Jorge Navarro sentenced to five years in prison for role in doping programme

Leading US trainer Jorge Navarro was sentenced to five years in prison on Friday after pleading guilty to orchestrating an elaborate and significant programme to enhance the performance of his horses.

Announcing the sentence in a Manhattan court, federal judge Mary Kay Vyskocil ordered the trainer to report to prison in 60 days. The facility has not been determined but is expected to be in Florida.

The 46-year-old, who has trained more than 1,000 winners including the 2019 Dubai Golden Shaheen hero X Y Jet, pleaded guilty in August to intentionally giving, or directing others to give, banned performance enhancing drugs to his horses over a four-year period.

Navarro and trainer Jason Servis were among 27 people arrested in dawn raids carried out by the FBI in March 2020 after an undercover investigation, including the use of wiretaps, into allegations of the use of performance enhancing drugs in racing. Servis denies the allegations and pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.

Navarro pleaded not guilty to two counts against him but one was dropped after his guilty plea in August. Alongside his prison sentence, the trainer was previously ordered to pay $70,000 in forfeitures and $25.8 million in restitution to offset his financial gain.

Court documents in the case include a wiretap of conversation in which Navarro boasted about giving performance enhancing drugs to his highest profile horse, X Y Jet, including a blood builder that prosecutors say can cause cardiac issues. X Y Jet died in January 2020 from a heart attack, according to a statement by the trainer.

Since 2008, Navarro trained 1,224 winners and earned $34.9m in prize-money before he was arrested and his licence was suspended.

Navarro is the fifth person to be sentenced. Previously, defendants Scott Robinson and Scott Mangini each received 18 months in prison, while Sarah Izhaki was sentenced to time spent in jail plus three years of supervised release, and Jeremy Delk was handed three years' probation, four months home incarceration, 100 hours of community service, and a prohibition from participating in a prescription drug business.

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