Feds Call Navarro A ‘Reckless Fraudster,’ Say Drugs Have ‘Corrupted Much Of The Horse Racing Industry’

It turns out Jorge Navarro really was “The Juiceman,” and contrary to remarks on a 2017 video captured by a horseplayer at New Jersey's Monmouth Park, it was anything but vegetable juice.

In federal court on Wednesday, Navarro acknowledged his role in a racehorse doping scheme that involved multiple performance-enhancing substances, including imported clenbuterol and blood-building drugs he both admitted giving to his horses and distributing to others.

As the Department of Justice stated in a press release, Navarro was a “reckless fraudster whose veneer of success relied on the systematic abuse of the animals under his control.”

Furthermore, Audrey Strauss, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York who is prosecuting the cases against more than two dozen trainers, veterinarians and suppliers, said performance-enhancing drugs “have corrupted much of the horse racing industry.”

The guilty plea by Navarro and last week's admission of guilt by veterinarian Kristian Rhein, Strauss said, “demonstrate the continued commitment of this office and our partners at the FBI to the investigation and prosecution of corruption, fraud and endangerment at every level of the horse racing industry.”

Navarro admitted to doping numerous horses, including Sharp Azteca, winner of eight of 17 races, including the Grade 1 Cigar Mile in 2017. He now stands at stud at Three Chimneys Farm.

Among the horses veterinarian Rhein admitted doping was Jason Servis-trained Maximum Security, who won four Grade 1 races and was disqualified from first place for interference in the 2019 Kentucky Derby. Transferred to Bob Baffert after Servis was indicted at the same time as Navarro (Servis has pleaded not guilty), Maximum Security won two of his final four starts before retiring to stud at Coolmore's Ashford Stud.

Just as Major League Baseball's record book is littered with the accomplishments of steroid cheaters like Barry Bonds, so too does horse racing now have a tainted database, with major races won by horses associated with convicted or indicted dopers. Even the Stud Book is polluted.

What happens next?

Can we really take Strauss at her word that the feds will continue their investigation? We know that the more guilty pleas there are, the greater likelihood that the convicted cheaters will cooperate with the government, widening the investigation and likely resulting in more trainers and veterinarians being charged. Prosecutors have collected massive amounts of information via computer and phone records, and cooperating witnesses can help connect some of the dots.

It probably comes down to how much more time and resources the Southern District of New York wants to commit to expose further corruption and cheating in this game.

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Racing has been exposed as a sport with weak or non-existent leadership at the racetrack and regulatory level when it comes to integrity issues. Track executives care more about filling the entry box than they do about the ethics or character of the trainers and owners who are supplying those entries.

Regulators concern themselves more with finding the cheapest testing laboratories than hiring the ones that have proven to be most effective at finding illicit drugs. And then they brag about how clean the game is because there are so few positive tests.

One example: In 2015, Truesdail Laboratories was found during a blind sample audit conducted by the Indiana Horse Racing Commission to have missed multiple positive tests, including a Class 1 drug – the most severe. Indiana fired Truesdail and moved their testing to another lab. It took years for a number of other racing commission to follow suit, even though Truesdail's failures were widely reported. Those racing commissions, from Maryland to New Jersey to Arkansas, simply didn't care.

Regulators also have known (or should know), based on the March 2020 indictments, that a representative for one of the owners of the Navarro-trained Nanoosh (according to Equibase, he was owned by Zayat Stables, Rockingham Ranch and David Bernsen) was on a conference call with the trainer discussing the horse's poor performances. According to the federal indictment, that person asked whether Navarro was “giving them all the shit,” and, “Is this horse jacked out? Is he on f – – king pills or what or are we just f – – king…” Navarro said, “Everything … he gets everything.”

Has a single racing commission or board of stewards – in California where the indictment said the stable is based or in any other state – called in the horse's owners to discuss this phone call with Navarro?

I doubt it. The last thing many commissions want to do – especially those rife with conflicts of interest – is hold owners accountable. To repeat: Racing commissions do not care.

There is a reason The Jockey Club – which has no official role in regulating horse racing – hired 5 Stones Intelligence, the private investigation firm that began the doping probe eventually turned over to the FBI and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. There was plenty of smoke coming from certain stables: incredible form reversals off the claim or private purchase, win percentages that defied logic and runners that would routinely re-break at the eighth pole. Jockey Club officials assumed there was fire associated with that smoke, and they were right.

There is also a reason The Jockey Club has been so adamant in pushing for federal legislation that would turn over medication, integrity and safety issues to a group like the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that oversees Olympic athletes and the UFC, among other sports. It is because state racing commissions are not capable of policing the sport adequately.

It remains to be seen whether the March 2020 round-up was just the tip of the iceberg of corruption and cheating in our game. Some people should be very nervous going forward. Others should be ashamed for letting it get to this point.

The post Feds Call Navarro A ‘Reckless Fraudster,’ Say Drugs Have ‘Corrupted Much Of The Horse Racing Industry’ appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Same Rules, New Lab: Maryland’s Leading Trainer Gonzalez Notified Of Two Dexamethasone Positives

Claudio Gonzalez, Maryland's leading trainer for the last four years, scratched all six of his runners entered to race on Sunday, July 4, at Pimlico racetrack in Baltimore, Md., after being notified of two positive tests for the corticosteroid dexamethasone.

Gonzalez said he learned of the positive tests on Saturday, July 3. That night, the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association issued the following advisory to trainers:

“Horsemen are advised of the following regarding the use of dexamethasone, a commonly used corticosteroid with anti-inflammatory properties.

“Dexamethasone has a 72-HOUR withdrawal guideline for intramuscular and intravenous administration of dexamethasone sodium phosphate or oral administration of dexamethasone. The dosing specification is 0.05 milligrams per kilogram regardless of the route of administration.

“Under the Association of Racing Commissioners International Uniform Classification Guidelines and Recommended Penalties Model Rules, dexamethasone is a Class 4 substance in the Class C penalty category. In Maryland, a first offense carries a minimum fine of $1,000 absent mitigating circumstances for a trainer and disqualification of the horse and loss of purse.”

Gonzalez admitted that the veterinarians he employs were giving the anti-inflammatory at 48 hours, but with a lower dose.

“The recommendation is 72 hours and 22 milligrams,” said Gonzalez. (Note:  the .05 milligram per kilogram dosing specification converts to about 22 milligrams for a 1,000-pound horse.) “We go 48 hours and give only 10 (milligrams). We give half at two days. Since 2014, they (the vets) have done the same. They've treated 3,000 horses a year from 2014 and never had one positive in Maryland until now.”

These would be the first medication charges against Gonzalez since he received a warning in 2016 for an overage of the ulcer treatment, omeprazole – the only medication violation on his record at www.thoroughbredrulings.com.

Dexamethasone guidelines in Maryland have not changed recently, according to J. Michael Hopkins, executive director of the Maryland Racing Commission.

What has changed is Maryland's official testing lab. Hopkins said when the contract with Truesdail Laboratories of Irvine, Calif., expired in April 2021, the commission switched to Industrial Laboratories in Wheat Ridge, Colo. No formal announcement or advisory on the change of labs was issued by the commission or Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association.

“They changed the lab,” said Gonzalez. “It can be a big difference.”

Several states have now dropped Truesdail as their official testing laboratory since a 2015 quality control audit by the Indiana Horse Racing Commission found that seven positive tests were missed over a 26-day period, including two for betamethasone. Indiana switched to Industrial, as did the West Virginia Racing Commission. The Arkansas Racing Commission had its testing shifted to Industrial after Truesdail's accreditation was suspended in April 2020 by the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium. Truesdail  has not sought to re-gain its RMTC accreditation.

Shortly after the switch from Truesdail to Industrial, Hopkins said, an unspecified number of positives for Amicar, an adjunct bleeder medication, were called. The Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association then issued the following advisory:

“Effective immediately, horsemen are urged to discontinue the use of any and all adjunct bleeder medications for horses in training, including in particular, aminocaproic acid—commonly called Amicar.

“Amicar and several other adjunct bleeder medications were placed on the Prohibited List in 2013 under the Association of Racing Commissioners International Uniform Classification Guidelines for Foreign Substances and Recommended Penalties Model Code and the National Uniform Medication Program. Aminocaproic acid, for example is a Class 4 substance and penalty Class C.

“It is important to understand that these medications cannot be regulated by withdrawal time guidance and/or a testing threshold and their use, no matter how far in advance of a race, may trigger a positive post-race test.

“Any trainer who chooses to continue the use of these medications for training in the future will run the risk of a post-race positive test.”

Hopkins said he couldn't comment on any specifics involving the Amicar or dexamethasone positives because of ongoing investigations.

Gonzalez is leading the current Laurel and Pimlico meeting with 27 wins from 110 starts, more than doubling the number of wins by his closest pursuers. Gonzalez said he plans to ask for a split sample to confirm the findings by Industrial and fight the charges if a formal complaint is filed against him.

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Day 1 Of Baffert Appeals Hearing Casts Doubt On Laboratory Procedures

The Arkansas Racing Commission has heard its first in two days of evidence related to an appeal from trainer Bob Baffert from his high profile 2020 cases in the state. Baffert is appealing two post-race positive drug tests — one from 2020 Arkansas Derby winner Charlatan and one from stablemate Gamine, who ran at Oaklawn on the same day — as well as a subsequent 15-day suspension issued by stewards for those positives.

The stewards issued their ruling in July 2020 following the races in May. Baffert has said publicly the two positive tests, both for lidocaine, were due to the use of an over-the-counter pain patch by top assistant Jimmy Barnes.

A split sample test performed by the University of Calfornia-Davis lab also revealed the presence of lidocaine metabolites.

At Monday's hearing, attorneys for Baffert outlined seven reasons why they believe the three rulings (the two disqualifications and trainer suspension) should be dropped, primarily focusing on the actions of the drug testing lab.

At the start of 2020, Truesdail Laboratories in Irvine, Calif., was the facility contracted to perform drug testing for Arkansas racing. In March, Truesdail lost its accreditation for horse racing testing from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and as a result, it also lost its accreditation from the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium (RMTC). Some jurisdictions, including Arkansas, could no longer legally send their samples to Truesdail without those accreditations.

Truesdail decided to subcontract out some of its work from affected jurisdictions to Industrial Laboratories, which had maintained all the required accreditations. Baffert's attorneys maintain that the terms of the commission's contract with Truesdail doesn't permit subcontracting for drug testing, although the commission disputes this. Dr. Anthony Fontana, technical services manager at Truesdail, said it's actually quite common for one lab to subcontract out to another under various circumstances, such as equipment failure or other logistical issues.

Because of the lab shuffle, post-race samples from Arkansas Derby weekend were sent to Truesdail, which checked them, logged them into the lab's computer system. From there, it seems a number of mistakes were made. Testimony from Truesdail project manager Julie Hagihara revealed that the blood and urine samples from Charlatan, though correctly identified as coming from a colt at the time of collection, were logged by Truesdail as coming from a gelding. Hagihara pointed out that a horse's gender is not considered to be relevant for the purposes of testing for lidocaine.

The samples from Charlatan and Gamine were taken out of the cooler that transported them from the track to Truesdail and put in different coolers for the trip to Industrial – which Baffert's attorneys said was done without the proper paperwork validating the chain of custody.

Representatives of both Industrial and UC-Davis indicated the samples they received were still in the original containers with the red tape seals intact. Baffert attorney Craig Robertson drew several witnesses' attention to a case involving a betamethasone overage by Steve Hobby at the same meet which he says was dismissed in part because the stewards had chain of custody concerns when Truesdail repackaged samples before sending on them to Industrial for testing.

But Dr. Joseph Lokanc, commission veterinarian for the commission, remembered that there was more to the chain of custody question in that case.

“I thought the defect was, when they checked it in, the samples were not cool, there were things missing and as a result they didn't have the chain of custody on that,” Lokanc recalled.

About two weeks after the race, Truesdail officials erroneously told the racing commission that all samples from the Arkansas Derby card were clear. Several days later, Truesdail contacted the commission to notify them of the mistake.

Hagihara signed the original paperwork certifying the positive test, even though she was employed by a different laboratory than the one that conducted the testing – which Baffert's legal team believes invalidates the certification.

Truesdail's accreditation woes in 2020 were not its first; in 2015, the lab was the subject of a quality check by the RMTC after the Indiana Horse Racing Commission voiced concerns over seven missed drug overages revealed during an audit. It has now regained ISO accreditation but not its RMTC accreditation. RMTC lifted its accreditation suspension of the lab in August 2020, but suspended it again in February of this year. Industrial now has a direct contract to do drug testing for the Arkansas commission.

“This current RMTC suspension had nothing to do with our technical ability or faulty systems,” said Fontana. “RMTC itself is not an internationally-recognized accreditation body. They are an advisory board for the industry that offers a form of accreditation but it's not internationally-recognized.”

Fontana currently serves on the RMTC's Scientific Advisory Committee, according to Truesdail's website.

Split samples that were taken on race day were tested by the University of California-Davis, which actually detected a higher concentration of lidocaine metabolites than Industrial had. Testimony revealed that other horses during the Oaklawn meet also had levels of lidocaine in their post-race samples, although the others did not exceed the regulatory threshold to qualify as violations.

Baffert is not scheduled to formally testify at the appeals hearing, which will continue Tuesday, but was present at the proceedings in case he needed to field questions from commissioners.

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