Maximum Security wins the Saudi Cup.
© Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia/Doug DeFelice
By Carl Di Iorio / Racing.com
Two prominent American trainers are among 27 people charged by the FBI for allegedly illegally using performance enhancing drugs (PED) on racehorses.
Trainers Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis are listed as defendants among nine other trainers, seven veterinarians and nine drug suppliers or distributors in connection with the activity according to indictments released on Monday by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
It’s alleged across four separate indictments that individuals engaged in a “widespread, corrupt scheme by racehorse trainers, veterinarians, PED distributors and others to manufacture, distribute, and receive adulterated and misbranded PEDs and to secretly administer those PEDs to racehorses under scheme participants’ control.”
Servis is the trainer of Maximum Security, who won the US$20m Saudi Cup (1800m) last month and memorably was controversially disqualified as the winner of last year’s Grade 1 Kentucky Derby (2000m).
Navarro was the trainer of last year’s US$2.5m Group 1 Golden Shaheen (1200m) winner X Y Jet who died of an apparent heart attack in January.
The allegations centre around the misuse of analgesics, that can mask underlying physical issues, and performance enhancing drugs Erythropoietin and SGF-1000.
Erythropoietin is a red blood cell booster which enhances endurance while SGF-1000 is also believed to promote stamina and tissue repair in racehorses beyond its natural capability.
“Today’s unsealing of four indictments for widespread doping of racehorses is the largest ever of its kind from the Department of Justice,” said Geoffrey Bernan, a US attorney in Manhattan.
“These defendants engaged in this conduct not for the love of the sport, and certainly not out of concern for the horses, but for money.
“And it was the racehorses that paid the price for the defendants’ greed.
“The care and respect due to the animals competing, as well as the integrity of racing, are matters of deep concern to the people of this District and to this Office.”
This article first appeared on Racing.com and is reprinted here with their kind permission. To find out more about Racing Victoria’s Off the Track program, visit rv.racing.com/the-horse/off-the-track.
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