NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A trainer and a New York veterinarian have pleaded guilty to drugging racehorses with performance-enhancing substances, prosecutors say.
Thoroughbred trainer Jorge Navarro and suspended veterinarian Kristian Rhein, who owned Empire Veterinary Group, pleaded guilty to taking part in a horse doping scheme on Wednesday and on Aug. 3, respectively, Manhattan federal prosecutors said.
Navarro, who trained horses that won a number of major races, admitted to being a “reckless fraudster whose veneer of success relied on the systematic abuse of the animals under his control,” Audrey Strauss, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.
Rhein, meanwhile, “previously admitted that he flouted his oath as a veterinarian to protect the animals under his care, choosing instead to pursue money through the sale and administration of unregulated substances used by trainers engaged in fraud and animal abuse,” Strauss said.
Prosecutors say one of the horses Navarro trained and doped, XY Jet, won the 2019 Golden Shaheen race in Dubai.
Navarro often gave his horses “blood building” performance enhancing drugs that can lead to “cardiac issues or death” when “administered before intense physical exertion,” according to prosecutors.
Rhein, meanwhile, helped dope “Maximum Security,” the horse that was disqualified after winning the 2019 Kentucky Derby, prosecutors said.
Navarro and Rhein will pay restitutions of $25,860,514 and $729,716, respectively, as part of their guilty pleas.
Attorney information for the two wasn’t immediately available Wednesday.