A 70-year-old Washington state horse owner who raced in California has been sentenced to six months of home detention, five years’ probation, and a $1,000 fine after pleading guilty to an attempt to hire a person to kill a Thoroughbred so he could collect the insurance money.

According to the office of Jerome Friedberg, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, Edwin L. McCleary arranged to have the horse Callous Doughboy killed to collect the $90,000 insurance payoff. As part of an investigation by the FBI and California Horse Racing Board, it was determined McCleary mailed two $500 money orders to the purported hit man as “good faith” money. After McCleary believed the horse had been killed, he began the process to collect from the insurance company. The attempt was never carried out after the unidentified hit man contacted authorities. McCleary pleaded guilty to one felony mail fraud charge in connection with the December 1997 incident.