Ohio suspends license of trainer Jamen Davidovich

Jamen Davidovich, a trainer who testified Thursday in a federal trial in which he admitted to administering illegal medications to his horses, will have his license suspended by the Ohio State Racing Commission, its executive director said Friday.

Chris Dragone, executive director, said that he issued the summary suspension of Davidovich on Friday, under powers giving the executive director the ability to issue a suspension “in the best interests of racing.” He said that the commission will ask the stewards to conduct a hearing to consider the order next week, with Davidovich present.

“The stop order is going out today,” Dragone said, in reference to a notice distributed to other tracks and racing commissions.

The suspension was first reported by The Blood-Horse.

Davidovich, 31, who last had a starter at Aqueduct in New York on Jan. 22 but has raced at several tracks throughout the Midwest over the past four years, said Thursday during a federal trial that Seth Fishman, who has been charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit drug adulteration or misbranding, supplied him with substances marketed as performance-enhancing drugs for several years. Davidovich testified that he stopped using the substances in 2018, when his number of starts dropped precipitously.

Davidovich had been granted immunity for his testimony, but that does not preclude regulatory agencies from taking action. The suspension of the license will set in motion reciprocity, in which a ruling in one racing jurisdiction is honored in other jurisdictions.

Davidovich has a career record of 66 wins from 333 starts, but most of those wins and starts occurred from 2015-17, one year after obtaining his trainer’s license. He has had six wins from 51 starts since the beginning of 2018.