https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/11/sports/horse-racing/justify-drug-test-triple-crown-kentucky-derby.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
The CHRB at it\'s finest.
Something needs to be done. Can\'t stand for it.
SHOCKING!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjbPi00k_ME
Read the story.
Hardly surprised.
be interesting to see if this story has legs
Lol. Hope Bobby’s barn isn’t a customer ...
Baffert is a fraud and this is just another item that proves it. Hope he at least pays his staff (lookin’ at you Mr Brown!). Excuse me while I send my Bernese Mountain Dog to Runhappy. Medication Free! ... this fucking game.
Say what?
Some thoughts:
1) I wonder if the owners of the Triple Crown runner-ups are considering lawsuits to get purse redistributions
2) The BC has a rule banning trainers from the BC who have some sort of major drug violation. They used this on Ron Ellis a couple of years ago. I wonder if they\'ll ban Baffert from this year\'s BC over this.
3) I find it interesting that I originally found this on ESPN website, but as I write this (10:30pm ET), it\'s not on either BloodHorse or DRF web sites. Way to cover this sport, guys.
4) This might trigger the end of racing in CA - protest groups will be all over this. CHRB is going to face major heat.
Who knows what else will come of this
Ken
Chad Brown. Not Jerry Brown! Sorry. I can see how that is misleading, apologies. Don’t worry, Runhappy!
Strange, I knew exactly who you meant.
So why now?
Good Luck,
Joe B
\"Dr. Rick Sams, who ran the drug lab for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission from 2011 to 2018, said scopolamine can act as a bronchodilator to clear a horse’s airway and optimize a horse’s heart rate, making the horse more efficient. He said the amount of scopolamine found in Justify â€" 300 nanograms per milliliter â€" was excessive, and suggested the drug was intended to enhance performance.
“I think it has to come from intentional intervention,†he said.\"
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Will we ever hear a peep about this from Vin Baker, Baffert\'s private vet? Limiting (or downright eliminating) private vets is key to cleaning up racing. You\'d think someone would go right to the source here and ask him about it. Is that too much to ask? NY Times writer Joe Drape, who broke this story, wrote a book American Pharaoh - The Inside Story, without any mention of Baker. Hahaha! Inside Story! Right.
Bo Derek resigned from the California Racing Board in 2015, so this wasn\'t on her clock.
as opposed to when? serious question.
It seems obvious that the story broke now because someone who either has access to the inner workings of the CHRB, or who was provided access, decided to drop a dime to Drape. That\'s why Drape has emails, overage amounts, etc that aren\'t being disputed. You know, the basic way that coverups become uncovered.
Of course, the $64,000 question is who would do such a thing and what are his or her motivations?
My version of the $64,000 question would be:
I keep reading in stories about California racing that disclosure of relevant information is prohibited by law. Why don\'t you get the law changed?
You would think the bolded section would go without saying.
“California statutes do not prohibit active horse owners from being appointed to the regulatory board overseeing the sport. Beyond the chairman’s owner-trainer relationship with Baffert, the board’s vice chairwoman, Madeline Auerbach, and another commissioner, Dennis Alfieri, employ trainers and jockeys in California.
Joe Gorajec, a former chairman of the Association of Racing Commissioners International, a trade group of industry commissioners, said the system was doomed to fail in California and other states in which the regulators are in business with the people they are there to police.
“Minimal prohibitions should preclude active horse owners, trainers, breeders and jockeys, or anyone else that derives income from the business, to serve on a commission,†said Gorajec, who was executive director of the Indiana Horse Racing Commission. “Commissioners should be prohibited from wagering in the state they serve.â€â€
This story will get fun if Mick Ruis goes ahead with legal action.
https://www.horseracingnation.com/news/Report_Bolt_dOro_owner_thinks_Justify_news_warrants_lawsuit_123
Word on the street is this story may have been leaked by the jockey club itself as a means to garner support for their Horse Racing Integrity Act bill.
No idea if that\'s true or not, just what someone told me and I think Byk almost alluded as much on his show Thursday morning. Believe he even went so far as to say we might even see more of these hit pieces in the coming weeks/months.
I want to believe these kind of rumors are untrue but TJC do seem pretty desperate to advance their National/Uniformity policy goals and it isn\'t like they haven\'t been known to be a bully in the past in order to get people to fall in line. That would be the epitome of surreptitious if they are behind these kind of leaks, essentially trying to undermine their own industry in order to advance an unpopular bill seemingly only they, PETA, and a few industry comrades support.
The thought of that being the case is nauseating so here\'s hoping my source is wrong. But people do deserve to know what might be happening \"behind the curtain\". Have a good weekend.
\"But people do deserve to know what might be happening \'behind the curtain\'.\"
This is an odd closing sentence in a post lamenting leaks.
if that\'s the case, wonder Who leaked it to the Jockey Club?
I\'m not a Drape or PETA fan, but I\'m a little tired of people in horse racing (or in politics for that matter) attacking the messenger rather than addressing the message. It\'s time for a little sunlight in racing. If, as TGJB has suggested on numerous occasions, all test results were published, and there was a spate of jimson-weed-related positives, it would have been obvious, the CHRB would (one hopes) have addressed it promptly, and this whole situation would have been avoided. Alan Foreman on Steve Byk\'s show kept going on about the need for confidentiality. No! You are asking for slots and other subsidies for your sport and for the public to bet on it. There is a requirement for openness that goes with that.
What was his reason for \"needing confidentiality\"?
He thinks Baffert is an icon. God help us.
This is what good reporting looks like:
https://sports.nbcsports.com/2019/09/25/story-behind-justify-positive-drug-test/
Thanks for sharing, and agree this is much more thorough. Unfortunately, most people will never read it and the asterisk will always remain in their minds.