2020 Saudi Cup investigation continues after Servis plea
The Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia announced Monday that its investigation into the 2020 Saudi Cup was continuing. Its written statement came three days after Jason Servis, the trainer of first-place finisher Maximum Security, pleaded guilty to U.S. federal doping charges.
One day after Servis made his plea, Maximum Security's owners Gary and Mary West released their own statement supporting the redistribution of the 2020 Saudi Cup purse. The Wests said reallocating the purse would "hopefully ... prevent future conduct of this nature."
Should the purse money for the race be redirected, the $10 million winner's share apparently would go to the connections of Midnight Bisou, who crossed the wire second, three-quarters of a length behind Maximum Security.
Payment of the purse for the Feb. 29, 2020, race was stopped after the March 9, 2020, indictment of Servis, who was accused of providing performance-enhancing drugs to "virtually all of the racehorses under his control." Servis pleaded guilty Friday to two charges related to the indictments.
The statement by the JCSA expressed an intent to finish the investigation and assess its ability to do so in the coming weeks but did not commit to a date for that to happen.
Servis had been charged in conjunction with a wide-sweeping series of indictments for creating and using performance-enhancing drugs that impacted both Thoroughbred and standardbred racing. Servis, the last person with charges from that sweep 2 1/2 years ago, had been scheduled to go to trial in January on counts of conspiracy to misbrand and adulterate performance-enhancing drugs and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.
Instead of going to trial, Servis pleaded guilty to two charges as part of an agreement with prosecutors. Those included a felony charge of misbranding and adulterating a chemical substance described by prosecutors as similar to clenbuterol as well as a misdemeanor charge of misbranding and adulterating a compound called SGF-1000. He may serve as many as four years in prison, has agreed to forfeit $311,760 and will pay $163,932 in restitution.
At the plea hearing Servis admitted his barn had given SGF-1000 to Maximum Security and that he continued to give it to horses even after New York regulators advised in September 2019 that it was prohibited. The plea agreement, to which Servis conceded, said SGF-1000 contained a growth factor that was intentionally difficult to detect.