two remaining trial groupings of alleged doping conspirators.

Jordan Fishman had already once squared off against Seth Fishman in court prior to his implicating the veterinarian in open court and the two later being found guilty for their crimes.

In May 2020, just weeks after the two were arrested in the federal doping sweep, Seth Fishman filed a federal lawsuit against Jordan Fishman and his Massachusetts-based company, 21st Century Biochemicals, Inc.

That suit alleged that Seth Fishman had made $1 million in loans to Jordan Fishman's company over a period of years, and that in addition to allegedly not getting paid back, “Jordan, acting as the [president and majority shareholder of the firm] has also engaged in a scheme to defraud Plaintiff of his money.”

That case never went to trial. Both parties agreed to have it dismissed after reaching a settlement that involved the company paying $275,000 to Seth Fishman.

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Government Recommends Three Years for Rhein

The government has recommended a three-year prison sentence for Kristian Rhein, the veterinarian embroiled in the MediVet Equine practice that marketed and sold “an adulterated and misbranded performance-enhancing drug,” they revealed in papers filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court.

Rhein was one of 27 people charged in a widespread doping scheme of Thoroughbred racehorses on Mar. 9, 2020 that included trainers Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro.

United States Attorney Damian Williams, in papers filed with Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil in her court in the Southern District of New York, wrote, “The parties' stipulated Guidelines sentence is the statutory maximum sentence of 36 months' imprisonment. In light of the Section 3553(a) factors discussed below, that is the appropriate sentence in this case, and one necessary to serve the goals of sentencing. The Government respectfully submits that the stipulated Guidelines sentence of thirty-six months' imprisonment is sufficient, but not greater than necessary, to serve the legitimate purposes of sentencing set forth in Title 18, United States Code, Section 3553(a).”

Williams's sentencing recommendation sums up their case again Rhein as such: “Rhein, a licensed racetrack veterinarian who predominantly catered to racehorse trainers exploited the deference typically offered to licensed veterinarians in order to peddle SGF-1000-in which he held a financial interest-which was not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) or created pursuant to “good manufacturing practices,” and the administration of which did not comply with applicable racing rules. Rhein actively marketed, sold, and administered SGF-1000 for the non-medical purpose of illicitly improving racehorse performance. That is, Rhein doped horses in an effort to scam others through a prolific fraud. Rhein, through his veterinary practice, further illegally distributed the prescription drug clenbuterol, providing it to trainers in bulk to administer to their horses, without issuing valid prescriptions for that drug, or otherwise  administering that drug due to a medical need.”

The submission further states that “Rhein and his co-conspirators did not know the precise chemical contents of SGF-1000, yet marketed the product as one containing growth factors, and believed that, irrespective of its contents, it would enhance a horse's performance and be untestable on standard drug tests.”

Rhein has agreed to forfeit a total of $1,021,800, $671,800 of which is due at or before the time of sentencing, which represents the value of the distributed drugs. He has also agreed to pay restitution to other “victims of the offense,” the filing reads, in the amount of $729,716, the total amount of payments he received from owners by concealing his billing for the drugs by billing for acupuncture, among other things. Williams writes that the Government intends to submit a proposed restitution order and a schedule of victims at or before Rhein's sentencing.

Williams's submission details Rhein's attempts to conceal his activities from doping controls.

He writes, “Notably, beginning at least in June 2019, Rhein grew concerned regarding mounting regulatory scrutiny of SGF-1000, and shared this concern with others at MediVet. On June 5, 2019, Jason Servis informed Rhein that Maximum Security had received a dose of SGF-1000 shortly before an unannounced drug test, and Rhein quickly reassured Servis that the drug would not test positive. Rhein stated to Servis: `Yeah no no no the Jockey Club tested it and I met the guy who tested it way back when. It comes back as collagen. They don't even have a test for it. . . . [I]'ve had at least three different times it's been tested on horses that I have it the day before and nothing. Not a word. . . . There's no test for it in America. There's no testing. There's nothing. There's nothing you did that would test.' Rhein—despite not knowing the precise contents of SGF-1000 at that time—nonetheless assuaged Servis's concerns, not by saying SGF-1000 was legal or permissible (which it was not), but by saying SGF-1000 would not be detectable on a drug test. In Rhein's mind, it was immaterial whether he was following the letter of the racing rules or the law, because he believed neither he nor his customers would ever get caught. The following day, Rhein and Servis resumed their discussions of SGF-1000, and Rhein noted his belief that `somebody squealed' regarding his use of that drug.”

As the scrutiny from authorities became greater, Williams writes, “Rather than cease sales of SGF-1000 in the face of this scrutiny, approximately one week after others at MediVet sounded the alarm regarding potential federal charges, Rhein discussed with Kegley how they could tweak the labeling of SGF-1000, so as to make it appear innocuous. Rhein specifically related his suggestion: 'we gotta think of re-branding if it goes sideways.' Rhein brainstormed calling SGF-1000 by a new name: “What was the (expletive deleted) name that somebody told me? It was a good name. It was kinda cheesy, but (expletive deleted) it was a good, it was a one-word name, like . . . you know like . . . like Encore, something like that. . . . Repair . . . RepairRx. Like Repair Treatment . . . And what you do is you just say it's a preventative. It's preventative.” Despite the fact that SGF-1000 is an injectable drug whose precise contents were then-unknown to Rhein, Rhein agreed with Kegley that it should be described as a `dietary supplement for equine.'”

After Rhein learned in 2019 that Servis had been approached by law enforcement, and after the New York Gaming Commission specifically banned it, MediVet representatives provided information to the Racehorse Medication Testing Consortium (RMTC) which did not report the positive findings for low levels of ace promazine and other drugs. “While Rhein was grappling with the existential threats to his sales of SGF-1000, he continued his equally illicit practice of distributing prescription clenbuterol to trainers without issuing valid prescriptions, and concealed that conduct by issuing fraudulent bills concealing costs of clenbuterol that were paid by racehorse owners,” Williams writes.

Rhein pleaded guilty on Aug. 3, 2021. No date for sentencing has been set.

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Bolger Not Expected To Attend Hearing

Jim Bolger is not expected to attend the parliamentary hearing he was invited to to discuss doping in Irish racing. Bolger made headlines last autumn and again this spring when describing the use of performance-enhancing substances as the “number-one problem” in Irish racing and saying “there will be a Lance Armstrong in Irish racing.”

Bolger was invited to the agriculture committee hearing alongside representatives of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board, Horse Racing Ireland, the Department of Agriculture and the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association, but Racing Post reports that a government source has confirmed that, after seeking legal advice, Bolger will not attend the meeting.

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