Maximum Security disqualified from 2020 Saudi Cup purse

Maximum Security has been disqualified from the 2020 Saudi Cup, the richest race in the world, and his trainer, Jason Servis, has been handed a lifetime ban from racing in the country, the administrator of the race, the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia, announced on Friday.

The rulings on Friday will officially elevate Midnight Bisou to first place, with Maximum Security placed last. Held up for more than four years, the purse for the race will now be distributed according to the new order of finish.

Mucho Gusto, another American horse, was moved from fourth to third, and the American runner Tacitus was elevated to fourth.

The connections of Midnight Bisou, a mare formerly trained by Steve Asmussen and owned at the time of the race by a partnership including Blood Racing Stable, Madaket Stables, and Allen Racing, will receive the $10 million first-place purse. Midnight Bisou is now owned by Katsumi Yoshida of Japan, who bought the mare in foal to leading sire Tapit at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton November sale for $5.5 million.

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The Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia put a hold on the 2020 purse just weeks after Maximum Security won the inaugural edition of the race when Servis and more than two dozen other individuals connected to horse racing in the Northeast were arrested on charges related to administering illegal drugs to horses.

In January of this year, the JCSA recommended to its stewards that Maximum Security be disqualified from the race after alleging that Servis committed “substantial breaches of the rules” related to his arrest . The JCSA has not offered any comment on the details of its own investigation, and they have also not released any results that confirmed a positive test surrounding the race.

In the Friday announcement, the JCSA said that the stewards’ committee conducted a hearing on May 23 and May 24 to consider the recommendation. The statement said that Servis and his “legal representative” were invited to provide testimony for the hearing, but “chose not to do so.”

Servis was sentenced last year to four years in prison after pleading guilty to a felony count and misdemeanor count of drug-branding violations, a term he is currently serving.

“The JCSA is satisfied that, following a full disciplinary process, the charges affecting the outcome of the 2020 Saudi Cup have now been determined by the stewards committee following a proper investigation,” the JCSA said in a statement. “The JCSA will abide by the decision of the stewards committee.”

Maximum Security, who now stands at Coolmore, raced for Gary and Mary West. The Wests released a statement late in 2022 supporting the horse’s disqualification from the race.

According to a report from the stewards committee provided by the JCSA, Servis had “two suspicious administrations” related to Maximum Security in the lead-up to the 2020 Saudi Cup. The precise nature of those administrations was not divulged, and the JCSA said it would have no additional comment.

The report also said that Servis had a “significant level of under-reporting of administrations and treatments on medical declaration forms” in violation of the JCSA’s rules of entry.

A horsemen’s guide distributed to trainers and owners who enter horses to race in Saudi Arabia includes language that says the stewards can issue penalties to any persons who “administer or cause to be administered any prohibited substance to a horse for the purpose of affecting its performance in a race, or any test.”

In the government’s indictment of Servis, prosecutors said the trainer was caught on wiretaps admitting to administering illegal substances to nearly all of his horses, and they specifically alleged that Maximum Security was administered a dubious substance marketed as SGF-1000 in the months leading up to the Saudi Cup, though no specific date was identified.

The indictment also detailed charges that Servis routinely administered clenbuterol to his horses in violation of racing rules. Clenbuterol is a bronchial dilator that is strictly regulated in racing due to its ability to build muscle mass in horses when administered frequently.

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