Surick Gets 62 Months in Doping Sentence

[Wandering Eyes]

Standardbred trainer Nick Surick, who has admitted to doping his own horses as well as assisting Jorge Navarro in that trainer's own doping scheme, was sentenced to 62 months in federal prison Thursday by U. S. Dictrict Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil in United States District Court, Southern District of New York in lower Manhattan.

“I consider your conduct to be very serious,” Vyskocil told Surick at the sentencing. “By giving horses performance-enhancing drugs, you endangered the horses, and the other horses they raced against, as well as the jockeys and drivers. You're supposed to be caring for horses that you trained, yet you risked their lives and impugned the integrity of the sport in which you made your livelihood.”

Surick's case was complicated by the fact that he had attempted to cooperate with the government, however, because of a discrepancy about who was responsible for the doping of a Standardbred horse named Northern Virgin, the government concluded he was not a reliable witness.

Vyskocil pointed to the Northern Virgin case when explaining why she decided to give Surick the sentence that she did. “Only Mr. Surick was charged with obstruction,” she said. “Mr. Navarro was no. It was Mr. Surick's horse and his terrible decision to do what he did with the horse. He moved the horse to other states and went to lengths to hide him.”

Surick's attorney had requested one year of home confinement, which Visk9ol said she felt was unrealistic.

 

 

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