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Jordan Fishman Enters Guilty Plea To Drug Adulteration And Misbranding In Federal Case

In a hearing before U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil on Oct. 6, Jordan Fishman changed his plea from “not guilty” to “guilty” to one count of drug adulteration and misbranding in the March 2020 federal case that saw over two dozen trainers, veterinarians and others charged in connection with a racehorse doping ring.

Fishman, 63, said he is of no relation to veterinarian Dr. Seth Fishman, who is also under indictment and with whom he had a working relationship. Jordan Fishman said he has a PhD in carcinogenesis and toxicology.

According to his testimony on Oct. 6, Fishman said from 2017 to March 2020 he formulated misbranded and adulterated drugs per Seth Fishman's instructions. Seth Fishman provided the materials and the instructions, he said, and Jordan Fishman followed the instructions to compound what he said were vitamins, amino acids, nutraceuticals, steroids and anti-inflammatory drugs. Jordan Fishman admitted he shipped the finished products to Seth Fishman's base in Florida and sometimes overseas, although he did not specify where. (Seth Fishman is known to have business contacts in the United Arab Emirates, according to documents filed in court.) These products, he said, were sent to Seth Fishman in unlabeled containers as he said Seth preferred to handle the labelling himself.

Jordan Fishman said the products were distributed by Seth Fishman through his company called Equestology. He said he did not know initially that the products he made were specifically destined for Thoroughbred racehorses, although he did know that Seth Fishman's business involved racehorses.

Prosecutors revealed that had the case gone to trial, they would have presented wiretap evidence from Seth Fishman's phone, evidence from a Dropbox account used to store documents related to Equestology, as well as emails exchanged between the two men which acknowledged investigative interest in their activities from the Food and Drug Administration.

Jordan Fishman was based in Massachusetts, where he was president and majority shareholder in Twenty First Century Biochemicals. The company specialized in the production of customized “peptides and amino acids” according to documents filed in a civil suit by Seth Fishman against Jordan Fishman and Twenty First Century Biochemicals. In that suit, which was filed two months after the federal indictments, Seth Fishman accused Jordan Fishman of falsely inflating the value of stock in Twenty First Century, and of failing to repay loans or complete pre-paid work. That suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, indicated that Seth Fishman had paid at least $1.25 million to Jordan Fishman's company since the start of their partnership in 2011. That case settled out of court in January 2021.

Jordan Fishman will face sentencing in February 2022. Per statute, the maximum prison sentence he may face is three years with up to one year of supervised release. Financial penalties by statute could include a fine of $10,000, twice the financial gain to Fishman or twice the cost to victims, whichever amount is greatest. Attorneys indicated that they have an agreement in place with Fishman that they will seek no more than 12 to 18 months in federal prison and a fine between $5,500 and $55,000, although that agreement does not bind the judge to confine her sentencing to those terms.

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‘Just Tragic’: Death Of Maiden In His First Start Since 2016 Could Spur Change In Ohio

The death of Mox Nix, an 8-year-old maiden gelding in the eighth race at Belterra Park in Cincinnati on Sept. 28, could result in new regulations in Ohio racing, according to the new executive director of the state commission.

Mox Nix failed to finish in the maiden claiming contest, where he was in for a $7,500 tag for owner/trainer Robert C. Bennett. He was pulled up between the quarter and half mile poles in the six-furlong contest and euthanized by commission veterinarians due to a fracture in his left hind leg.

The race was his first in nearly five years, as the gelding had been off track since finishing ninth in a maiden special weight at Mahoning Valley in Youngstown, Ohio, on Oct. 31, 2016.

The gelded son of Zanjero was more than 30 lengths off the winner in that race, and was subsequently put on the veterinarian's list in Ohio for a bowed tendon on his right front leg. He remained on the list despite a long period of inactivity, and per commission regulations was required to perform a workout of at least four furlongs in under 52 seconds before a commission veterinarian. According to Chris Dragone, who recently assumed the role of executive director at the Ohio State Racing Commission, that work was completed and duly observed by a veterinarian, and the horse passed an examination following the workout.

There was a gap in Mox Nix's workouts leading into the late September race. He posted a four-furlong breeze at Belterra in :51.71 on July 9, a :50.90 breeze on July 26, and a five-furlong breeze in 1:05.01 on Aug. 3. Then, he didn't work again until Sept. 10, when he went four furlongs in :50.35.

A commission vet also gave the horse an extra look in the paddock ahead of his Sept. 28 race. Dragone noted that the fatal injury was not in the leg that had sustained the bow back in 2016.

Bennett did not respond to multiple interview requests for this story.

The guidelines for how and whether a horse may race after a long layoff, or at what age the horse may race, vary from place to place. Those guidelines are sometimes part of a commission's regulations, but racetracks may also impose their own restrictions on whether they will take an entry. While each race has its own conditions for recent finish position and racing class, race meetings may also have minimum performance requirements for horses to stable or race on the property. This may include achieving a minimum placing within a period of time, or may exclude horses that have failed to achieve a placing above a particular claiming level in a specified period. Those requirements would be listed in the introductory pages in the physical copy of a track's condition book.

(The Paulick Report looked at minimum performance requirements set out by racetracks in this 2016 piece about claiming racing.)

Typically, tracks that run cheaper races have lower minimum performance requirements or higher ceilings for maximum age of a runner. Dragone said he was aware that there were minimum performance requirements in place at Mahoning Valley and JACK Thistledown Racino, but was not certain if Belterra had similar policies.

Bill Couch, racing secretary at Belterra, did not return calls seeking comment.

Dragone said last week that the commission had launched an investigation into the death of Mox Nix, but that early indications were that Bennett had not violated any state regulations in entering and running the horse.

Currently, the only restrictions the Ohio commission places on runners is that they must be serviceably sound, cannot be wearing a trachea tube, cannot have undergone a nerving surgery, and cannot have impaired sight in both eyes. There are no further regulations about maximum age, maximum layoff time, or performance.

Dragone said he expects that to change.

“An eight-year-old maiden on a five-year layoff – just tragic,” said Dragone. “We're in discussions at the commission about drafting a rule because we don't have anything on the books right now that would have prevented this. Tragic, but [Bennett] did not break any rules and all the procedures were followed that we could tell, but that doesn't solve the problem, so I think we're going to need a rule to make sure this doesn't happen again.

“We're investigating it. We're taking it very seriously and it will not happen again.”

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Suspended At Gulfstream Park, Trainer Rohan Crichton Hoping To Run Filly In Keeneland’s Spinster

Trainer Rohan Crichton, suspended by Gulfstream Park management for alleged violations of house rules restricting the use of clenbuterol, said he is awaiting word from officials at Keeneland on whether his 4-year-old stakes-placed filly Bajan Girl can enter the Grade 1, $500,000 Juddmonte Spinster Stakes Oct. 10 at the Lexington, Ky., track. The Spinster is a Breeders' Cup Challenge Series Win and You're In race granting a fees-paid berth in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Distaff, to be held at Del Mar on Nov. 6.

“I will run if they let me,” Crichton told the Paulick Report on Tuesday, “but they haven't told me yet if they'll let me.”

The suspension of Crichton, along with trainers Georgina Baxter, Daniel Pita, Peter Walder and Gilberto Zerpa, came on Oct. 1 after horses in their stables had hair and blood samples tested out of competition. Clenbuterol was detected in 12 horses from the five trainers in violation of Gulfstream Park house rules. Horses from five other stables tested clean.

Because Florida does not have a racing commission, many regulations governing the sport are done via a track's house rules. Included in Gulfstream's house rules are the regulations on use of clenbuterol, a bronchodilator that can have anabolic steroidal affects on horses.

Unlike rulings from a racing commission or board of stewards, suspensions under house rules, more accurately called exclusions under a track's private property rights. are not automatically reciprocated from state to state. For example, though trainer Bob Baffert was notified of a two-year suspension by Churchill Downs officials after Medina Spirit's positive test for betamethasone in this year's Kentucky Derby, Baffert has not been denied entries in California.

Keeneland's media notes on Sunday and Monday listed Bajan Girl as “probable” to run in the Spinster, but on Tuesday her name was not on the list of probable starters.

A statement on the matter from Keeneland said: “We are in the process of obtaining information regarding the reported suspensions from Gulfstream Park so Keeneland is in a position to make an informed decision about race entries. As you know, and as is clear from our actions for 85 years, Keeneland continues to work in furtherance of our mission to perpetuate the best in Thoroughbred racing, which definitely includes fair competition and integrity.”

Keeneland's Fall 2021 Condition Book contains a clause under “special notices” stating, “At the discretion of the stewards, and without notice, the entires of any person, or acceptance or transfer of any entries, may be refused.”

A 4-year-old filly by Speightstown owned by Robert Slack and Daniel Walters, Bajan Girl is winless in five starts this year and is 3-for-13 lifetime. Two starts back she finished second in the Grade 3 Molly Pitcher Stakes at Monmouth Park. She most recently breezed a half mile in :47.75 on Oct. 3 at Gulfstream Park.

Entries for the Spinster are taken on Thursday.

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Baffert Loses Bid To Have NYRA Hearing Stayed

Embattled Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert was unsuccessful in his bid to push back a hearing scheduled by the New York Racing Association about whether he should be prevented from racing there. U.S. District Judge Carol Bagley Amon ruled in a hearing on Oct. 5 that Baffert could not hold NYRA in civil contempt and delay the administrative hearing, which has been scheduled for Oct. 11.

“We are gratified by the court's decision allowing NYRA to move forward with its administrative hearing against Bob Baffert,” said Pat McKenna, senior director of communications for NYRA. “The court found that NYRA's actions were consistent with both the letter and spirit of the July 14 order. NYRA's focus in this matter is protecting the integrity of the sport of thoroughbred racing in accordance with the requirements of due process.”

Baffert had prevailed in a previous motion in a civil suit against the racing association, which informed him on May 17 that it was suspending his privileges to enter or stable at its racetracks in the wake of the uproar over a positive drug test from Kentucky Derby victor Medina Spirit. Judge Amon ruled in July that NYRA could not suspend a trainer without a hearing, and that not holding one violated Baffert's rights to due process.

NYRA subsequently drafted rules and procedures for hearings it could use to determine whether it would revoke a trainer's stabling or entry privileges at its tracks and informed Baffert and fellow trainer Marcus Vitali it was moving forward with plans to hold administrative hearings into their cases. Both had been scheduled for pre-evidentiary hearings in late September. Baffert then claimed that NYRA had constructed its hearing procedures just for him, and that the association's intent to proceed with protocol to eject him was a “direct contravention” of the court's order.

According to reporting from the Thoroughbred Daily News, Judge Amon made clear during oral arguments on Oct. 5 that her previous ruling had applied to NYRA's attempt to suspend Baffert without a hearing, but did nothing to preclude the organization from holding a hearing.

After Judge Amon's ruling in July, Baffert was once again permitted to enter horses at NYRA racetracks, and has done so, sending stakes runners to the Saratoga meet over the summer.

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