To pay forfeiture penalty of US$62,821
US District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil sentenced harness trainer Chris Oakes, who conspired with Thoroughbred trainer Jorge Navarro to give performance-enhancing drugs to Thoroughbred racehorses, to three years in prison during a sentencing hearing March 3. Oakes was also ordered to pay a forfeiture penalty of US$62,821.
Oakes' sentence followed the Feb. 24 sentencing of Thoroughbred trainer Marcos Zulueta by Vyskocil to a term of 33 months in prison, and a guilty plea of harness trainer Rick Dane Jr. Feb. 18. Vyskocil will preside over Dane's sentencing June 21.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams issued a statement after the sentencing in which he remarked: "These three defendants, Christopher Oakes, Marcos Zulueta, and Rick Dane Jr., each undertook a duty to care for and protect the health and safety of the animals under their control. Each man flagrantly violated that duty in pursuit of purse money. Oakes' sentence today, like Zulueta's sentence, reflects the callousness of their crimes, and the gravity with which this office takes the kind of abuse that each practiced."
Oakes, 59, was among more than two dozen individuals charged in the horse-doping case. Previously, in issuing a guilty plea in court Oct. 20, Oakes acknowledged purchasing illegal drugs from co-defendants Dr. Seth Fishman, Dr. Gregory Skelton, and Skelton's assistant Ross Cohen. The Pennsylvania-based trainer admitted administering the medications to his horses "to try to gain an unfair advantage."
In the government's indictment of Oakes and other defendants, prosecutors noted intercepted communications between Navarro and Oakes in which they conspired to provide Navarro's star sprinter X Y Jet with PEDs. Navarro announced in January 2020 that X Y Jet had died from a heart attack.
Navarro was given a five-year prison term in a December sentencing hearing and is to report to prison this month.
Besides telephone intercepts, law enforcement officers found adulterated and misbranded PEDs in Oakes' barn in Pennsylvania, which the government planned to introduce if the case had gone to trial.
According to prosecutors, by evading PED prohibitions and deceiving regulators and officials, charged participants in this horse-doping case sought to improve race performance from their horses and obtain prize money from racetracks throughout the United States and other countries, including in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Ohio, Kentucky, and the United Arab Emirates. The government believes PED use risked the health of their racehorses.
