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His suspension is totally meaningless seeing as he is still allowed to work in the industry. It’s just astonishing given the severity of the cruelty convictions.
I agree, and the gall of the man is seemingly off the scale, along with the horrendous charges he was found guilty of.
Panorama will be having a monthly show at this rate, what an absolute shambles.
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Good grief. I’ve met people who lack self awareness but that takes the cake. For the love of all that is holy just go and lay blocks for a living man.
https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/oireachtas-tv/video-archive/committees/
Yesterday’s session with Dept of Agriculture. I didn’t get a chance to listen to all of it live, but they do plan to meet further to discuss Panorama.Opening of the floodgates?
Trainer Jorge Navarro has pleaded guilty to orchestrating an elaborate and significant doping programme to enhance the performance of his horses over a four-year period and could face up to five years in prison as well as having to pay back over $25 million to victims of his crimes.
In a landmark moment for global horseracing, Navarro, who has trained more than 1,000 winners including the 2019 Dubai Golden Shaheen hero X Y Jet, admitted intentionally giving or directing others to give illegal blood builders, vaso and bronchodilators, bleeder pills and designer drug SGF-1000 to his horses between 2016 and March 2020 to boost their performance in races and avoid detection in pre- and post-race drug testing.
Navarro, 46, also implicated fellow trainer Jason Servis, who saddled Maximum Security to finish first past the post in the inaugural $20 million Saudi Cup last year, in the doping conspiracy. The owners have yet to be paid their prize-money.
Both handlers were among 27 individuals arrested in dawn raids carried out by the FBI in March last year after an undercover investigation, including the use of wiretaps, into allegations of the use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) in racing. Servis denies the allegations and has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
In the most significant moment yet in a case that sent shockwaves through international horseracing when it was unsealed last year, Navarro changed his plea to guilty from not guilty to the charge of conspiring with others to administer non-FDA-approved (Food and Drug Administration), misbranded and adulterated drugs, including drugs intended to increase the performance of his horses.
Navarro told the court of the Southern District of New York: “I administered drugs that were non-FDA approved, misbranded and adulterated to improve the performance of racehorses in my custody. The drugs included blood-building substances, vasodilators, bronchodilators, bleeder pills and SGF-1000.
“I was the organiser for a criminal activity that involved five or more participants. I coordinated the administration of non-FDA approved drugs that were misbranded or adulterated to horses under my care.
“I abused a position of trust as I was a licensed horse trainer and the horses were in my custody at the time of the offence.”
As well as admitting to doping horses racing in America, Navarro also stated he had provided PEDs to horses racing in Dubai, confirming wiretap evidence from the indictment against him in which he outlined doping X Y Jet prior to his victory in the 2019 Golden Shaheen.
X Y Jet (right): Navarro admitted to doping the grey prior to his win in the Golden Shaheen in 2019
X Y Jet (right): Navarro admitted to doping the grey prior to his win in the Golden Shaheen in 2019
Edward Whitaker
In the indictment, Navarro said he had used a blood builder similar to erythropoietin that he called “monkey” on X Y Jet, including on the day of the race. “I gave it to him through 50 injections. I gave it to him through the mouth.” X Y Jet died of an apparent heart attack in January last year.The trainer, who had been among the most prolific in the US prior to his arrest, also admitted shipping the illegal drugs from his home in Florida to his base at Monmouth Park in New Jersey and creating false veterinary bills “to deceive racing officials and racetrack employees” as well as providing PEDs to other trainers allegedly involved in the conspiracy.
Asked by judge Mary Kay Vyskocil whether he provided illegal PEDs to any other trainers, Navarro said: “I provided bronchodilators to Jason Servis.”
Vet Kristian Rhein pleaded guilty earlier this month for his part in the conspiracy, admitting that he had doped Maximum Security with SGF-1000 prior to his run in a Listed race at Monmouth Park on June 16, 2019 – the horse’s first start after he was disqualified from finishing first past the post in the Kentucky Derby for causing interference.
In an intercepted call, Rhein said: “They don’t even have a test for it [SGF-1000]… There’s no test for it in America.”
SGF-1000 was outlined by prosecutors as an undetectable intravenous vasodilator promoted as “capable of promoting stamina, endurance, and lower heart rates in horses through the purported action of growth factors supposedly derived from sheep placenta.”
As well as up to five years’ imprisonment and a fine of at least $70,000, Navarro must repay $25,860,514 to the victims of his fraudulent activity.
As part of his plead agreement, further counts against Navarro outlined in a superseding indictment last year have been dropped. He is due to be sentenced on December 17.
Giving her verdict on the case, US Attorney Audrey Strauss said: “As he admitted today, Navarro, a licensed trainer and the purported ‘winner’ of major races across the world, was in fact a reckless fraudster whose veneer of success relied on the systematic abuse of the animals under his control.”
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I think so TTC. The wiretap evidence from Rhein re ‘they don’t even have a test for it’ is really telling. Compare that with a piece that appeared recently on the testing regime for the London Olympics:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/jul/17/the-dirty-games-how-london-2012-became-taintedTesting facilities showing off their facilities to show how tough on drugs they are … it proved to be central to Russian state-backed doping. Presumably the same state of affairs exists in horse racing – otherwise how did Rhein know? I find myself wondering “who knows the capability of particular testing facilities in specific jurisdictions?” And then, how might that influence what runs where (on what, or not)?
Titus Oates – Its a concerning point you make, but it rings true to me unfortunately.
Louise – indeed. If the Feds were in Ireland, a certain Mr. S. Mahon would be being waterboarded in Guantanamo Bay, not swanning around racecourses berating testing officials.
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Id suggest this is just tip of the iceberg stuff in North America. The actual authorities do not want to get involved and just show a cursory intent. If they really wanted to get serious, then much more of this type of investigation would be implemented.
Here are the indictments, and a summary:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/manhattan-us-attorney-charges-27-defendants-racehorse-doping-rings
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/press-release/file/1256656/download
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/press-release/file/1256651/download
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/press-release/file/1256646/download
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/press-release/file/1256661/downloadhttps://pastthewire.com/is-jason-servis-the-next-to-plead-guilty-after-jorge-navarro/
‘To adequately self police and regulate the horse racing industry must question all out of the ordinary performances’.Thanks Louise.
It is a very interesting read.
Very well laid out.
If it could stay objective, without jibes it would be even better.
Every one has an angle and the author has a book(s) to sell.
But it is compelling compared to the crap journalism out there.
Gordon Elliott certainly brought the sport into disrepute with his actions, but the timing of his fall makes perfect sense now.
Blazing saddles
” Mongo just pawn in game of life”.I thought it was about time that this thread was ‘bumped up’ again.
For those who haven’t read the report, it is worth reading – not least because, whilst it does contain a paragraph to the effect that the IHRB’s anti-doping procedures are of the highest possible standards, the list of recommendations suggest that there was much that the Oireachtas Agricultural Committee remained unconvinced by, and much more that they want changed – and asap. Those changes are fundamental to the operation of the IHRB, its membership and its anti-doping regime. If they are enacted, this is far reaching change indeed. Having some knowledge myself of how reports such as this come together and enter the public domain, there are different positions that are being accommodated in this document. For the racing press to focus, as it did initially, on the ‘no substance to your allegations JB’ line is to have misread the report (if indeed they even read it). It is also indicative of a continued inability and/or unwillingness to address issues which other journalists have taken up and run with. It shows a complicity which I continue to find deeply problematic and exceptional in the field of sporting journalism.
Link to the report here: https://data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oireachtas/committee/dail/33/joint_committee_on_agriculture_food_and_the_marine/reports/2021/2021-11-09_report-of-the-joint-committee-on-horse-racing-in-ireland_en.pdf
Meanwhile, the coincident (?) events in Kildare seemingly announce a brave new world in Irish racing, led by the DAFM and Garda. I suspect the tentacles will reach far and wide, and beyond Ireland, but whilst the investigation is running its course, I can’t help thinking of the parallels between what has emerged so far and certain ‘jiffy bags’.
It’s the lead story on Luck On Sunday this morning, following the publication of this story in the Irish Independent:
Excellent interview with Noel Meade on the programme, in case anyone missed it.
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