TUESDAY, JULY 27, 2021 THE WEEK IN REVIEW: ZAYAT'S BANKRUPTCY LAWYERS WANT TO SEVER TIES OVER $368K IN UNPAID FEES VITALI STARTING A HORSE by T.D. Thornton The law firm representing Ahmed Zayat in his $19-million AT SARATOGA IS NOT OK bankruptcy pleading asked a federal judge Monday for permission to walk away from the case based on Zayat's alleged non-payment of $368,273 to the firm in outstanding legal fees. "The representation of the Debtor has consumed an extremely significant amount of the available resources of our firm," wrote attorney Jay Lubetkin of Rabinowitz, Lubetkin & Tully, LLC, in a July 26 "motion to withdraw" filed in United States Bankruptcy Court (District of New Jersey). "The Debtor has been consistently advised that absent satisfactory arrangements for the payment of the outstanding fees and expenses due to our firm and newly incurred billings, the firm would have no alternative but to seek to withdraw from representation of the Debtor," Lubetkin wrote. Cont. p5 IN TDN EUROPE TODAY Marcus Vitali | Coglianese STRADIVARIUS FACES LATEST CUP TEST by Bill Finley Champion stayer Stradivarius looks to bounce back to form The system, whatever that has come to mean, failed badly last as he attempts a fifth straight win in the G1 Goodwood Cup. week when Marcus Vitali, one of the sport's most controversial Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. trainers, was allowed to start a horse at Saratoga. Then again, should anyone have been surprised? This was just the latest example of this being a sport that is so dysfunctional, its regulatory systems so weak, that it is completely unable to police itself. Help is on its way. Some day, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) will be implemented and a central body led by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) will begin the process of herding the cats to replace the current system with one that actually works. In the meantime, Marcus Vitali, despite dozens upon dozens of violations, is free to compete at the most important, most high-profile meet in the sport. That's an embarrassment. In a story last week in the TDN covering Vitali's appearance at Saratoga, T.D. Thornton put together what amounts to a rap sheet detailing all of Vitali's offenses. Where to start? There are 84 docket entries under his name in The Jockey Club's online rulings database, many of them for medication violations. Between 2011 and the start of 2016, Vitali was hit with 23 medication violations in Florida alone. 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 Senior Contributing Editor Tuesday, July 27, 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 Project Manager Rachel McCaffrey Advertising Assistants Amie Newcomb Kristen Lomasson Photographer/Photo Editor Sarah K. 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Vicki Forbes [email protected] Marketing Manager TODAY’S GRADED STAKES Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen ET Race Click for TV Chief Financial Officer 9:25a Unibet Vintage S.-G2, GOO -------------- TVG Ray Villa 10:00a Unibet Lennox S.-G2, GOO -------------- TVG [email protected] 10:35a Al Shaqab Goodwood Cup S.-G1, GOO -------------- TVG [email protected] 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 10 • THETDN.COM TUESDAY • JULY 27, 2021 Week in Review cont. from p1 One thing Vitali has always been good at is finding the weakest Thornton writes that Vitali was also investigated over a link in the system. There has always been a track willing to complaint of animal cruelty. accept his entries and a racing commission either so clueless or He voluntarily relinquished his Florida license, the strategy so impotent that it will issue him a license. Late last year, he appearing to be that he could not be fined or suspended if he found just such a commission in Arizona, where he was granted didn't have a license. He later negotiated a deal with Florida a license. A dereliction of if its duties to protect the integrity of regulators in which he accepted a 120-day suspension. the sport, the Arizona commission pumped new life into Vitali's That didn't mean that he stayed out of trouble. In 2016 and career. while under suspension, Vitali was banned at Gulfstream by The Turf Paradise looked the other way and opened its doors to Stronach Group, which alleged that he was running horses him. After 17 months away from the sport, he started a horse under another trainer's name. There was another incident at on Jan, 4, 2021 at Turf Paradise. Since, he has also raced in Delaware Park in July of 2019, when, during an inspection of the Pennsylvania at Presque Isle Downs and in Texas at Lone Star dorm room of a Vitali employee, Vitali allegedly ran into the Park. With Vitali having been granted a license in Arizona, the room, grabbed a package out of a refrigerator and ran off with options became limited when it comes to other racing it, the security guard giving chase. He was involved in another commissions banning him. But there doesn't appear to be any scandal last year when the Maryland Jockey Club alleged that he reason why the privately-owned track could not have banned was again running horses under another trainer's name. him on their own. For some tracks and racing commissions, enough was finally Running at Turf Paradise, Lone Star Park and Presque Isle enough. Vitali could not find a racing commission that would Downs is one thing. Saratoga is another. give him a license or a track to look the other way. He Vitali ran a horse named Red Venus (Candy Ride {Arg}), who disappeared after running a horse on July 21, 2019 at finished a non-threatening seventh in an optional claimer last Gulfstream. Had this feckless sport finally gotten rid of someone Thursday at Saratoga. Once the entry was made, the finger- for good whose record of infractions should have been more pointing began, as many were outraged that Vitali was than enough for lifetime banishment? Of course not. permitted to set foot on such hallowed ground. Cont. p4 TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 10 • THETDN.COM TUESDAY • JULY 27, 2021 Who was at fault? That gets complicated. evidence suggests it is not in NYRA's best interests to let him Vitali had secured a valid license from the New York Gaming race, then ban him. Commission, but that didn't mean that NYRA couldn't have In the meantime, HISA is in a holding pattern. The act is refused to accept the entry. That's essentially the course NYRA supposed to go into effect and USADA is supposed to take over took when, with the GI Belmont S. coming up, it suspended Bob the role of drug tester and regulator in less than a year, on July Baffert after Medina Spirit (Protonico) tested positive for 1, 2022. Unfortunately, that's unlikely to happen because of the betamethasone after crossing the wire first in the GI Kentucky lawsuits filed by the National HBPA and others contesting its Derby. Think what you want of Baffert, but his history of constitutionality. So far as the bigger picture goes, those violations is far less egregious than Vitali's. Why the double lawsuits figure to go nowhere but, at the same time, they will no standard? When Thornton reached out to NYRA for an doubt gum up the works and keep HISA from becoming a reality explanation as to why Baffert had been banned and Vitali was for some time to come, maybe even for years. not, NYRA had little to say. Were HISA here and had USADA already been put in charge, it's unimaginable that Vitali could have kept getting away with what he has been getting away with. But he had two in Monday at Presque Isle and will start another one there Tuesday and may, who knows, show up for an encore performance at Saratoga. It's come to the point where this is all a joke; a very sad joke. Montalvo Did Not Deserve Days When the Monmouth Park-based jockeys complained that a whip ban would put their safety in jeopardy, the counter- argument was that their complaints were unfounded because they could in fact use the whip on occasions when safety was a factor. It's time to rethink that. Jockey Carlos Montalvo used his whip in a July 11 race aboard a horse named M I Six (Mission Impazible), who was clearly Marcus Vitali | Lauren King getting out on the turn. He obviously felt that he needed to use However, it's not hard to understand NYRA's logic.