What is the folly or evil afoot of selling us that the mere detectability of a substance, without any quantification, is a positive test? Why smear reputations and cast many people as wrongdoers with such positive test results when one claims the absolute right to deny them participation at a track for no reason at all?

[Melissa Keith wrote] that the FBI provided [The New Meadowlands LLC] with test results as part of the overall investigation that as we know led to numerous indictments and convictions.

When attorneys, those attorneys for the publicly maligned requested the U.S. Attorney in charge of the recently-concluded cases for a complete list of all names of any of the reported test results given to The Meadowlands, including what “picogram” levels of any detected substances may have been found, the response was not disclosure, but rather “you can get it from The Meadowlands.” Shockingly, the government agency punts to the private entity The Meadowlands.

I have learned that such counsel made a request to the New Meadowlands for all test results that were delivered to it by the FBI. From what has been shared, by The Meadowlands’ attorney, he released only the samples of the group that was reported out by The Meadowlands and none others. Interestingly, the test results, without any quantification, not the slightest picogram were secured by, and through Brice Cote. Samples were conveniently and perhaps illegally, secured post race from “other” tracks, not The Meadowlands of course. The samples were then sent to The Meadowlands’ favorite Hong Kong lab by Mr. Cote, with the request “to report any findings, it could possibly detect of substances not on the RMTC permissive medication list.”

The request from Mr. Cote, who at last glimpse was not an FBI agent, did not ask for the lab to report substances on the RMTC prohibited list, (those set by RMTC at ZERO tolerance), or to quantify the amount of substances found, or whether and when they were determined to have been administered. That type of data would reveal whether the finding was actually a positive. Under New York law in effect in 2018, where some of these samples were obtained by Mr. Cote, some being from Yonkers, finding a substance not specifically listed and prohibited within 24, 48, 72 or 96 hours i.e., would not have constituted a positive test, and further if not so listed, then a positive, only if administered within seven (7) days of a race. If not administered within those time periods, it would not be a positive and New York State would not have called them positives, simply because they were not. So why malign someone when all that one needs to do is close the track’s door in their face? Why agree with me publiclyin HRU that labs should not call low picogram levels, then smear people with reports from Hong Kong that doesn’t show any levels at all? The reports to Brice Cote from the Hong Kong lab confirm that statement.

Looking further, consider that one of the substances attributed to three of the trainers was subsequently classified by RMTC as a Class 4(b) substance. That doesn’t look like a prohibited substance, (zero tolerance – no amount permissible) even now. Now, such a substance, which is a therapeutic medication, would trigger a low penalty on the RMTC totem pole if it was determined to violate a withdrawal time or raised itself to an arbitrarily set picogram level. Have we not seen some persons with therapeutic medication positives continue to see a welcome mat laid at that The Meadowlands door, so why single just some out? Was their alleged offense any more egregious than those others whose levels were quantified?

So, all this does not equate to anything other than the intended character assassination of many people with a false narrative, one illustrating that harness needs to rid itself of state regulators and adopt for private regulation, the type the New Meadowlands LLC fancies better. Better for whom? Not the game, and perhaps that is the goal. We see such character assassination from delusional comedians, but why from the New Meadowlands LLC? Surely The Meadowlands must know that perhaps someone will learn, as I have, that the report of a positive test is intentionally misleading. This is false information, starting with us being told it came straight from the FBI and into the hands of Jeff Gural. A fact we doubted since there were no prosecutions for any of these alleged offenses in any jurisdiction, be it state or Federal.

Also, lest we forget, there was also a very, very extensive list of names, that was released early on in the infancy of the Federal case of many respected people in our game who purchased from Fishman and/or Giannelli, so why has only a partial list now been leaked? Is it just more of the hypocrisy that we’ve seen before from the New Meadowlands LLC? Does this falsehood play into the need to quash any opposition to private rulers either located in New Jersey or at the Federal private level? Should we as an industry embrace that private regulation with all its attendant warts as the panacea for the game?

As I said once before, a Freedom of Information Law request has been filed to learn why the NYS Gaming Commission, which is mandated by law to send samples to the NYS Drug Testing and Research Lab, not to private entities like the New Meadowlands LLC’s Brice Cote, sent any samples apparently for use in maligning trainers with reports cavalierly called “positives.” Positives that never existed as such under RMTC rules or that any industry experience would call as such, except to fit into someone’s agenda. No wonder there is little or no reciprocity from other tracks based upon The Meadowlands’ leaks, because there is no justification for such reciprocity.

Private entities like the New Meadowlands LLC or HISA have no one to answer to. One has to wonder, reading the HRU piece, if this is all staged to push the HISA model as a necessary evil beyond the reach of common horse sense as well as the law. A court of law may indeed find some wrongdoing with this dissemination of false information and labelling. Call this just another tit for tat thing between two who disagree so much as a justification to discount the facts, I don’t. A court of law may yet weigh in on all of these events.

Joe Faraldo / USTA chairman, president SOA of New York