U.S. District Court

A lawsuit spearheaded by the states of Louisiana and West Virginia that is trying to derail the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) via alleged constitutional violations was dealt a setback Wednesday when a federal judge recommended that an amended version of the complaint be stricken from the record. That recommendation, if it gets put into place by a final order, would bar 14 individual Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA) affiliates, plus a wide swath of states, racing commissions, and individual racetracks from becoming parties to the 14-month-old lawsuit....

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) Authority reiterated to a judge on Monday a belief that the plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit spearheaded by the state of Louisiana have "no right" to expand the scope of their complaint by letting new entities join the nine-month-old case in United States District Court (Western District of Louisiana). "Plaintiffs characterize their joinder of new parties as a 'routine amendment,'" the Apr. 3 court filing stated. "But they do not dispute that the purpose of their amendment is to transform the preliminary injunction...

Day three of Lisa Giannelli's horse doping trial Apr. 29 featured the cross-examination of a key government witness. Former New York harness trainer Ross Cohen had testified that Gianelli had sold him performance-enhancing drugs that he used to secretly dope horses under his care. He agreed to cooperate with the government after his arrest in 2020 in connection with the FBI's sweeping horse-doping probe. The investigation led to charges against a number of individuals including the prominent trainer Jason Servis. Under questioning by Giannelli attorney Louis Fasulo in U.S. District...

A New York jury heard a full day of testimony Jan. 21 in the horse doping trial of Dr. Seth Fishman and Lisa Giannelli. The entire morning and most of the afternoon featured a second day of testimony from a woman who worked for Fishman at his Florida business Equestology for five years. Courtney Adams, 34, testifying from Florida via video conference, told jurors that Fishman and Equestology were all about "testability." That meant creating "product" that couldn't be detected in post-race testing by horse racing authorities, she said. During...

According to a Sept. 8 filing in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen has agreed to pay $563,800 in back wages and damages covering 170 employees. The amount is derived from $281,900 in unpaid wages plus another $281,900 in damages. The plaintiff in the case was Secretary of Labor Martin J. Walsh, who had filed a complaint against Asmussen's KED Equine LLC and Asmussen Racing Stables. The period in question runs from June 7, 2016 through at least Sept....

In an effort to claw back at least $200,000 in transfers by Ahmed Zayat that allegedly constitute "fraudulent conveyance" because they occurred just prior Zayat's filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, the trustee in charge of vetting Zayat's case filed two complaints in federal court Wednesday that aim to recover that money so it might instead go toward paying creditors. Zayat claims to be $19 million in debt, and a massive chunk of that money is owed to Thoroughbred-related individuals and entities. According to documentation filed Apr. 21 in United...

Prosecutors in the racehorse doping conspiracy case that ensnared 29 racetrackers, veterinarians and pharmaceutical brokers one year ago tried to convince a federal judge Friday that recent motions made by some of the defendants to dismiss drug alteration and misbranding charges are "without merit" and represent "an effort to invent a statutory limitation where none exists." The government's memorandum of law filed Mar. 5 in United States District Court (Southern District of New York) addresses a number of alleged legal flaws in the defendants' motions to dismiss, including several that...

Jorge Navarro and Seth Fishman, DVM, the federally indicted trainer and veterinarian whose alleged litanies of racehorse doping date to at least 2002, both filed Feb. 5 motions to dismiss the drug alteration and misbranding conspiracy charges levied against them in United States District Court (Southern District of New York). According to federal prosecutors, one of their alleged conspiracies involved Navarro allegedly dosing elite-level sprinter X Y Jet "with 50 injections [and] through the mouth" of a performance-enhancing drug (PED) allegedly manufactured and distributed by Fishman before a big win...

Trainers Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis entered not guilty pleas to the charges of drug alteration and misbranding during an arraignment Thursday before United States District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil. Due to the coronavirus, the arraignment was held via teleconference. Servis and Navarro were among 17 individuals arraigned Thursday for their alleged roles in a horse doping scandal. All 17 pleaded not guilty. The not guilty pleas were not a surprise as it is rare for defendants in a criminal case to plead guilty at the arraignment phase. Navarro has...

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...