Cody Axmaker

Trainer Murray Rojas spent nearly a decade fighting equine drug misbranding charges stemming from a years-long federal investigation of horsemen and veterinarians at Penn National Race Course. While other similarly indicted co-defendants opted for plea-bargain deals, Rojas maintained her innocence even through an ordeal that she said "wrecked" her career. In 2021 she took her case all the way to the United States Supreme Court, where her perseverance resulted in the overturning of a 27-month prison sentence and the vacating of all charges against her. Rojas has since regained her...

Trainer Cody Axmaker has been handed two consecutive one-year suspensions and fined $5,000 by the New Jersey Racing Commission after a horse he trained named Wishful (Storm Wolf) died on or about May 9 at Monmouth Park due to an apparent overdose of Clenbuterol. He was suspended one year for possessing a prohibited substance in Clenbuterol and a second year for failing "in his duty as trainer to protect and guard the horse Wishful against the administration of the prohibited substance." The suspension is set to begin May 7, 2022...