Jason Servis, HISA and Darren Weir feature in our weekly digest of recent international racing news
Jason Servis facing four years in jail after guilty plea
USA: Disgraced trainer Jason Servis is facing up to four years in jail after pleading guilty in the long-running federal investigation into widespread doping in US horse racing.
Servis, 65, best-known as the trainer of 2020 Saudi Cup winner Maximum Security, will be sentenced by a New York judge in May next year, the last of 31 defendants to be dealt with in a case for which another high-profile trainer Jorge Navarro is serving five years in prison.
According to the indictment, Servis ordered hundreds of bottles of the performance enhancing drug SGF-1000, which was produced in unregistered facilities, and contained growth factors that the trainer believed were undetectable by drug screenings.
Maximum Security was among nearly all the horses in Servis’s barn to be given the drug, which he continued to use right up until his arrest in March 2020. Clenbuterol, obtained from Navarro, was also used to conceal what was going on.
US Attorney Damian Williams said: “Servis’ conduct represents corruption at the highest levels of the racehorse industry. As a licensed racehorse trainer, Servis was bound to protect the horses under his care and to comply with racing rules designed to ensure the safety and well-being of horses and protect the integrity of the sport. Servis abdicated his responsibilities to the animals, to regulators, and to the public.”
Gary West, who co-owned Maximum Security with the Coolmore partners at the time of the Saudi Cup, said he would support the horse’s disqualification as a result of Servis’s guilty plea. The Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia, who withheld payment of the winner’s purse, said it would assess whether it could conclude its investigation.
HISA drug and doping program delayed
USA: A serious blow for US racing reformers with news that the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act’s anti-doping and medical control program will not come into force as planned from January 1 after being halted by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
The FTC ruled that as HISA required uniformity and had been held “unconstitutional” by a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, it would withhold its approval until the legal uncertainty had been resolved.
Disgraced trainer Darren Weir found guilty of animal cruelty for using ‘jigger’
Australia: Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Darren Weir has been found guilty with two other members of his staff of animal cruelty for using an electric shock device on three of his horses in 2018.
Footage played to the court in Melbourne showed Weir, 52, using the ‘jigger’ on his horses while they worked on a treadmill.
He avoided a prison sentence by admitting the charge, for which he was fined A$36,000 [$24,000], but could face further scrutiny from Racing Victoria which imposed a four year ban in 2019 which expires in February.
Contrail jockey Yuichi Fukunaga to retire to take up training
Japan: One of Japan’s most successful jockeys, Yuichi Fukunaga, best known for his association with the 2020 Triple Crown winner Contrail, is to retire from the saddle early next year to become a trainer.
The 46-year-old, who has ridden more than 2,600 winners in a 27-year career, steered Contrail to seven of his eight successes culminating in their triumph in the 2021 Japan Cup. He will bow out at the Saudi Cup meeting on February 25, where he is due to ride Remake in the G3 Dirt Sprint.
Winx given a year off from breeding
Australia: Winx is to be given a year off from breeding after failing to get in-foal following a meeting with champion stallion Snitzel. The four-time Cox Plate winner previously had a season off after she lost her first foal in 2020. She produced a filly foal by Pierro in October this year.
Rookie jockey Seina Imamura secures first G1 ride
Japan: Teenage apprentice sensation Seina Imamura has secured her first mount in a G1 after she was booked to ride Ska Paradise in the Hopeful Stakes on December 28. The 19-year-old has ridden 49 winners in her debut season.
Elsewhere in racing …
Ireland: Irish Derby to return to Sunday slot in 2023 More here
Australia: Under-investigation jockey Tommy Berry takes indefinite leave More here
Germany: Deutscher Galopp announces ‘extreme’ whip penalties More here
Canada: Kimura and Casse take Woodbine jockey and trainer titles More here
USA: Rodolphe Brisset exits private role with WinStar to go public again More here
Japan: Leading German-based jockey Bauyrzhan Murzabayev granted short-term licence More here
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