By Bill Finley
On Nov. 3, Meadowlands owner Jeff Gural announced that the track was banning 33 trainers and owners, including Howard Taylor, after claiming that evidence and exhibits track officials were able to retain from the doping trials that had taken place over the previous months revealed a list of individuals who had purchased banned substances. An email sent to TDN listed Taylor as being among those who had allegedly purchased EPO.
On Tuesday, Taylor fired back. According to an email from Tilden Katz of Cozen O'Connor Public Strategies, Taylor has sued Gural alleging defamation and related crimes for his accusations that Taylor was purchasing EPO, which, Gural implied, he was supplying to his trainers.
Katz said that the statements Gural had made were untrue. “No facts, in either the Meadowlands press release or the article, supported the claim that Taylor ever gave Epogen to any of his trainers or that Taylor ever instructed any trainer to use Epogen on his horses,” Katz said.
The lawsuit, Howard Taylor v. Jeffrey Gural, was filed in federal court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Taylor is a lawyer based in Philadelphia who specializes in equine and horse racing related issues. He has one of the largest stables in the sport of harness racing, one that normally has about 170 horses.
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