Owners Seek Vindication for Firenze Fire, Shancelot

For the owners of Firenze Fire and Shancelot, the future promises to hold the key to unlocking the past.

Both horses were graded stakes winners for trainers whose licenses were revoked in March after they were arrested for their alleged roles in a racehorse doping scheme and hit with federal charges of using misbranded and adulterated drugs.

Firenze Fire became a grade 1 winner for trainer Jason Servis, and Shancelot earned grade 2 honors and finished second at last year's Breeders' Cup for Jorge Navarro, two trainers at the center of March 9 federal indictments that could lead to lengthy jail terms if they are convicted.

They are two of the best-known horses among the more than 100 runners who were stabled with Servis and Navarro and are now under the care of different trainers or stabled at farms for freshening.

The status of all of those horses changed this week with the expiration of a 60-day ban that was put in place after the indictments so that they could be tested and any illegal substances could pass through their system. With the calendar turning to May 8, some of those horses stabled in Florida and New York are now ready to seek the final round of approvals that stand between them and the resumptions of their racing careers. 

The testing process began in early April with the collection of hair samples. About 60 of those horses are based in Florida and Gulfstream Park, vice president of racing Mike Lakow said. None of those tests have returned with a positive finding for an illegal substance.

Now, the final steps in clearing those horses for racing will come early next week in Florida when they will work in front of the watchful eye of veterinarians. If that goes well, blood and urine samples will be taken, and in about seven to 10 days, if the tests come back negative, they can be entered in races again, Lakow said.

The connections of both Firenze Fire and Shancelot are awaiting results of follicle tests but don't envision any problems and are eagerly anticipating the day when they can once again enter their horses. That's when the next step of the process will begin, proving whether it was the horse's talent or illegal methods by their trainers that turned them into graded stakes winners.

Mr. Amore Stable's Firenze Fire is stabled at Belmont Park and has been working steadily for new trainer Kelly Breen, who is awaiting test results from the New York State Gaming Commission, followed by approval to set up a monitored workout and final testing.

"He's had hair samples taken, but we're waiting to get the all-clear word on that from the people in New York," Breen said.

The 2017 Champagne Stakes (G1) winner has not raced since winning the Feb. 15 General George Stakes (G3)—the Florida-bred's third consecutive stakes win since finishing fifth in the 2019 Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1)—and Breen said the homebred son of Poseidon's Warrior has passed a full battery of blood tests and seems as sharp as ever, with no drop-off since switching barns. 

"His legs have been good," Breen said. "We took a (complete blood count) when we first got him, and everything has been in the norm. The horse is a class act, and hopefully he can come back and run as good as ever, if not better."

With racing suspended in New York since March 15 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. Amore owner Ron Lombardi is uncertain of when and where Firenze Fire will race again. Yet given all the question marks raised by Servis' alleged involvement in using banned medications, Lombardi views that start, regardless of where it takes place, with the same anxiety that comes with a major grade 1 stakes.

"I'll be wearing my heart on my sleeve the day he races again," Lombardi said about a 5-year-old who posted five graded stakes wins, started in the 2018 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1), and earned $1,841,750 with Servis. "His next start is so big for me. If he can win, that would validate him and take a lot of things off the table."

Lombardi had about 12 horses with Servis, evenly divided between Florida and New York.

He said the follicle tests for his Florida horses all came back negative and that they will work May 11-13 in front of vets.

"After 60 days off, all of the horses I have with Ron are ready to run," Breen said. 

Lombardi said the process is moving at a slower pace in New York, where a Gaming Commission spokesperson said in a May 8 email, "Testing of the horses formerly trained by Service/Navarro has commenced. Results of hair testing are expected to be made available within four weeks of sampling."

As anxious as Lombardi is for an opportunity to vindicate his horse, Al Crawford has similar feelings about Shancelot.

Crawford, who owns Shancelot along with his wife, Michelle, and campaigns under the banner of Crawford Farms Racing, saw his colt emerge as one of the sport's top sprinters last year as a 3-year-old. The son of Shanghai Bobby won the 6 1/2-furlong Amsterdam Stakes (G2) by 12 1/2 lengths at Saratoga Race Course and was second to division champion Mitole  in the Sprint. 

Unraced since the Breeders' Cup, Shancelot was diagnosed with a slight tendon tear in early February that ended hopes of running in the Saudia Sprint in Saudi Arabia. He's now at KESMARC in Kentucky, recovering from a state-of-the-art treatment for the injury and could be heading to new trainer Steve Asmussen's Kentucky barn in the next few weeks to begin a comeback that Crawford believes will wash away any skepticism about what the colt has accomplished.

"I think Shancelot will more than prove himself to be the horse he was as a 3-year-old," Al Crawford said of the winner of three of six starts with earnings of $624,300. "I think the whole world will see that he is every bit of that horse and maybe more. He's being pointed to the Breeders' Cup, so that shows you what we think of him."

Shancelot, one of five horses Crawford had with Navarro since the start of the year, had hair samples taken and tested, and Crawford is confident they will come back negative. He said the $245,000 purchase at the 2018 Ocala Breeders' Sales March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training has been given a complete battery of tests on two occasions since October and that those results were double-checked after he learned of Navarro's indictment. In each instance, Crawford said there was nothing amiss, with no signs of any performance-enhancing drug in the colt's system.

The first checkup came shortly after Shancelot ran second, a head behind Omaha Beach , in the Oct. 5 Santa Anita Sprint Championship Stakes (G1). That was when the Crawfords bought out his original partner, Ivan Rodriguez Gelfenstein, to become sole owners of Shancelot and four other horses. Crawford said he paid $2.5 million for Gelfenstein's share of the five horses in a deal that allowed his former partner to keep the sixth horse in the package, Hal's Hope Stakes (G3) winner Identifier.

"We paid $2.5 million for him between the Santa Anita Sprint and the Breeders' Cup," said Crawford, who also has a large Standardbred breeding and racing operation that employed, among numerous others, trainers Christopher Oakes and Nick Surick, who were also named in the March 8 indictment. "There's no way I would make a $2.5 million purchase off a $5 million evaluation unless he came back clean. If something was wrong, I would not have paid that much money for him. We vetted everything. Inside and outside. He came back 100% sound—no PEDs."

The second battery of tests came in early February after the tendon injury, which Crawford described as a 6% tear. Crawford said those tests revealed nothing but the injury, and they were double-checked for SGF-1000 after Navarro's use of it was detailed in the federal indictment.

"If they pick up a PED, I'd be shocked," he said. "I'm not worried because the (KESMARC) vets checked everything after when he went to the clinic. I wanted a full body scan and everything else. I wanted to know if there are any other issues. We paid for full blood panels and full everything, and he came back perfect. He went to the farm at a time when Jorge was preparing him to go to Saudi Arabia, so if there was something there, it would have been detected.

"After the news of the indictment broke, I asked them to check again, and again they said there was nothing."

Because of all that testing, Crawford believes that Shancelot will be promptly cleared for racing and that the colt's performances were not influenced by PEDs.

"We have not been worried about him, and now the tendon is 100%," Crawford said. "I haven't said much because I don't want to jinx my colt, but when he gets on the track, I know he'll run great. I can't prove that until he runs, and I know there are so many people who hate him and hate us because of the indictments, so I'm going to let him do the talking."

Crawford said the other four horses, who are at a farm in Florida, passed the follicle test and will also be trained by Asmussen.

The list of former Servis/Navarro runners also includes Gary and Mary West's 3-year-old champion Maximum Security, who only began galloping with new trainer Bob Baffert last week and is at least 45 days away from a race, and Shekky Shebaz, who was third in the 2019 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1T).

Owned by Michael Dubb, Madaket Stables, and Bethlehem Stables, Shekky Shebaz is now at a farm in Florida but will ultimately join trainer Christophe Clement's stable when racing resumes in New York.

Among Dubb's other stakes-caliber runners with Servis who were owned in partnerships, Monongahela and Keota were sent to Chad Brown, and A Bit of Both will be trained by Brad Cox.

Though none of his Servis-trained horses been cleared for racing, Dubb said hair samples have been taken and that to his knowledge all the tests came back negative.

In the end, weighing the indictments against all the negative testing results, it would seem the sport's mechanism for preventing cheating is in need of repair. Craig Fravel, president and chief executive officer of Breeders' Cup from 2011 to 2019 and now CEO of racing operations for The Stronach Group, indicated as much in March during a Thoroughbred Owners of California conference call after the indictments.

"Obviously, all of us are embarrassed by this," Fravel said. "Clearly with (Servis and Navarro), testing was not sufficient. I can speak to it really not so much from my current position but more from my Breeders' Cup experience. Both of these trainers ran horses in the Breeders' Cup over the last several years. Those horses and a few others that they had were tested out of competition well in advance of the Breeders' Cup, on a randomized basis and sometimes repeat tested, and none of those tests came up showing anything illicit, illegal, or otherwise evidencing misbehavior.

"So, clearly, we do need to find other means of identifying trainers and veterinarians and others that might not be playing according to the rules."