The weekly TRC industry digest - a round-up of the international racing news from the past week.
‘Reckless fraudster’ Navarro to be sentenced in December
North America: Trainer Jorge Navarro could face up to five years in jail after pleading guilty at a court in New York to organising a 4-year programme to enhance the performances of his horses. He is likely to have to pay back over $25 million as a result. Sentencing will take place in December.
Navarro also implicated Jason Servis, trainer of Maximum Security, in the doping conspiracy. The horse finished first past the post in the $20 million Saudi Cup in 2020 but his owners have yet to be paid their prize-money.
Forty six-year-old Navarro, who has trained more than 1,000 winners, admitted giving or directing others to give illegal blood builders, vaso and bronchodilators, bleeder pills and the designer drug SGF-1000 to his horses between 2016 and March 2020 .
Both trainers were among 27 individuals arrested in dawn FBI raids in March 2020. Servis denies the allegations and has pleaded not guilty. Navarro changed his plea to guilty from not guilty to a charge of conspiracy.
Navarro told the court of the Southern District of New York: “I was the organiser for a criminal activity that involved five or more participants. I coordinated the administration of non-FDA approved drugs that were misbranded or adulterated to horses under my care.
“I abused a position of trust as I was a licensed horse trainer and the horses were in my custody at the time of the offence.”
As well as admitting to doping horses racing in America, Navarro also stated he had provided PEDs to horses racing in Dubai, confirming wiretap evidence in which he outlined doping X Y Jet prior to his victory in the 2019 Golden Shaheen.
As part of his plea agreement, further counts against Navarro outlined in a superseding indictment last year have been dropped. He is due to be sentenced on December 17.
U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said, “As he admitted today, Navarro, a licensed trainer and the purported ‘winner’ of major races across the world was in fact a reckless fraudster whose veneer of success relied on the systematic abuse of the animals under his control.”
Charlatan stud fee set
North America: Multiple G1 winner Charlatan will stand the 2022 breeding season at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm in Kentucky for a fee of $50,000.
“I have been looking forward to having this horse,” said John Sikura, owner of Hill ‘n’ Dale at Xalapa. “He is a brilliant physical specimen. He is by the right horse in Speightstown, and he has all the right horses in his pedigree. I think this is the most highly credentialed horse we’ve brought to the farm in terms of performance, pedigree, and speed. All those elements we feel are requisites of very important horses. Curlin was a very important horse - a great racehorse and Horse of the Year - but this brilliance is hard to find. Succinctly, Charlatan has everything I value in a stallion in spades.”
Charlatan retires to stud with a record of four wins (including two G1s) and a second (behind Mishriff in the Saudi Cup in February) from five, starts with earnings over $4 million.
F-T Saratoga sale back in full health
North America: The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale returned to the calendar after a Covid-enforced hiatus last year, with president Boyd Browning concluding that it was “certainly [a] very healthy market, and very similar to the 2019 marketplace”.
The two-day auction closed with 135 horses sold for revenues of $55,155,000, the third-highest gross in the sale's history and just behind the 2019 figure of $55,547,000.
The average price landed at $408,556, just below the record $411,459 average from two years ago. The median went unchanged at $350,000, tying the all-time high, and the buyback rate at 25 per cent.
Coolmore’s MV Magnier signed the ticket for the sale-topper on Tuesday, an Into Mischief colt, for $2.6 million. A half-brother to 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra, from the first crop of Bolt d'Oro, sold to Larry Best's OXO Equine for $1.4 million.
To view the auction's full results, click here.
Ascot happy despite lower Shergar Cup crowd
Europe: Despite only half the normal attendance, Ascot director of racing Nick Smith was “genuinely delighted” by this year’s Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup last Saturday, adding that optimism for ticket sales for British Champions Day, on October 16, remains high.
“We might very well be there,” Smith said of the regular 27,500 tickets sold for the end of season highlight. “I'd be confident we'll sell 20,000 plus and it may very well be 25,000 plus."
With regards to just 11,100 people attending the four-team event last weekend, compared to 23,505 in 2019 and 31,097 three years ago, Smith attributed it to the Berkshire track taking “the decision not to sell tickets for any of those racedays [outside Royal Ascot] until we had full clarity that we would be at normal capacity”.
And the post-race entertainment from singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor had been announced only in the week of the meeting – “so everyone had bought tickets for the raceday without knowing if there would be a concert”.
Unlike other summer festival such York and Glorious Goodwood, Ascot has had a relatively low pick-up in ticket sales. Smith said that they “made a conscious decision to focus only on Royal Ascot” and not sell tickets for the rest of the summer because “we weren't sure where we would be”.
All set for a ‘vintage’ October sale
Europe: The catalogue for Book 1 of the 2021 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale is now online and can be viewed at www.tattersalls.com. Europe’s premier yearling sale numbers 502 lots and takes place on October 5-7.
All the lots are eligible for the lucrative £20,000 Tattersalls October Book 1 bonus scheme, which has paid out more than £6 million in bonus money to 243 individual winners since its inception in 2016.
It includes 20 yearlings by Dubawi, 24 by Frankel, 43 by Kingman, 44 by Lope De Vega, 34 by Sea The Stars, and 14 by the late longtime world #1 Galileo. It also features full or half-siblings to 47 Classic and G1 winners and 248 Group/listed winners.
Edmond Mahony, chairman Tattersalls, said; “The catalogue for Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale looks another vintage edition with an impressive number of yearlings closely related to outstanding racehorses of recent years.”
Business honor for BC’s Delgado
North America: Dora Delgado, chief racing officer at the Breeders’ Cup, has been named in Sports Business Journal’s ‘Game Changers’ list, which recognises women in senior leadership roles across sports business.
The dedicated sport digest’s annual list of 50 women collates executives across the global industry with “broad, deep, and varied responsibilities and oversight who contribute to the success of the industry in multiple ways”.
Delgado began her career at the Breeders' Cup nearly 40 years ago and is currently responsible for the development and administration of all BC racing programmes around the world, including the ‘Win and You’re In’ Challenge Series.
“Dora’s contributions to the success of the Breeders’ Cup over the last 38 years truly cannot be overstated,” said Breeders’ Cup president and CEO Drew Fleming. “Her hard work, passion, expertise and commitment to the horses and the sport are well known in the racing industry.”
Appeal by equine therapy charity
Europe: Together for Racing International (TfRI), a global alliance to promote and progress education, community engagement and career opportunities within the industry, is helping raise awareness with Cheval Espérance, an equine therapy charity around Rouen in Normandy.
Cheval Espérance was set up 15 years ago by Sabine and Laurent Bidault, who himself has a neurodegenerative disease, to give those either socially or physically disadvantaged the opportunity to develop skills and confidence through equine therapy. More than 200 riders each week benefit from the association.
Cheval Espérance is facing an urgent need to renew its equipment and is using crowd-funding in a bid to acquire a motorised winch to move riders from their wheelchairs to the horses, a harness, horse and pony saddles, adapted saddles and other bespoke equipment.
Click here to watch a two-minute presentation. To donate, click here.
Elsewhere in racing …
Europe: UK jockey Richard Kingscote has given up his role with trainer Tom Dascombe to pursue opportunities with Sir Michael Stoute. More here
North America: Kentucky Downs has increased non-stakes purses by eight percent. More here
North America: Santa Anita is increasing purses for its winter/spring meet. More here
North America: Central Kentucky Riding For Hope is to auction multiple halters at its 40th anniversary celebration. More here