Why did it take 18 months for the sport to punish Jeff Gillis after The Meadowlands
banned him for being on a list of alleged EPO purchasers?

by Dave Briggs

The wiretaps are chilling for their utter disregard for equine health and safety and Jeff Gillis’ blatant robbery of his fellow horsepeople, but, sadly, not surprising. The response by racing commissions and associations, while nice, is far too slow.

This week, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) handed the trainer a 10-year suspension and a $40,000 fine. The United States Trotting Association (USTA) quickly slapped a reciprocal “indefinite” ban of Gillis.

Kudos to the AGCO for being the first to act — and deliver a stiff penalty — when many others failed. But it’s troubling all this comes 18 months after Meadowlands owner Jeff Gural banned Gillis and 32 other people from his track whose names appeared on records indicating they allegedly made, at the very least, questionable purchases from disgraced veterinarian Seth Fishman’s performance-enhancing drug (PED) operation. Fishman is a convicted horse dope peddler that holds the dubious distinction of receiving the longest federal prison sentence (11 years) among more than 20 people sent to jail for a collective total of more than 65 years in horse doping cases brought by the FBI and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Gural makes a troubling and salient point when he wrote that not one track bothered to ask him what evidence he had to ban 33 people a year-and-a-half ago. We asked Gural on Saturday if that extended beyond tracks and he responded via email that no racing commissions or associations asked for more information, either.

“Sadly, no one asked, but we provided the info to the New Jersey Racing Commission, AGCO and Hambletonian Society,” Gural said.

So, why did it take the public release of the wiretap transcripts of conversations between Fishman and Gillis before action was taken?

In the 18 months since Gural banned Gillis from the biggest track in the sport — specifically placing Gillis on a list of those said to have purchased the “untraceable” performance-enhancer BB3 (EPO), which we now know from the wiretaps Gillis did indeed purchase — horses trained by Gillis collectively earned nearly $2 million in purses and his UTRS hovered over .300.

Gural said he believes if it wasn’t for the transcripts being released, “Gillis would still be racing except at my tracks.”

It’s not unreasonable to think that in those 18 months, a man that had few qualms about purchasing EPO multiple times because he couldn’t compete without it — it’s right there on the wiretaps — continued to put the health of his horses in jeopardy and continued to steal from honest competitors.

Human athletes using PEDs to cheat is egregious enough. It’s disgraceful to give potentially harmful substances to innocent horses that lack the ability to consent.

The AGCO said Gillis purchased or attempted to purchase drugs from Fishman multiple times between Oct. 14, 2018 and June 27, 2019.

In the wiretap transcripts released into evidence, Gillis said to Fishman, “I ordered some of the BB3 from you last fall” and then placed an order for 10 more doses/bottles.

A discussion of the price per bottle then led to this exchange:

Fishman: “Unfortunately building blood is not cheap friend.”

Gillis: “No, I hear you.”

Fishman: “It’s the Holy Grail of all sports.”

Gillis: “Yeah, and try and compete without it, you know, at a high level.”

Fishman: “I know in the thoroughbreds what these guys are pushing but you know it’s insane and… I don’t mention names, I don’t talk about other people, but I’ve seen some bloods on horses being claimed by certain trainers, and I don’t know, I don’t think they are getting out of competition tested let’s leave it at that.”

Gillis: “Right, right.”

Fishman: “That’s just my theory, you know?”

Gillis: “And with either of these you are confident that there’s — if they pull blood six hours later you would be safe?”

Fishman: “Well, on mine I am very confident because it [was] tested… literally it was like 12 hours later. They gave it the night before and [Meadowlands investigator] Brice Cote showed up to their farm like early in the morning.”

Gillis: “And then you said that [sample was sent] to Hong Kong [to be tested], I think you told me.”

Fishman: “Yeah, it did go to Hong Kong. Well, that’s what they told the person.”

There’s plenty to unpack there, but let’s just stick to the fact that the wiretaps were from more than five years ago and little was done to Gillis until now.

It’s important to note that Gillis does not show a positive test on his record that we could find. So, if he did use EPO, he got away with it until now. It was the wiretaps that did him in, which is why that work, partly funded by Gural, is so important.

That this is the second 10-year suspension and $40,000 fine handed down by the AGCO in less than a year for alleged EPO use — the Richard Moreau / Sylvain Filion case is currently under appeal — is progress. At least in that case, there was a positive test.

Yet, the sad reality is that many of us bemoan the decline of the sport and do little to improve the situation.

Racing commissions and associations simply must do better to investigate cases of cheating that are right there in front of them, especially when horses are endangered. Commissions that don’t act in a timely fashion are failing to uphold their mission to protect horses and the public. Gural has long said he has more evidence that should put away more bad actors. Ask him for it.

Meanwhile, more tracks should follow Gural’s lead and exercise private property rights to ban unscrupulous operators.

Finally, honest horsepeople must demand better of regulators and speak up, anonymously, when they suspect someone is giving horses PEDs. Remaining silent is akin to tossing a thief the keys to your house and letting them know when you won’t be home.

At the core of all of this is protecting the very animals on which everyone in the industry makes their living — and the vast majority of us profess to love.

For their sake, all of us need to do better.