“I sold to everybody,” said Robinson, who added that he had “thousands of customers,” and not just in horse racing. Robinson said his products were bought by individuals using them with camels, racing greyhounds, racing pigeons and to people operating alpaca farms. As part of his sentence, which includes 18 months in prison, Robinson was ordered to pay a $3.8 million forfeiture.

One year to the day that the indictments against 27 individuals allegedly involved in a scheme to use performance-enhancing drugs on racehorses were announced, Robinson, a drug manufacturer and distributor, became the first of those involved in the scandal to be sentenced to prison after he pled guilty to one count of drug adulteration and misbranding. The maximum sentence for that offense is five years.

The scope of Robinson's operation, and how many trainers and veterinarians were buying his products, was one of many subjects Robinson discussed in a series of interviews with the TDN, one by phone and several by email. Robinson is currently serving his sentence at FCI Coleman Low Correctional Institute in Sumterville, Florida. Few subjects were off limits, including his client list. It includes dozens of Thoroughbred trainers and veterinarians who bought illegal drugs from Robinson, but it's a list he says he will not divulge.

“As far as telling you who I sold this to, I'm not ready to go that far,” he said. “I know my career is over, but there are people out there who still work in racing and their livelihoods are at stake. They aren't the ones that got me into this mess, so there's no reason why I should want to see them get punished for something everybody was doing.”

Robinson, who has owned and trained Standardbreds, said the government has not pressed him for a list of his clients.

His willingness to discuss his situation stems in part from the fact that he doesn't see himself as the dope-peddling fiend the government made him out to be. Rather, he says the substances he sold were not narcotics or performance-enhancing agents but products that were not harmful to the horse and contained vitamins, minerals and amino acids.

“The definition of a PED and a non-PED is a very fine line and not black and white,” Robinson said. “The government has their own definition of PEDs. I say for it to be a PED it must be a drug. I don't consider vitamins, supplements and amino acids PEDs.”

The government would beg to differ. It charged that between at least 2011 and February, 2020, Robinson sold millions of dollars' worth of PEDs to customers across the U.S. and abroad, customers whose intent was to use the drugs to improve the performances of their horses.

“Scott Robinson created and profited from a system designed to exploit racehorses in the pursuit of speed and prize money, risking their safety and well being. Robinson sold unsanitary, misbranded, and adulterated drugs, and misled and deceived regulators and law enforcement in the process,” U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said after Robinson was sentenced.

Robinson, 47, admits that he mislabeled some of his products and did not properly list their ingredients, which falls under the category of misbranding.

“If you mislabel a vitamin or supplement and not put the ingredients on it, does it classify as a PED? According to the government the answer is yes,” Robinson said. “Like I said before, it's a very complicated subject. I am remorseful for having this issue burden horse racing. I should have put a list of ingredients on all products I sold and although I would still technically be in the wrong, it would shed light on what was in it.”

So far as why his products had names like “red acid,” “Blast Off Red” and “Liquid Viagra” that implied they were PEDs, Robinson said the names were part of a marketing strategy.

“Those names just sounded sexier,” he said. “It was marketing. The names didn't accurately describe what the products were for.”

So far as how bad the problem of doping race horses is, Robinson wavers. In his initial interview with the TDN he said the situation is serious.

“More people should be indicted. Definitely,” he said, questioning why the indictments stopped after the original round in March, 2020. “I'd be lying if I said there weren't people out there who need to be stopped. There are some real bad apples out there that should be indicted. Will it happen? Only time will tell. It doesn't really affect me.”

In a follow up email, he wrote: “I personally don't think there is a lot of illegal drug use in the sport.”

Part of the problem was that Robinson's drugs proved to be undetectable, a common theme that plagues the sport. Rarely does a drug test result in a positive for anything other than overages of therapeutic medications. Robinson said that the sport needs to start using testing procedures currently in use by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) that involves the use of biomarkers. With biomarkers, scientists can retest stored urine and blood samples that were collected as much as 10 years earlier.

“It's a form of testing that is far more stringent than current testing,” Robinson said.

Robinson is scheduled to be released on Dec. 15, but is hoping he will be let out earlier and able to serve the remainder of his sentence under home confinement. So far as what's next he doesn't know.

“Everybody else in here [at the Coleman facility] can go back to doing what they did before when they get out,” he said. “When I get out, I don't have a job. This is what I did for the better part of 20 years. I've lost all of my racing licenses and I'll never again be able to own or train a horse.”

That's not likely to elicit any sympathy. Robinson knows that no matter how he spins his story he will always bear the burden of having been convicted of selling drugs that were used to dope race horses. Nor does it really matter how many others were involved and who.

“I did wrong,” he said. “I know that.”

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Thoroughbreds started the action when State of Rest won the $1 million Grade 1 Saratoga Derby Invitational to capture the second leg of NYRA's Turf Triple series for 3-year-olds in Race 9 at the Spa. The Irish-bred State of Rest, trained by Joseph O'Brien and ridden by Hall of Famer John Velazquez, topped Solider Rising by one length in the 1 3/16-mile contest on the Mellon turf course in a final time of 1:53.35. Off at 21-1, State of Rest returned $44.20 on a $2 win wager.

Monmouth Park, located in Oceanport, New Jersey, hosted the $100,000 Tyro for juveniles going five furlongs on the turf in Race 12. Her World, an Irish bred trained by Wesley Ward, romped by six lengths as the even-money favorite, paying $3.80. Under jockey Paco Lopez, Her World completed the course in :56.62 seconds.

A unique wrinkle to the Cross County Pick 5 came in the third leg when standardbreds took center stage with the $500,000 Hambletonian Oaks in Race 14 at the Meadowlands. The prestigious race for 3-year-old fillies saw heavy favorite Bella Bellini win in rein to driver Dexter Dunn. The R. Nifty Norman trainee paid $3 to win in capturing the race for trotters.

Saratoga's feature, the 94th running of the $1 million Grade 1 Whitney in Race 10, saw Knicks Go surge to the front and go wire-to-wire to best the five-horse field under jockey Joel Rosario, who notched his second career Whitney victory. Trained by Brad Cox, Knicks Go won by 4 1/2 lengths as the favorite, paying $4.10, and hit the wire in the 1 1/8-mile contest in 1:47.70.

Standardbreds closed out the sequence when another favorite – Captain Corey – won the 96th running of the $1 million Hambletonian for 3-year-olds in Race 15 at the Meadowlands. Trainer and driver Ake Svanstedt led Captain Corey [$4.60] to victory in the one-mile stakes for trotters.

The minimum bet for the multi-track, multi-race wager is 50 cents. Wagering on the Cross Country Pick 5 is also available on track, on ADW platforms, and at simulcast facilities across the country. Every week will feature a mandatory payout of the net pool.

The Cross Country Pick 5 will continue each Saturday throughout the year. For more information, visit NYRABets.com.

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The bill will make it illegal to slaughter racehorses or to “import, export, sell, offer to sell or barter, transfer, purchase, possess, transport, deliver, or receive” a horse for slaughter, or to direct another person to do the same. Violations of the law will be misdemeanors punishable by a $1,000 to $2,500 fine per horse, which is doubled for repeat offenders. The proceeds from such fines will help fund aftercare programs.

The new law will also require owners to show proper documentation of transfer of ownership, with liability for a horse's whereabouts falling to the last individual in the Jockey Club's chain of ownership records. It will also require all racing and breeding stock to be microchipped.

The New York Racing Association already has an anti-slaughter policy stating that any owner or trainer found to have sold a horse for slaughter will have stalls permanently revoked.

“This legislation positions New York as the national leader when it comes to responsibly protecting our retired racehorses,” said NYRA president and CEO Dave O'Rourke. “NYRA is proud to have long supported all elements of this important legislation because it reflects our commitment to thoroughbred aftercare. We thank Senator Joe Addabbo and Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chairs of the Senate and Assembly Racing, Gaming and Wagering Committees, for prioritizing the health and safety of thoroughbreds in New York.”

The New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association also expressed support of the legislation.

“NYTHA and all our members are gratified that we are able to work with animal advocates both within the sport and in the legislature to achieve this historic legislation benefitting horses that are bred and raced in New York,” said NYTHA president Joe Appelbaum.

“This effort was a hard fought and long overdue recognition of an issue that has, for years gone under the radar.  Equines have, for centuries benefitted the world, and served to advance the human condition,” said Gary Pretlow, chair of the Assembly's Standing Committee on Racing and Wagering. “It is impossible to think about our lives today without gratitude for their service and usefulness, and in the racing industry, wonderment at their astonishing speed, agility, power, and gracefulness. Yet for all their value and the joy they bring to us, they often suffer from inhumane treatment by the very industries they benefit. This bill is a strong step in the direction of rectifying this and I am proud to have sponsored and championed it.”

The legislation will go into effect Jan. 1, 2022.

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The USTA is urging owners and managers to submit data and DNA samples to the lab from stillborn foals born in 2021 or those demonstrating obvious defects resulting in euthanasia or surgery. Those defects could include: wry nose, cleft palate, contracted limbs/shoulders, microphthalmia (a disorder where one or both eyes are unusually small), missing or additional limbs, cyclops, or other obvious issues that are not typical in a healthy foal.

The goal of the project, if genetic anomalies can be identified for particular conditions, will be to help guide future breedings to reduce the risk of these conditions, which cause economic and welfare hardships for all involved.

Owners are assured that their horses' identities will remain confidential in the course of the study. Statistical results may be published without identifying a particular animal, owner, or breeder and any published results will be released to the public via the USTA.

The USTA released the following guidance for sample submission:

To participate in the study, a submission form, consent form, blood or hair samples and photos of the foal should be submitted to the USTA.  To obtain or get further information on the forms or a DNA test kit, contact Gabby Fleming from USTA Member Services at gabby.fleming@ustrotting.com or by calling toll free (877) 800-USTA (8782).

The forms are also available online at http://bit.ly/Geneticform and http://bit.ly/UCDavisConsent.

Blood samples are preferred; however, hair samples may also be submitted. For hair samples, 20-30 hairs with roots attached should be pulled from mane or tail (no cutting of hair) and placed in a Ziploc bag.

Samples and photos with identification should be sent to:

United States Trotting Association
6130 S. Sunbury Rd.
Westerville, OH  43081
Attention: Gabby Fleming

All samples will be sent to UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Lab for genetic testing.

Participation in the study is voluntary and any participant has the right to withdraw from the study at any time. There is no financial obligation on the part of the participant.

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Turfway Park was originally granted 39 days for their 2021 Winter Spring meet. They did not request to change the number of days already allowed for their meet, just the specific dates and times during which the meet would take place as well as ship in dates.

“Turfway Park has already been awarded 39 days of racing for January, February, and March of 2021,” KHRC deputy general counsel Chad Thompson said.”The shift of dates will fall within the same months as the dates that were recorded. In addition, the shift in dates will not conflict with those of another thoroughbred track.”

The reason for the shift is a delay in the construction schedule at Turfway, which is undergoing a complete renovation by owner Churchill Downs Inc.

There was a series of amendments made to pre-existing regulations on clenbuterol use. The first amendment was made to make a new section within a drug regulation rule to include clenbuterol and specify that it is prohibited unless certain conditions are met. The first condition is that a clenbuterol prescription must be made for a specific horse based upon a specific diagnosis. The second condition is that the vet is required to provide a copy of the horse's treatment sheet to the equine medical director for review within 24 hours of administration. The third condition is that the horse must be placed on the vet's list for 21 days post-administration and must pass a blood and urine test at the end of the 21 days to be removed from the list.

The second amendment on clenbuterol regulations was made to a regulation on the acceptable threshold of clenbuterol. This new amendment states that the acceptable threshold is the level of detection in urine serum and plasma. The last amendment made states that clenbuterol may be administered if the treatment is pursuant to a prescription and reported to the commission.

Although the amendments were ultimately approved, there were some points made in regards to how the amendments are affecting the Standardbred community since those horses race more frequently than Thoroughbreds do.

“This, I think, is a case of punishing harness racing for the sins of the Quarter Horse people and Thoroughbred people,” Said commissioner Alan Leavitt in response to the proposal of the clenbuterol amendments. “There have been, as far as I know, no instances reported of a Standardbred being overly treated with clenbuterol in order to get a steroidal effect.”

The commission unanimously approved the conversion of the Louisville Thoroughbred Society to become a simulcast facility.

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One of the loudest voices in opposition to the federal legislation is the United States Trotting Association, led by its president, Russell Williams, who has been crusading for years in opposition to proposed federal reforms. He seems to believe that the bill poses an existential threat to harness racing. He seems to believe that state racing commissions are worth fixing. He seems to believe that harness racing has been shunned through the process by which the legislation has evolved. And Williams is not alone. Other members of the harness racing family seem to have swallowed what Williams is serving and also loudly oppose the legislation.

To them, I say this: don't follow the USTA and Williams over the cliff. There is too much at stake. The existential threat to harness racing is not this legislation. It is not the arrival of federal regulatory power or tweaks to Lasix rules. The existential threat to harness racing instead is the USTA's opposition to this legislation. It makes harness racing a laughing stock in the broader world of racing, gives the legislators we are begging for purse subsidies a reason to deny them, and animal rights activists new causes of action to imperil racing. I believe Williams is sincere. I also believe he is dead wrong. You can be both.

And to the broader world of horse racing, and especially to lawmakers in Washington and state houses across the country, I say this: The USTA doesn't speak for all in harness racing. There are many industry leaders – owners and breeders and trainers and drivers and administrators – who see this imperfect legislation as a timely opportunity to send a message to legislators and the public that harness racing recognizes its integrity and safety problems and is willing to do something bold to solve them. Their voices deserve to be heard, too, as this debate moves toward a conclusion. I hope people of goodwill are listening. You'll be hearing more from us in the coming days.

I think Williams and the USTA are wrong on the merits of the bill but at least I understand the specific arguments they are making against it. What I don't understand is the USTA's refusal  to work with other industry stakeholders to improve the legislation now likely to pass. The USTA's decision to act as an outlier, no matter how principled Williams thinks it is, is a catastrophic mistake that exposes harness racing, and it alone, to punishment by legislators and activists. The USTA looks at the legislation only as opposing counsel would. But there was never an industry-wide discussion, or vote, on whether that's what the rest of us want.

Here's an example of what I mean. The current version of the legislation, introduced a few weeks ago in the Senate, includes several meaningful concessions (on Lasix, for example)  that ought to have made the bill more palatable to the USTA. It didn't. Williams last week offered the same old, tired objections to the new and improved bill. Invited to compromise, to work to make the legislation better, Williams instead doubled-down. Faced with the same choice, on the other hand, what did the Jockey Club do? It wanted a full ban on Lasix, right? It didn't get that. Yet It accepted a much more limited ban. It's at the table, negotiating, while the USTA is threatening a costly lawsuit. Whose members are best being served?

Let's take some of Williams' points one by one. He says that state racing commissions are “accountable” to elected officials and that the new legislation would create a federal regulatory system, through the Federal Trade Commission, that would be “passive and symbolic at most.” Great talking points – sure to resonate with horsemen skeptical of federal power. But the opposite is true. Surely if you have read this far you know from your own experience that the lack of accountability and diligence among racing commissions is one of the major reasons why racing integrity is such a problem in our sport.

Pick a state, any state with horse racing, and you can argue the regulatory scheme there is broken by perennial cronyism and a level of bureaucratic inertia and incompetence that would be shocking if it weren't so ordinary. That's why there is still so much cheating and so little done to stop it. Does anyone deny that? When Williams says that racing commission members are basing their decisions on their “immense learning and experience” he's asking us all to stop believing what we are seeing with our own eyes and hearing with our own ears. And he's leading the industry toward a path where it will become a club sport.

Does anyone think that the USTA has some sort of magic plan to fix what horse racing has failed to fix in racing commissions for half a century? If so, I haven't seen it. Look at New York, for example. Where is the “immense learning and expertise” among state regulators there? The FTC, meanwhile, which Williams calls “passive and symbolic,” has been around for more than 100 years and regularly presses to enforce criminal and civil penalties. What's “'passive and symbolic” are the failed racing commissions the USTA inexplicably wants to rescue.

Williams complains that the bill “makes a couple of head fakes in the direction of breed-specific rules, but it lacks the mandatory language necessary to make sure the Authority makes such rules where appropriate.” Here's what the bill now actually says: “Consideration of other breeds. — In developing the horseracing anti-doping and medication control program with respect to a breed of horse that is made subject to this Act by election of a State racing commission or the breed governing organization for such horse under section 5(k), the Authority shall consider the unique characteristics of such breed.” (Emphasis added).

Conjuring up old grudges with the RMTC, which only he cares about, Williams next says that those who support the new rules on Lasix now in the legislation are buying into a “hoax” cobbled together by our friends in the Thoroughbred industry. But successful Lasix-free racing in the rest of the world is no hoax. Nor is it universally agreed that Lasix is not a “performance enhancing” drug or that it doesn't mask blood doping. Nor is it a “public distraction,” as Williams says. There are plenty of reasonable people who believe that administering a diuretic to a horse before the race itself raises concerns about animal cruelty.

Under the new version of the bill, in one of its most significant recent compromises in the USTA's favor, states could request a three-year delay in prohibiting Lasix within 48 hours of a race except on 2-year-olds and in stakes races. That three-year period would be used to further study the effect of Lasix on horses and, perhaps, to put to rest the contentious medical and scientific debate on the topic. The federal authority created by the new law would then have the opportunity to modify the 48-hour Lasix rule. Does that sound unreasonable to you? Enough to spend millions litigating over?

Williams complains about the funding mechanism in the bill, arguing that the harness industry will be disproportionately and unfairly taxed compared with our Thoroughbred cousins. He keeps harping on a figure he has made up – $13 million, by multiplying a fee of $45 for every race – and suggesting that this will be the annual testing cost to harness racing for the rest of time. But there is nothing in the text of the law that mandates this disparity or that cost. And certainly nothing that guarantees the Thoroughbred industry will benefit to our detriment.

My sense instead, from talking to many people involved in this debate, is that there are discussions to use a sort of scale that would distribute drug testing costs more equally across breeds in the new legislation. Why the USTA is not involved in these discussions, or no longer involved, is a question the association ought to answer before it resumes its propaganda offensive against the Integrity Act. It's certainly a question the USTA ought to answer for itself before it commits millions to lawyers to try to overturn a well-meant law.

On the topic of fees, by the way, in the last 15 years I have yet to meet another owner who has said that he or she wouldn't be willing to spend a little more to try to make the sport more fair. Owners, like everyone else in the industry, need to put their money where their mouths are for the greater good. Here's an idea. Instead of spending $425,000 on lawyers to prepare for an attack on the constitutionality of the proposed law (which the association did in April even as it was cutting salaries) the USTA could have instead, for starters, created a fund to help defray the costs of the drug testing under the federal regime.

Williams next argues that USADA's program is not set up to perform the broad drug testing the new law would require. But there is nothing in the new bill that limits the ability of the federal drug testers to contract with other labs across the country, providing they are accredited, to perform the necessary testing. And then Williams complains again about the USTA losing its voice in a process that will directly impact harness racing. He's complaining here about a problem he himself has created. Our voices would be heard if not for the USTA.

The USTA has been invited to have a voice in this legislation, which now includes a provision that makes it clear that the authority established by the law won't be dominated by the leaders of any one breed. Standardbreds aren't specifically included in the bill now because of the USTA's relentless opposition to it. Fortunately, however, there is an opt-in provision in the law that makes it easy for the USTA to join the coalition of racing entities willing to work within the framework of the legislation once it is passed. The door is open, in other words.

Having chosen to oppose the bill, Williams now laments the fact that harness racing won't be able to control its own destiny if it passes. While the USTA prepares for litigation, meanwhile, I am told that members of the Quarter Horse racing community already have met, or will meet, to coordinate how they plan to “opt in” to the law. They surely aren't thrilled with everything in the law. They, like the harness industry, are not explicitly included in the current bill. Yet they are coming to the table, working within the framework of the bill, which by the way will only further isolate the USTA and make harness racing a rich political and economic target.

Take New Jersey, for example, Representatives of the harness industry are now lobbying legislators to restore millions of dollars in crucial funding that helps fuel racing's economic engine in the Garden State. It is a particularly tough sell these days with the state's budget overwhelmed by the coronavirus. The USTA's choice to oppose the new Integrity Act, and to prepare to litigate over it, gives an easy out to any state legislator who is on the fence about voting to help harness racing: “Oh, you don't support the wildly popular, bipartisan congressional effort to make your sport more safe and fair? Why should I give you a dime?”

None of this is to say that the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act is perfect. It' isn't. It does raise serious questions that ought to be answered sooner rather than later. But no legislation is perfect. Laws always include compromises between and among competing factions. This law will not do all it must do to rid the sport of cheaters and protect the horses we love. But the federal bill represents meaningful change. It will bring more uniformity to racing. It will upset the failed old system of state racing commissions. It will make it harder for cheaters to prosper. It will make it easier for those who endanger our horses to be caught.

There are many prominent voices in harness racing who want the USTA, at a minimum, to work alongside all the other stakeholders to try to make this legislation stronger and more fair. That this isn't happening, right now, before the legislation passes, is a crying shame but no great surprise. Some of the same folks who helped make harness racing vulnerable to questions of integrity, and viability, are the very ones who now are preaching that the new solutions included in the Integrity Act won't work. The problem isn't the legislation. The problem is USTA leadership, never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

Andrew Cohen is a Standardbred owner and breeder.

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