Vet Pleads Guilty To Doping Race Horses, Including Kentucky Derby Winner

The head of a New York veterinary clinic was one of two men who pleaded guilty in a horse doping scandal that involved a disgraced Kentucky Derby winner.

Veterinarian Kristian Rhein admitted to illegally distributing the drugs Clenbuterol and SGF-1000, which promote "stamina, endurance, and lower heart rates in horses," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

One of the horses Rhein injected with SGF-1000 was Maximum Security, who won the 2019 Kentucky Derby but was disqualified for jostling another horse on the track.

The illegal injections happened a month after the 2019 Kentucky Derby and in preparations for another race. According to phone calls obtained by prosecutors, Rhein chose to use SGF-1000 on Maximum Security because it would not show up on a drug test.

"Rhein previously admitted that he flouted his oath as a veterinarian to protect the animals under his care, choosing instead to pursue money through the sale and administration of unregulated substances used by trainers engaged in fraud and animal abuse," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said in a statement.

One of the people the vet distributed the drugs to was former top horse trainer Jorge Navarro.

Navarro will have to pay back $26 million in winnings after he admitted to juicing several horses with drugs that he called "monkey" and "red acid," MarketWatch reported.

An 8-year-old horse named XY Jet died of a heart attack several months after Navarro drugged it in 2019.