Jason Servis

An investigation by the Asbury Park Press has revealed that 19 horses trained by either Jorge Navarro or Jason Servis have died at Monmouth Park since 2010. Servis and Navarro were among 27 people indicted last week by the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York after an investigation into horse doping. Twelve of the dead horses were trained by Navarro and seven by Servis. According to the Press, the 12 deaths out of the Navarro barn since 2012 are the most at Monmouth by any trainer...

Choosing not to comment last week as the horse racing world responded en masse to the bombshell announcement of indictments against 27 figures in the sport, including high-profile trainers Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis, Darby Development CEO and Monmouth Park Operator Dennis Drazin has weighed in with a lengthy statement that was released Monday, shortly after Monmouth announced it will close and push back the start of its racing meet due to coronavirus concerns. The statement reads in part, "First and foremost, Monmouth Park and Darby Development, as well as...

Florida-based trainer Alfredo Lichoa is among five people who have been arrested afer a money-laundering investigation that was conducted by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the same agency that has indicted 27 people as part of a horse-doping ring. Lichoa and the others were arrested Mar. 9, the same day the FBI rounded up Jason Servis, Jorge Navarro and 25 others indicted for their alleged role in treating racehorses with performance-enhancing drugs. The money-laundering story was first reported by Paulick Report. Lichoa, a native of...

The Week in Review They have come at us one by one, saying they are shocked, they are disgusted, they love the animal, they love the sport and they had no idea they had been employing drug cheats. That's what we have heard from the owners who employed Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro and have spoken up in the aftermath of indictments that are not only shocking but threaten to do severe and irreparable damage to the sport. How could an owner employ someone who performed training feats that were,...

Admitting that the charges that trainer Jason Servis drugged Maximum Security (New Year's Day) threaten the integrity of Thoroughbred racing, his owner, Gary West, has announced that he has hired veterinarian Dr. Larry Bramlage to examine the horse "from hoof to tail." When asked by the TDN in a follow-up email that if further testing revealed that Maximum Security had illegal drugs in his systems in any races if he would advocate that the horse be disqualified, he replied: "I am not an authority on medications and SGF-1000 (the drug...

Even as rival owners of horses that finished behind Maximum Security (New Year's Day) are threatening legal action to get the allegedly doped 3-year-old champ disqualified from previous wins, Gary and Mary West are forging ahead with their 10-month federal court odyssey to overturn the controversial GI Kentucky Derby stewards' in-race interference DQ that stripped their colt of the honor, prestige and prize money of America's most important horse race. "But for the stewards' nonfeasance and misfeasance, Maximum Security would have been declared the official winner, and Plaintiffs would have...

All horses who were under the custody of trainers named in the federal indictment earlier this week will undergo a mandatory minimum of a 60-day stand-down period and are prohibited from racing at any Stronach Group racing facility during that time, The Stronach Group announced Thursday. "Our goal is to keep these horses safe and from competing if there is any possibility that they may have performance- enhancing drugs in their system," said Dr. Dionne Benson, Chief Veterinarian, The Stronach Group. "This is being done, not only to first and...

What an awful way to start the week. Sandwiched between a chaotic stock market and the spread of coronavirus, the racing industry got word Monday of a tawdry racehorse doping scandal that came packaged in four indictments against 27 defendants. These schemes were replete with instances of gutter-level language from wire taps that painted the treatment of some of these horses as nothing more than disposable money-making commodities. The 27 individuals included some trainers and veterinarians. They were charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Southern District of New...

The TDN Writer's Room podcast, presented each week by Keeneland, pulled no punches as the writers covered all aspects of the indictments for horse doping of 27 people announced Monday by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. The dialogue included a combination of passion, anger and bewilderment on a story that has rocked the industry. "The big shock is not the scandal itself. The big shock is not that these guys were drugging horses and cheating," said Joe Bianca who kicked off the News of...

Of course, the podcast conversation this week focuses on the doping scandal sweeping racing, and trainer Tom Morley joins the conversation to talk about the trainers whose lives have been affected by those now accused by the U.S. Attorney's Office of doping their horses. It's one for the ages, on the TDN podcast.

New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal in conjunction with the New Jersey Racing Commission announced that the State has suspended the horse racing licenses of seven New Jersey licensees. The suspensions come two days after the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York unsealed indictments against a total of 27 individuals in an alleged international conspiracy to dope racehorses. Seven individuals received letters from New Jersey Racing Commission Executive Director Judith A. Nason notifying them of their immediate suspensions. The septet includes trainer Jason Servis, Nicholas...

The FBI and the Department of Justice have done what the horse racing industry had failed to do for decades. They caught and are prosecuting high-profile trainers for doping infractions as part of an investigation that has finally torn the lid off of what had been the shadowy and secretive world inhabited by racing's cheaters. The entire industry owes a debt of gratitude to these agencies. The problem is, it's not the FBI's job to clean up horse racing. It has more important matters to deal with. There may be...