Harness trainer Oakes sentenced to three years in drugs case

Chris Oakes, a longtime harness trainer who was indicted in 2020 along with more than two dozen other individuals connected to horse racing, was sentenced to three years in prison on Thursday after pleading guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to misbrand and adulterate drugs, according to court documents.

Oakes, 59, was given the sentence by Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The sentencing guidelines called for a minimum of three years in prison.

In indictments prepared by federal prosecutors, Oakes was described as having administered performance-enhancing substances to his horses and delivering those substances to Standardbred and Thoroughbred trainers, including Jorge Navarro, who was sentenced to five years in prison last year on an identical charge. In wiretapped conversations included in the indictment, Navarro and Oakes refer to several substances they had allegedly given horses, including X Y Jet, a Navarro-trained horse who died in 2020. Navarro said at the time that the horse died on a heart attack.

Prosecutors also alleged that Oakes hid his ownership in horses behind a “sham” corporation called “Northfork,” though the prosecutors did not bring any charges related to that apparent fraud. They also alleged that he purchased adulterated or misbranded substances from Dr. Seth Fishman, a veterinarian who ran a compounding pharmacy, and delivered those substances to trainers.

Fishman was found guilty of two counts of felony drug adulteration and misbranding in a jury trial earlier this year. He faces as many as 20 years in prison.

An indictment also said that Oakes’s barn was searched “covertly” on March 14, 2019, and that law-enforcement officials at that time found “multiple adulterated and misbranded [performance-enhancing drugs] . . . as well as pre-filled, unlabeled syringes.”

Oakes was ordered to pay a forfeiture penalty of $62,821, according to court documents, and also will be required to enroll in a substance-abuse program after reporting to prison.