The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario has suspended both horsemen for 10 years and slapped each with $40,000 after DPO was found in Pepsi North America Cup competitor Funtime Bayama. Interviewed at length, Moreau told HRU he is appealing.

by Melissa Keith

While no date has yet been set for the Ontario Horse Racing Appeal Panel (HRAP) hearing of Richard Moreau, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) announced substantial fines ($40,000 each) and 10-year license suspensions for both the suspended trainer and driver Sylvain Filion on Friday (Nov. 1). Filion’s suspension will extend from Oct. 31, 2024 through Oct. 31, 2034, inclusive. Moreau’s runs from July 23, 2024 through July 23, 2034.

AGCO deputy registrar Katherine Cunningham’s order also stated that horses trained by Filion and Moreau are ineligible to race, unless sold or moved to a trainer in good standing. Horses owned or co-owned by either are barred from competition. Neither is permitted to go beyond the grandstand if attending any Ontario racetrack. Both are required to complete the AGCO Equine Medication Use and Awareness Program in order to pursue future reinstatement. 

The AGCO imposed the penalties for Moreau and Filion’s alleged involvement with the administration of a banned substance to 3-year-old pacing gelding Funtime Bayama (p, 3, 1:49.1s; $322,108). The horse was the subject of out-of-competition drug testing by the AGCO on June 10, 2024; a certificate of analysis later confirmed that he had tested positive for DPO or darbepoetin alfa. The banned substance is a protein-based drug used to increase red blood cell production, with damaging side effects and no therapeutic value for horses.

News of the substantial suspensions and fines became public just three days after Moreau’s 60th birthday, but he told HRU Saturday (Nov. 2) that he was already aware of it.

“I knew everything before they even posted,” he said. “I’ve been off work for four months. I’ve been fighting for my life, but it’s in the hands of my lawyer.”

No word, yet, if Filion is planning to appeal.

The leading Woodbine Mohawk Park trainer this meet, Moreau said he had long aspired to the career he was enjoying until it came to an abrupt halt. “I studied administration and finance in Quebec. I played hockey with the boys from the track. I worked for [Blue Bonnets 1989 Trainer of the Year] Robert MacKenzie, who died last year. Then I worked hard on my own. I moved to Ottawa and raced my own horses.”

He said that Robert MacKenzie’s lawyer son, Jean-Marc MacKenzie, is representing him in the Funtime Bayama appeal.

Moreau has been sidelined from training since July 22, 2024, although he maintained his innocence in a July 24 comment to HRU as well as on Facebook (“For all of you who know me, obviously, I didn’t do it.”) His four trainees entered to race July 23 at Mohawk were all scratched. The AGCO announced his suspension on July 24. He has 160 training wins and $1,799,744 in earnings this season; 6,947 wins and $64,707,500 over his career. 

“If I were to come back tomorrow, 15 to 20 horses would come back the next day,” said Moreau, adding that he would not want to return to the “high volume” of horses it took to establish himself as the top Canadian trainer. “I don’t have anything to prove anymore. I’m proud of what I accomplished. I don’t want to go back [to training a large stable] when I’m 70 years old.”

Listening to music, walking on a treadmill, and doing maintenance on the training track at his farm occupy Moreau’s time as he awaits word of his appeal hearing date. “I don’t think my lawyer did apply yet,” Moreau said. “It’s a slow process. Right now, I just rent stalls and do the track, which is the same as I was doing anyway. I’m by the books and the last thing I want is to get myself in trouble.”

Moreau respectfully declined to comment on the specifics of the Funtime Bayama case or his fine and suspension.

“I’ve been fighting Lasix positives. Meanwhile, I win them all,” he said.

An Aug. 20, 2024 decision by the Ontario Horse Racing Appeal Panel (HRAP) set aside Moreau’s $2,500 fines in relation to the disqualification of pacer Real Willey at Mohawk on June 19 and July 22, 2023. The appeal was dismissed, although the disqualifications were upheld. Real Willey was in the AGCO’s Exercise Induced Pulmonary Haemorrhage (EIPH) program at the time of the Lasix overages. 

His career at a crossroads, the 10-time O’Brien Trainer of the Year (2013-22) looked back wistfully.

“I finally made it. I lived the dream,” he told HRU. “I thought that I would be eligible for the O’Brien Awards last year, but I was fighting Lasix positives. Same for the [Canadian] Hall of Fame.”

Moreau said that now, the horses he recently trained are not even allowed to be stabled on his farm.

He firmly denied administering DPO to Funtime Bayama.

“I would never even consider using it, but it’s hard to prove me out of it,” he told HRU, adding that he wouldn’t speculate about how the drug ended up in the horse. “I don’t even know what the package looks like.

“I don’t want to throw nobody under the bus. Meanwhile, we have to be patient.”

The AGCO’s decision in the case was accompanied by a statement from AGCO registrar and CEO Dr. Karin Schnarr: “The AGCO is committed to protecting the health and wellbeing of Ontario’s racehorses and maintaining the fairness and integrity of racing. Performance-enhancing substances have no business in the sport and their administration can lead to severe consequences for licence holders.”

The AGCO ruled that Filion had been the de facto trainer for Funtime Bayama, while Moreau was the listed trainer, making both responsible, based on “an inspection into the circumstances surrounding the positive test.”

Funtime Bayama was owned by Yves Filion, Sylvain Filion’s father, prior to being sold for an undisclosed figure. The homebred gelding’s ownership was officially transferred on June 20, 2024, before results of his June 10 drug test were available. He is currently owned by William Pollock and Bruce Areman, both of Freehold, NJ, along with trainer Andrew Harris of Allentown, NJ. The AGCO suspended Funtime Bayama from racing from June 24-Dec. 24, 2024. In an Aug. 2 interview with HRU, Harris said that he had been advised by a lawyer not to comment on the situation. He was able to confirm that Funtime Bayama, unraced since his 10th-place finish in the Meadowlands Pace July 13, remained in New Jersey. 

Moreau had trained Funtime Bayama from his first, winning Woodbine Mohawk Park qualifier on July 7, 2023 until the horse was sold. Sylvain drove Funtime Bayama in that qualifier, but Yves was in the sulky for the gelding’s first two pari-mutuel starts: place finishes in Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots July 14, 2023 and Gold July 21, 2023, both at Mohawk. Sylvain drove in every subsequent start prior to the sale of Funtime Bayama. On Sept. 2, 2023, the 2-year-old gelding set a 1:50.1s divisional track and Canadian record in an OSS Gold leg. To date, the horse has eight wins from 15 career starts, with a 1:49.1s lifetime mark taken in his June 1, 2024 Somebeachsomewhere stake victory. 

In a post-race on-track interview following his Oct. 12 OSS Gold Super Final win with You Got It Kemp, Sylvain provided measured responses to questions.

“I’ve had a decent career so far, so hopefully things will keep going,” he said. “I’ll take a bit of time off, until probably next summer. I’ll see from there. I really don’t know what I’m going to do.” He had just equalled Paul MacDonell’s record for OSS Gold Super Finals driving wins (18); in the 3-year-old pacing filly Super Final. Sylvain surpassed that mark by winning with Odds On Platinum. 

On Oct. 23, 2023 at Mohawk, Sylvain recorded his 10,000th driving win. The 55-year-old horseman has not driven in a race anywhere since Oct. 12, 2024. He was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in August of this year. Yves was inducted into the same Hall of Fame in 2016.

Moreau said he was introduced to the sport by Grand Circuit driver Yannick Gingras’ father, trainer/driver Raymond Gingras.

“I used to babysit Yannick, because he’s my cousin,” Moreau said. “That’s how I started in the business.”

Moreau’s father worked as a banker in Montreal. 

Ascending the training ranks in Ontario took many years. Moreau recalled the farm, owned by Ian Reid, where he had brought his best horses to try to establish himself as a trainer at nearby Mohawk.

“I had 10 horses racing at Mohawk,” Moreau said. “I was trying to make it, and it worked. My other 25 horses were at Windsor.”

Later based at Classy Lane Training Center in Puslinch, ON, Moreau moved his stable to a Freelton, ON farm he and Garth Henry purchased in early 2010. He later bought out Henry’s share, and trained horses there until the Funtime Bayama situation emerged.

“I have the perfect set-up, 10 minutes down the road [from Mohawk],” he told HRU. “I didn’t mean to retire all of a sudden.”

Still living on his farm, Moreau said he’s now renting out both of the barns, instead of just one.

The AGCO ruling dims, but does not eliminate, the prospect of Moreau’s or Sylvain’s return to Woodbine Mohawk Park.

Meanwhile, Yves has not raced Funtime Bayama’s 2-year-old Bettors Delight half-brother Greattime Bayama since the gelding’s fourth-place finish in an Aug. 4 Coupe de l’Avenir elim at Hippodrome 3R. Greattime Bayama had won a Mohawk 2-year-old qualifier for Sylvain on June 29. On Aug. 10, the pacer changed ownership, moving from breeder-trainer Yves’ Bayama Farms Inc. of Saint-Andre-D’Argenteuil, QC to Les Ecuries S. Filion Inc. of Milton, ON, which also owned dam Tymal Sugrbabydoll and her latest sons, Mirabel Bayama (2024) and Handsome Bayama (2023); unraced fillies Emy Rose and Fairy Bayama; and unraced stallion Dreamer Bayama before Friday’s ruling.

Yves’ son Justin Filion is suspended indefinitely (effective Aug. 16) for refusing to make a statement to AGCO judges during the Funtime Bayama investigation. Sylvain had earlier told HRU that Justin was helping Yves at Bayama Farms, the family’s Quebec standardbred nursery where Funtime Bayama was raised and also wintered before his 3-year-old return to racing at Mohawk. 

While both Yves and Sylvain are inducted in the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame, Moreau’s legacy now looks less certain, although he told HRU he is not returning to Quebec.

“My address is in Ontario,” he said. “I cheer for the Leafs. My next move would be an oceanfront condo.”

Though, he added that he would rather resume training horses, the focus of his life’s work.