Richard Moreau appeal hearing concludes

by Melissa Keith

Saturday (Sept. 5) was an uneventful homecoming of sorts for Funtime Bayama. Competing in the Woodbine Mohawk Park open pace, on a card filled with Grand Circuit and Ontario Sires Stakes races, the 5-year-old gelding finished eighth for driver Dexter Dunn and trainer Andrew Harris. It was the first Canadian race of the year for Funtime Bayama (p, 5, 1:48.2m; $433,049), a four-time winner from 16 seasonal starts. It followed the conclusion of the Ontario Horse Racing Appeal Panel (HRAP) hearing of Richard Moreau on Wednesday (Sept. 2). To refer to Moreau as de facto trainer of Funtime Bayama now seems awkward, ahead of a forthcoming decision by the HRAP. Although, indisputably, he was the pacer’s listed trainer from July 7, 2023 until June 15, 2024, the suspended horseman has argued that he was never responsible for the blood doping of Funtime Bayama.

On Sept. 1, Counsel for the Appellant Jean-Marc MacKenzie informed HRAP chair Stanley Sadinsky that Funtime Bayama’s breeder and former owner Yves Filion had been summoned to appear.

“His counsel has requested from us that he be excused… They gave a note from a physician indicating that he has some vulnerability,” MacKenzie said. “While we’re not satisfied with the note itself and we requested to speak with the physician, his health is not relevant to this matter before the panel and so we are not going to force this summons.”

Instead, it was time for Moreau to provide his statements. The 10-time O’Brien Trainer of the Year (2013-22) said he “end[ed] up as a horseman playing hockey” after studying finance and administration before launching his own stable.

“I’ve been in the business for over 40 years and a trainer for 38 years,” he testified. “I was a vet assistant in the early ’90s for Dr. Garth Henry, who taught me better than to play with fire. I had 60 horses and 12 employees when this [suspension] happened. They were like my family. I lost everything. Since [then], I’ve been praying to God every day and going to church on Sunday.”

He described his move from Montreal to Rideau Carleton and Windsor Raceways, followed by racing his “10 best horses” at Mohawk, “to try to make the big league.” He recalled racing “at least 30 horses a week, maybe more,” in recent years, with a focus on Mohawk.

MacKenzie asked Moreau whether he had previously trained horses for Yves Filion and Bayama Farms.

“I know them all my life because they were in Montreal, and when I moved to Ontario, I had something like probably 15 different horses left and right that I managed for them [over the years],” he replied. “They [Yves and son Sylvain Filion] have as much experience as I do. So, as owner, they give their own opinion of what they expect. It was always nice and easy until I dealt with this particular horse that was outstanding, and it was a little bit more hands-on and pressure.”

Moreau said that members of the Filion family were at his farm with Funtime Bayama “all the time, as much as they could,” with Sylvain showing up to jog or train the gelding “at least four days a week.” Yves gradually stopped coming to see the horse, while son Justin Filion “was coming by himself at the end” of Funtime Bayama’s final four to five weeks at the Puslinch, ON farm.

“How long had [Funtime Bayama] been on the property at Bayama Farms prior to coming to your property?” asked MacKenzie.

“I figure around eight months, at least,” Moreau said.

“To your knowledge, who was doing the training and conditioning of the horse during those eight months?” the Counsel for the Appellant asked.

“Yves [Filion] and his staff,” Moreau said. “It’s his own farm.”

MacKenzie pointed out that in over 30 announced inspections by the AGCO (Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario) since 2017, there had been no issues at Moreau’s private training center.

“The Filion family, I know all my life because they were racing at Blue Bonnets when I first started, and Sylvain himself, we were still friendly, even if he wasn’t my main driver back in 2024,” Moreau said. “For many years he was my number one driver, and then it turned to be Louis-Philippe Roy at the end there… I usually list the leading driver.”

Because he increasingly listed Roy, James MacDonald, and Doug McNair, Moreau said “Sylvain was only like back-up” by the time Funtime Bayama arrived in his barn as a 2-year-old in 2023.

In his first year with his new trainer, Funtime Bayama did not receive extra visits that were “enough to catch my attention,” Moreau said. “It seems like he was regular business.”

That changed when the gelding returned from a winter break at Yves Filion’s farm in Saint-André-d’Argenteuil, QC.

“To make a long story short, it’s just like if they gave me a car but they kept a set of keys,” Moreau testified. “I did everything in my knowledge to have everything under control, but as owner, they always had access… They were in very, very close communication about their animal.”

Sylvain Filion himself had appeared under summons on Aug. 31, speaking primarily in French with an English interpreter. When MacKenzie asked whether he had a financial interest in Funtime Bayama at any time, the Canadian Hall of Fame driver said he did not. He confirmed that he did own a house beside Bayama Farm, but denied working for Yves in 2023 or 2024. Sylvain said his role was “keeping an eye on my father’s favorite horse” and exercising the horse “two or three times a week” at Moreau’s farm.

“And who came up with the exercise regime of when the horse would be trained?” MacKenzie said.

“It was myself, Yves, and Richard,” Sylvain replied via the interpreter. He confirmed that his father was in charge of Funtime Bayama’s conditioning in Quebec, but had little to say about the involvement of Justin Filion.

“At that time, I didn’t speak too much with Justin,” Sylvain said in French. “I don’t know if he was there, or if he was elsewhere.”

When MacKenzie inquired if Sylvain was aware of who initially trained Funtime Bayama, the driver was unsure.

“I wouldn’t be able to tell you with certainty,” he replied, in French. “But I would imagine Yves Filion or Justin Filion, if he was there at the beginning.”

Sylvain said that feed, vet work, blood tests, and medication were all under Moreau’s control while Funtime Bayama was at the trainer’s farm.

MacKenzie questioned him about the accuracy of his recollection: “Do you remember telling the AGCO that you had requested ‘blood shot’ supplements?”

“Yes, all under the recommendations of my father, Yves,” Sylvain replied in French.

He said that Yves ordered regular bloodwork because he was concerned about Funtime Bayama tying up, which had happened twice.

“It’s not me that would take the bloodwork, just to be clear, but the bloodwork started [at the] beginning to middle of May, when he arrived from Quebec,” he said, via interpreter.

MacKenzie asked Sylvain about Funtime Bayama’s reputation as the “family pet.”

The driver replied that family members got together when the horse raced, and “all the horses [Yves] raised on his farm were like his children.”

Sylvain acknowledged that when Yves “was starting to get dementia and Alzheimer’s” approximately two years ago, Sylvain began buying horses from his father, including Funtime Bayama’s dam. The horses were transferred to Les Ecuries S Filion Inc, Saint-André-d’Argenteuil, QC.

In French, Sylvain said that he and Yves had originally decided to send Funtime Bayama to Moreau because “we’ve known Richard for a long time, he trained many horses for us, and he is the best.” Sylvain testified that his aging father was not able to train the gelding in Ontario because of the travel involved, and that his brother Justin did not because “it was a time when [Justin] was consuming a lot of drugs.”

During cross-examination, Counsel for the Registrar Brendan van Niejenhuis asked Sylvain, “Did Richard know what you were doing with Funtime Bayama?”

The driver responded that he regularly saw Moreau on the training track and spoke with him most of the time.

Van Niejenhuis questioned Sylvain about “doing much more than the average catch driver would do for a horse that they are driving.”

Sylvain replied that the extra time he spent with Funtime Bayama was because the gelding was his father’s horse.

In closing submissions, Robert MacKenzie (not Jean-Marc) defended Moreau’s record as a trainer who had “diligently fought for this day to come,” more than two years after his suspension in July 2024.

“This horse [Funtime Bayama] is owned, bred, managed, developed, and as we will see, trained by Bayama Farms or its operators and agents: Yves Filion, Sylvain Filion, and Justin Filion,” MacKenzie said. “[Yves] told the press… this horse would go to the [North America] Cup, then leave the country, probably to go to the Meadowlands Pace. The horse was moved to Mr. Moreau in May [2024]… He would have gone to New Jersey in July. Mr. Moreau does not do satellite training or U.S. racing, so that horse was dropped into his barn for a short visit.”

Robert MacKenzie drew attention to an AGCO investigation that found that Moreau was “not the person with care and control of Funtime Bayama,” and that Sylvain Filion was actually responsible, “as the owner or the agent of the owner” Yves Filion and Bayama Farm. Although the AGCO held Moreau and Sylvain Filion equally responsible for the horse’s positive out-of-competition test for DPO, MacKenzie noted that the decision was “based on an incomplete investigation and a written report of Dr. [Mike] Weber commissioned by director [Tyler] Durand on Sept. 26, 2024.”

He said that what was incomplete was that uncooperative witnesses Sylvain, Yves, and Justin Filion “were not subjected to the full scope” of investigation as “actual controllers” of Funtime Bayama. In addition, “Mr. Moreau’s [private] investigative efforts were the only ones that took us into Quebec to try to reveal what was happening there.”

“It appears this horse may have been the last crack at a big win before everybody happened to retire in 2024,” Robert MacKenzie said.

He noted that Funtime Bayama’s valuable dam Tymal Sugrbabydoll and several offspring had ownership changes submitted on Oct. 15, 2024, months after Yves Filion was reportedly unable to cooperate with the AGCO investigation. MacKenzie concluded that the Filions were extraordinary clients who only delegated certain tasks to Moreau. He illustrated the difference between “trainer” and “trainer of record” by citing the instance of Justin Filion being listed as Funtime Bayama’s trainer of record even though he was unaware of it.

Counsel for the Registrar Brendan van Niejenhuis pointed out that despite the discovery and availability of additional blood samples taken from Funtime Bayama on June 10, 2024, neither side had requested them. He said that Moreau had listed himself as trainer of record when entering the horse, and “knew and understood his responsibility,” regardless of accommodating the Filions’ “hands-on” style of ownership. Van Niejenhuis concluded that the AGCO ruling against Moreau should stand.

With Sylvain Filion’s HRAP hearing scheduled for Oct. 21, it seems unlikely that a decision on Moreau’s appeal will be made before that date. In the meantime, Moreau remains fourth all-time among North American trainers by career wins (6,947), and Funtime Bayama’s 3-year-old half-brother Golddiamond (p, 3, 1:56.2h; $15,522) is a perfect nine-for-nine this season in Quebec.