Horse Racing

Judge Upholds Meadowlands Prohibit owners from linking to Indicted trainers


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Update: December 30, 2021 at 1:01 pm

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A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit filed by eight harness owners who were banned from races owned by Jeff Gural due to their relationship with indicted coach Rene Allard. Gural owns the Meadowlands in New Jersey and the Tioga Downs and Vernon Downs in New York.

The lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice, meaning that the plaintiffs could file further lawsuits on the same basis.
Despite the charges against Allard, he was given permission by the US Department of Justice to train horses at a training center in South Florida, as long as the horses in his care were not prepared for the race. On March 6, Gural announced that any owner with a horse with Allard would be banned from his track and their horses would not be eligible to race there. He also announced a ban on anyone continuing to have horses in partnership with eight owners.

“To know that people actually gave this guy horses to train after what was discovered by the Federal investigation was mind-bending,” Gural said at the time. The owners, Kap Singh, Lawrence Dumain, Ira Wallach, Brian Wallach, Yves Sarrazin, Erin Hill, Bruce Soulsby and Allen Weisenberg have filed a lawsuit, alleging violations of federal antitrust and state competition laws state. The group alleges that Gural is trying to “wash up their illegal actions by attempting to smear Plaintiffs with Rene Allard’s misconduct.”

US District Judge Lawrence Khan disagreed, upholding the injunction. “Judge Kahn clearly saw that this antitrust theory had no legs and did the right thing by dismissing the entire case,” Gural said in a statement. “This lawsuit and its results only strengthen my resolve to remove PED from our industry even if it means defending baseless lawsuits like this or suing those who are not. my legal action against people who interfere with our efforts, if I have to. In my view, our industry demands that owners not be reprimanded and held accountable for the training decisions they make. ”

More than any other race owner or manager in Harness or Thoroughbred, Gural has been extra vigilant in his efforts to keep the accused out of his tracks. Several Harness riders were indicted in March 2020 for allegedly participating in a popular scheme to cause addiction to racehorses that were banned at the Gural racetrack. Allard has been banned from the Meadowlands since 2013.

He’s had 4,570 career wins and his horses have raked in more than $53 million.

Allard, 36, was charged with misbranding and drug modification, which carries a maximum sentence of five years. He continues to fight the charges.

During the Allard investigation, the FBI intercepted a disturbing phone conversation between Ross Cohen and Louis Grasso, two other defendants, discussing the deaths of Allard-trained horses that died after when being given illegal drugs. Cohen called Allard’s operation “Allard’s death camp.”

As reported by FBI agent Bruce Turpin, a raid on Allard’s warehouse produced empty syringes, Glycopyrrolate, epinephrine, and vials labeled “Thymosine Beta” and “for research purposes only.” .

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