Eight horsemen filed a suit late last month in New York’s Northern District Court accusing Meadowlands Racetrack owner Jeff Gural of banning their horses to advance his own.
“Gural owns an interest in a number of horses that he races at Tioga, Vernon and/or The Meadowlands,” according to the lawsuit. “Indeed, Gural maintains a stable of horses that he races at The Meadowlands.”
But Gural has made it a mission to get rid of horsemen he believes use doping on animals, according to CDC Gaming Reports.
The Meadowlands eight include Kapildeo Singh, Lawrence Dumain, Ira Wallach, Brian Wallach, Yves Sarrazin, Erlin Hill, Bruce Soulsby, and Alan Weisenberg. Sarrazin owned 60 percent of When Dovescry, the 2019 winner of the Hambletonian Oaks, harness racing’s most lucrative race for 3-year-old females.
Before the ban, the men claim they planned to race When Dovescry at Meadowlands this year, as well as at Tioga Downs and Vernon Downs, also Gural tracks in upstate New York.
The issue took center stage in March 2020 with the indictment of 27 men and women for participation in a doping scheme. Then came the indictment of Rene Allard, then the second-leading trainer at Yonkers Raceway.
The accusation against Allard, who trained When Dovescry in 2019, alleges that “horses under Allard’s control had died after receiving adulterated and misbranded drugs.”
Gural banned Allard-affiliated horsemen beginning in March of this year. But the plaintiffs say the ban was not equally enforced.
“To learn that people actually give Allard to horses to train after what was discovered by the federal investigation boggles the mind. The only reason I do this ban is to clean up racing so we might have a future and to protect the guys that do try to follow the rules,” Gural said.
The lawsuit said, “To participate as viable owners in the harness racing industry, plaintiffs need to have the ability to stable and train their horses, qualify their horses in sanctioned qualifying races, and have the ability to enter in races throughout the New York and New Jersey region.”
In 2016, Gural issued a lifetime ban to Standardbred Owners Association of New York President Joseph Faraldo for allowing suspected doper Richard Banca train two of his horses.
“Mr. Gural has placed himself as judge and jury over people’s rights in this game and has done so in a very hypocritical fashion,” Faraldo said.
Gural has a history of banning suspected horsemen, and spending money to investigate. Some horsemen support his crusade; others oppose.
“It’s a little discouraging that when you’re trying to clean up the drug problem, we now have to hire an expensive lawyer to defend us against this lawsuit, which essentially calls me dishonest,” Gural said in a statement on Monday.
