Alleged Navarro Co-Conspirator Zulueta to Change Plea

Following a summer plea change to guilty by disgraced trainer Jorge Navarro in a horse-doping case, one of his alleged co-conspirators, Mid-Atlantic trainer Marcos Zulueta, seems ready to follow suit.

A change-of-plea hearing is scheduled before U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil Oct. 15 in the Southern District of New York. In recent months, other defendants among the roughly two dozen individuals charged by prosecutors in the doping scheme have altered pleas from not guilty to guilty. 

Navarro is the most high-profile defendant to do so, while another prominent trainer, Jason Servis, has maintained a not guilty plea. Attorneys for Servis and other defendants have sought to suppress government wiretaps, which captured the defendants discussing illegal activities, prosecutors claim. They are accused of contributing to the sale, use, or distribution of adulterated and misbranded performance-enhancing drugs.

According to court documents, Navarro and Zulueta discussed in February 2019 Navarro's need for a particular customized performance-enhancing drug referred to as a "blocker" that would be administered to the Navarro-trained X Y Jet . Zulueta agreed to supply the PED by an overnight shipment.

A couple of months later, Navarro and Zulueta were captured on a wiretap in April 2019 in which they discussed Navarro's doping of X Y Jet with a drug called "monkey" in the weeks leading to his victory in the Dubai Golden Shaheen Sponsored by Gulf News (G1) at Meydan.

The indictment said that substance, erythropoietin (Epogen or EPO), is a blood-builder that can increase stamina. The indictment also notes that erythropoietin can increase cardiac exertion and pressure and lead to cardiac issues, including death.

In January 2020, Navarro announced that X Y Jet had died from a heart attack.

During his Aug. 11 hearing in which he pled guilty, Navarro admitted to a scheme that included the administration of various adulterated and misbranded performance-enhancing drugs to X Y Jet and other horses. He faces up to five years in prison and financial penalties.

The speedy, layoff-prone X Y Jet, who Navarro began training in December 2014, was campaigned by Gelfenstein Farm throughout his 26-race career and Rockingham Ranch took part ownership in 2016. David Bernsen assumed a 10% interest of X Y Jet in early December 2019 as part of a partial restructuring and dispersal of horses he owned in partnership with Rockingham Ranch.

Zulueta, suspended from racing in March of 2020 along with other defendants, has trained 455 winners from 1,884 starters for a 24% career win percentage. Operating a stable of mostly claiming and mid-level horses, he ranked among the top 100 trainers in the country in 2015-16 either by wins or earnings. The runners in his stable earned $13.1 million over the trainer's career. 

The trainer's last runner was March 7, 2020, at Parx Racing. He also ran horses at times in other parts of the northeast, including Penn National Race Course, Laurel Park, Delaware Park, and Monmouth Park, where Navarro was the leading trainer seven times.