27 Horse Trainers Worldwide Hit With Combined 105 Years In Prison
- Horse trainers have been caught buying performance-enhancing drugs and using them on their horses.
- Jason Servis, the horse trainer for Maximum Security, is one of the trainers that were caught up in the scandal.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Racehorses from around the world can take a deep breath as 27 trainers were arrested on Monday as they were caught purchasing and administering illegal performance-enhancing drugs to their races horses to get an upper hand on the competition.
Unfortunately, this led to the death of some horses including “X Y Jet.”
From Pain Killers To Horse Killers
Jason Servis is just one of 27 trainers that were charged with the purchasing, distributing and administering of illegal performance-enhancing drugs on racehorses. The results ended up being much more severe than just causing legal horse race bettors money.
“These defendants engaged in this conduct not for the love of the sport, and certainly not out of concern for the horses, but for money— and it was the racehorses that paid the price for the defendants’ unbridled greed,” said Geoffrey Berman, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
There has been a total of six horses that were killed due to the drugging of them.
“You know how many f-king horses he [Navarro] f-king killed and broke down that I made disappear?... You know how much trouble he could get in… if they found out…the six horses we killed?” said Nicholas Surick, one of the 27 trainers, in a text he sent about high-profile horse trainer Jorge Navarro.
X Y Jet is an example of one of the racehorses that were killed during this scandal. The horse died of what seemed to be a heart attack after being injected 50 times with performance-enhancing drugs. X Y Jet was under the training of Navarro.
Another example that fortunately did not result in death came under Jason Servis. Servis is the trainer of arguably the most impressive racehorse in the world. The horse Maximum Security was recently victorious in the Saudi Cup where it won the staff a total of $10 million. Being that the media is just now coming aware of the situation, this could have played a role in Maximum Securities victory.
The scandal has occurred worldwide in the United States and internationally.
- New York
- New Jersey
- Florida
- Ohio
- Kentucky
- United Arab Emirates
One of the suppliers of these drugs was veterinarian, Dr. Louis Grasso. Grasso is no stranger to being investigated as he has been checked out before. He would fill out prescriptions with names of other animals that he had been treating and sold them to the trainers.
“I don’t give a [expletive] what it is — $100 per script,” said Grasso to Thomas Guido III, a racehorse trainer.
Cheating has major consequences in the legal gambling world. All 27 of the trainers that were involved in this gut-wrenching incident have been charged and arrested and are serving a combined 105 years in prison.