SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2021 THIS SIDE UP: NAVARRO AND ALLEGED DOPING CO- CONSPIRATORS FILE MOTIONS TO DISMISS DAVID AND GOLIATH BOTH By T.D. Thornton Jorge Navarro and Seth Fishman, DVM, the federally indicted SEEKING THAT ONE HORSE trainer and veterinarian whose alleged litanies of racehorse doping date to at least 2002, both filed Feb. 5 motions to dismiss the drug alteration and misbranding conspiracy charges levied against them in United States District Court (Southern District of New York). According to federal prosecutors, one of their alleged conspiracies involved Navarro allegedly dosing elite-level sprinter X Y Jet "with 50 injections [and] through the mouth" of a performance-enhancing drug (PED) allegedly manufactured and distributed by Fishman before a big win in the 2019 G1 Golden Shaheen in Dubai. Cont. p7 Todd Pletcher | Sarah Andrew IN TDN EUROPE TODAY GLOBAL APPEAL REMAINS AS TATTS GOES VIRTUAL by Chris McGrath The live online Tattersalls February Sale drew 250 individual During this era of globalisation, our own walk of life has also bidders, with the top lots sold to America, Italy, Saudi Arabia and become ever more adapted to scale. In the old days, trainers Bahrain. Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. and stallions alike would draw the line at a similar number: up to three dozen, say. Now all big brands seem to require big volume. With stallion books, the traditional limits guaranteed undiluted quality. If you wanted to get a mare to Bold Ruler, boy, did she have to deserve the privilege. That's why I always look for those venerable influences, up-and-down, behind modern pedigrees: because you're getting the good stuff, whatever filters through. Nowadays, however, science and avarice routinely conspire to corral 200-plus mares for many unproven young stallions, and I suspect we'll be reaping a dismal harvest even after we introduce a ceiling of "only" 140. The advent of the "super trainer" has been viewed with equal concern by many of the old school. How, they ask, can even the most masterly horsemen monitor every nuance as fastidiously as did Charlie Whittingham, when they have 10 times as many animals on their books--and, moreover, have to commute between divisions by plane? Cont. p3 PUBLISHER & CEO Sue Morris Finley @suefinley [email protected] SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT Gary King @garykingTDN [email protected] EDITORIAL [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Jessica Martini @JessMartiniTDN Managing Editor Saturday, February 6, 2021 Alan Carasso @EquinealTDN Senior Editor Steve Sherack @SteveSherackTDN Racing Editor Brian DiDonato @BDiDonatoTDN Deputy Editor Christie DeBernardis @CDeBernardisTDN Associate Editors Christina Bossinakis @CBossTDN Joe Bianca @JBiancaTDN News and Features Editor In Memoriam: Ben Massam (1988-2019) ADVERTISING [email protected] Director of Advertising Alycia Borer Advertising Manager Lia Best Advertising Designer Amanda Crelin Advertising Assistant/Dir. Of Distribution Rachel McCaffrey Advertising Assistants Amie Newcomb Kristen Lomasson Photographer/Photo Editor Pictured in July 2020, Objectivity (Storm Cat - Secret Status) gallops at Ainsdale Beach Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew in Southport, England with owner Claire Howie. Sold as a yearling in 2005 for $6.3 [email protected] million and rehomed through an aftercare organization, Objectivity is now an eventer in Social Media Strategist Staffordshire. | Samantha Hulley Photography Justina Severni Associate Producer Katie Ritz TODAY’S GRADED STAKES ET Race Click for TV Director of Customer Service 2:36p Suwannee River S.-GIII, GP TJCIS PPs TVG Vicki Forbes [email protected] 3:30p Tampa Bay S.-GIII, TAM TJCIS PPs TVG/FS2 4:03p Las Virgenes S.-GIII, SA TJCIS PPs TVG/FS2 Marketing Manager 4:25p Withers S.-GIII, AQU TJCIS PPs TVG/FS2 Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen 4:32p Lambholm South Endeavour S.-GIII, TAM TJCIS PPs TVG/FS2 Director of IT & Accounting 4:36p San Marcos S.-GII, SA TJCIS PPs TVG/FS2 Ray Villa 5:02p Sam F. Davis S.-GIII, TAM TJCIS PPs TVG/FS2 [email protected] 6:14p San Vicente S.-GII, SA TJCIS PPs TVG/FS2 [email protected] 6:46p Thunder Road S.-GIII, SA TJCIS PPs TVG WORLDWIDE INFORMATION International Editor Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN [email protected] European Editor Emma Berry [email protected] Associate International Editor Heather Anderson @HLAndersonTDN Newmarket Bureau, Cafe Racing Sean Cronin & Tom Frary [email protected] 60 Broad Street, Suite 100 Red Bank, NJ 07701 732-747-8060 | www.TheTDN.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 3 OF 18 • THETDN.COM SATURDAY • FEBRUARY 6, 2021 Yet many of the biggest investors seem happy to forfeit that kind of intimate surveillance and it's hard to argue with the results. Granted assistants of adequate caliber, the system is demonstrably equal to pressures of scale; and it schools elite trainers who themselves, in turn, start delegating responsibility to emerging talents. The template for that process was Todd Pletcher, who learned his trade managing East Coast divisions for the mold-breaking Wayne Lukas. By prodigious focus, organization and dynamism, Pletcher has parlayed his talent into record-breaking yields since 1996. Only last weekend he became the first trainer to bank $400 million; he has seven Eclipse Awards as Outstanding Trainer (only the late Bobby Frankel even has five); and the many stallions he has made include Uncle Mo, Speightstown, More Than Ready, Quality Road, Munnings, English Channel and now Constitution. This is the year Pletcher becomes eligible to take a place long reserved in the Hall of Fame. As such, you would imagine that he will be eager, through 2021, to reiterate his historic standing in the story of our sport. Because what we must always remember, looking at these industrial stables, is that they remain driven and defined by the human strengths and foibles of one individual. And, having just endured his slowest year since 2002 (obviously the COVID-squeezed program/prizemoney had an awful lot to do with that), Pletcher will definitely be looking to roll back strong this time 'round. You don't have the success he has made routine without harnessing phenomenal talent to equal ambition. And if his own career has itself been game-changing, Pletcher will know that one neglected paradox of the "super trainer" culture is that competition has been rendered tougher at the elite level, too. With no real limit on numbers, then the best material won't be shared too far even at the very top. In terms of how long they have been on the scene, Pletcher has to be bracketed closer with Bob Baffert than Chad Brown or Brad Cox. In age, however, he is actually closer to those young guns. At 53, Pletcher remains in his prime--and yet he has seen it all. Few conditioners of his years can ever have compiled a more comprehensive playbook of familiar challenges. Cont. p4 TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 18 • THETDN.COM SATURDAY • FEBRUARY 6, 2021 This Side Up cont. Little wonder if Shadwell, on the retirement of Kiaran McLaughlin, named Pletcher as their man. Remember that even last year--when the dust had barely settled, after all, on his first win in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic--his 22% strike-rate was as metronomic as ever. And while Mutasaabeq (Into Mischief) is sadly off the GI Kentucky Derby trail with a minor shin issue, his 45 Triple Crown nominees match the second- and third-highest entries (Baffert 23, Steve Asmussen 22) combined. And you need only consider the fields assembling for both the races carrying Derby points Saturday to heighten a sense that here is a trainer ready to regroup and reassert. Known Agenda (Curlin) contests the GIII Sam F. Davis S. with his reputation freshly gilded by the performance at Gulfstream last week of Greatest Honour (Tapit). Even in opening up by 21 lengths on the third, that colt hadn't been able to get past him in a stretch duel at Aqueduct in November. The St Elias Stable homebred has already demonstrated plenty of stamina, then, albeit his damsire Byron (GB) (Green Desert) was a brisk horse with a brisk page. (Plenty of fuel, you guess, coming through from Darshaan (GB) (Shirley Heights {GB}) behind his second dam.) We'll cheerfully put a line through Known Agenda's subsequent effort in the GII Remsen S., where so unhappy on the slop that his rider resorted to the whip a couple of times on the backstretch. His maiden success, after all, has meanwhile been boosted by the distant third, barnmate Overtook (Curlin), who now graduates to stakes company in the GIII Withers S. Donegal Bay | Sarah Andrew Actually St Elias Stable, that reliable badge of class, also has a piece of this improver. His closing style will presumably contrast with Pletcher's other runner here, Donegal Bay (Uncle Mo), who shook off his pursuers nicely breaking his maiden. All these horses are bred for the job, too. Cont. p5 TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 5 OF 18 • THETDN.COM SATURDAY • FEBRUARY 6, 2021 Known Agenda is out of a Grade I winner; likewise Overtook, a $1-million yearling tracing to Numbered Account; and though Donegal Bay was picked up for $90,000, he belongs to a Juddmonte family of Classic accomplishment. Let's be under no illusions, then. Even if Goliath nowadays finds himself in an armlock with opponents of equal brawn, it's still an awful lot harder being David. And there's no mistaking who fills that role here. Capo Kane (Street Sense) was a $26,000 2-year-old purchase--his pinhooker no doubt caught in the COVID backdraft, after giving $75,000 the previous September--and gave trainer Harold Wyner the first stakes success of his life in the Jerome S.