More Than Two Dozen Charged in Horse Racing Doping Scheme

The participants sought to improve race performance and obtain prize money from tracks throughout the United States, including in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Ohio and Kentucky, as well as the United Arab Emirates, one indictment said, “all to the detriment and risk of the health and well-being of the racehorses.”

To avoid detection of their scheme, the indictment said, the defendants routinely defrauded and misled federal and state regulators “and the betting public.”

The charges were to be announced at a news conference on Monday by Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney in Manhattan, and William F. Sweeney Jr., head of the F.B.I.’s New York office.

Horse racing has a long history of trainers’ repurposing drugs in pursuit of a performance edge. Frog and cobra venom, Viagra, cocaine, heart medicines and steroids have all been detected in drug tests. This reliance on performance-enhancing drugs combined with lax state regulations has made American racetracks among the deadliest in the world.

Nearly 10 horses a week on average died at U.S. racetracks in 2018, according to the Jockey Club’s Equine Injury Database. That figure is anywhere from two and a half to five times greater than the fatality rate in Europe and Asia, where rules against performance-enhancing drugs are enforced more stringently.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/09/sports/horse-racing-doping.html