Racehorse trainer, Jason Servis, has been handed a four-year prison sentence for his involvement in a massive horse doping operation, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said on Wednesday.
Last year, the 65-year-old racehorse trainer pleaded guilty after prosecutors said he doped nearly all the horses under his care.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams noted that the sentencing sends a clear message to the horse racing industry that illegal actions will not go unpunished. “Endangering the welfare of animals for profit will not be tolerated. Illegally doping racehorses is a serious crime that will be met with a serious sentence,” he said.
Prosecutors said that Servis had purchased hundreds of bottles of SGF-1000, an illegal performance-enhancing drug (PED) believed to be undetectable by standard drug tests. He was also known to give his horses Clenbuterol, a PED obtained from co-defendant Jorge Navarro, who had pleaded guilty to similar charges in 2021.
The case against Servis is part of a larger investigation aimed at uncovering systematic malpractices by horse trainers, veterinarians, PED distributors, and others to secretly give illegal drugs to racehorses.
Since March 2020, charges have been brought against at least 31 trainers, veterinarians, drug distributors, and others implicated in alleged doping operations during horse races in New York, Kentucky, Florida, New Jersey, Ohio, and the United Arab Emirates.
Prosecutors stated that the primary motivation behind these illegal practices was the profits generated from the improved performance of doped racehorses.
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