Flatter: Servis-Navarro case has outlasted 2 of the good guys

Happy anniversary. Or not.

Wednesday marked two years since the day U.S. horse racing stood still. That was when we heard that the barns of Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis were raided by the FBI. Twenty-seven indictments later, Navarro is doing time, and Servis is marking it as he waits for his trial.

Remember that Monday morning when the case was unveiled in New York? It happened at a news conference that appropriately was not far from Broadway. Just 20 minutes on a downtown subway to the real theater district. Navarro, Servis and the other 25 defendants immediately were branded as the bad guys in this story.

But what about the good guys? The ones who supposedly found the tip of an iceberg that would take down a bunch of other horsemen. This was the fissured glacier that doomsayers cried would sink horse racing. Why haven’t those government servants rounded up more of the usual – or unusual – suspects?

It turns out two years and two days later, the star of the news conference got the bum’s rush to the exit, and an important player in his orchestra was given a more challenging show to score.

Geoffrey Berman was the top prosecutor in the office that brought the case against Navarro, et al. Three months later, President Trump made like the lead character on “The Apprentice.” You know. “You’re fired.” Apparently, Berman’s prosecution of Trump’s inner circle did not go over well in the previous White House.

Berman since has landed a job with a private firm in New York, where he is dealing with accused white-collar criminals.

While he was the man at the top of the Justice Department flow chart in Lower Manhattan, Berman was not the quotidian grinder. A lot of the grunt work on the Navarro-Servis case fell to Andrew Adams, an ambitious, young litigator who worked in private practice before joining the U.S. Attorney’s office nine years ago.

Now Mr. Adams has bigger fish to fry. Much bigger. According to The New York Times, he is rolling up his sleeves to do the dirty work in chasing down Russian billionaires who have been useful to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Even the most tunnel-visioned horsehead has to admit there are more important things going on in the world than the chase of some syringe-brandishing horsemen. Having Adams seize mansions and yachts and their owners might forestall a spreading war.

Not that the punishment of the other wrongdoers has to stop. Sometimes it goes on quietly without the fanfare of a multi-headed, federal indictment. Take what happened at Gulfstream Park after Navarro pleaded guilty last summer. Without a formal announcement or even the changing of a widely seen placard, his training title from three years ago was stripped from him.

Look up the list of meet championships in the Gulfstream Park online media guide. There it says, “2018-19, Todd Pletcher, 47 victories.” Of course, there is an asterisk, complete with a footnote that reads “Awarded first.”

Navarro’s 53-win season vanished – except at Equibase, where all those trips to the winner’s circle still count. From eventual stakes victor Aztec Sense on opening day in December to Tombelaine on closing weekend in March. They still are on the official books with a big “1” next to their names.

Yet with the dispatch of racetrack fiat, Navarro’s title went away. Pletcher’s championship streak, which seemingly had been snapped at 15 years, was given second life and extended to its current 18. It would be 19 next month, if Pletcher catches Saffie Joseph Jr. At least it says so in the Gulfstream Park annals, even if it does not at Equibase.

The same thing appears to be true with Medina Spirit. Look up last year’s Kentucky Derby under the Historical Charts tab, and there has been no change in the order of finish.

That Mandaloun sign that was hoisted last month over the paddock at Churchill Downs? That means nothing at Equibase, which has frozen the original result of the Derby until Bob Baffert’s appeal of the betamethasone positive runs its course. There will be no running up and down ladders at that database.

What about Gamine? Same trainer. Same drug. Same stewards. Well, two of the same stewards. A demotion from third place to last in the 2020 Kentucky Oaks was formalized in January 2021. That was true even at Equibase, where Gamine’s ninth-place finish was etched into the digital record. Goes to show what happens when appeals are exhausted. Or the appealers.

Churchill Downs probably did not spend a lot of money to paint that “Mandaloun 2021” sign. Even accounting for the cost of a dues-paying union man to hang it, that guy otherwise might have spent the same time sealing a leak or tightening a loose screw. Since the company pulls in about $1 billion a year, it could have taken the signage job out of petty cash.

What did it cost for Gulfstream Park to change Navarro to Pletcher on its list of training champions? That comes down to how much time and electricity were spent to retype that entry into the database. It cost more to empty the waste basket next to the desk where that happened.

A more meaningful gesture by the tracks would have been to show they really meant it when they stopped recognizing Aztec Sense and Tombelaine and Medina Spirit as the official winners. Would they even consider for one millisecond honoring all the bets on the second-place horses?

Ha.

I still have a 110-1 futures ticket that would have cashed if Mandaloun had been awarded the Derby victory just 296 days earlier. But that is between Caesars Sportsbook and me. The track has nothing to do with it.

Not that I need to be mired in a fight to pocket that loot. The last thing I want to do is join the bureaucrats and lawyers who are clogging up the deep end of that swamp.

Anyway, it was just a thought. Here is another:

The concept of fixed odds for horse racing was unanimously approved by the New Jersey state legislature 262 days ago.

Gov. Phil Murphy signed it into law 218 days ago.

A 90-day grace period to write regulations theoretically ended 128 days ago.

A March launch was publicly targeted by Monmouth Park boss Dennis Drazin 46 days ago.

Just a reminder. March has 20 days to go.

Happy “anniversary.” Or not.