As if the press weren\'t all bad evough already, today\'s USA TODAY does it\'s piece on the Paragallo farm - you remember this from last week, right? Mismanagement, of course...then today I see a comment of Vic Zast\'s blog that Tour of the Cat - a million dollar earner in his day (and at 11 yrs old) is entered for a minimal claiming race and scratched in March at the Big A? WTF? then he works 3f at Finger Lakes? Is there no shame?
JB - you\'ve been posting lots of \"it\'s coming\" comments on industry shake-up, but when and exactly what are you expecting?
Shanahan-- My focus right now is strictly on the drug issue, and its effects on bettors. There are plenty of other significant issues, but there are also lots of peoplewilling to push them (witness that and other stories). My issue is one where I know a lot, carry some credibility, and can actual leverage my position into effecting change.
Jerry,
Maybe it is over the top, but it seems to me that you would go a long way towards cleaning up the drug problem in racing if when a trainer was suspended, every horse in his barn was suspended for an equal amount of time. I am sure that owners would then take a much more active roll and avoid trainers with a history of drug related suspensions.
One of the things I\'m pushing is the idea of taking a percentage of stalls away from those who get a positive for a second time with certain types of drugs. There is no due process on the backstretch-- they can do it with a house rule, don\'t have to involve racing commissions, etc. That will have the effect of moving some horses to other trainers.
A more extreme version would be simply to refuse entries from a trainer. I think Philly did that with Vaders.
To have any teeth, a solution would have to eliminate the practice of simply transferring horses to an assistant trainer.
You\'re not getting it. I\'m not talking about suspensions, or anything temporary. I\'m talking about loss of stalls, or permanent bans. Vaders is done in PA, as far as I know.
Vaders is barred but Edward Auwarter has all her former horses and has gone from about a 2% trainer the past few years to 28% this year (24/87). I think that\'s what Old Mr. Boston is referring to---don\'t know if Auwarter was her assistant but he\'s the new \"name\" on her former stable (I think it all allegedly goes back to McCaslin, allegedly, since he\'s the one Vaders replaced and he\'s still saddling Auwarter\'s horses---allegedly).
jma11473 Wrote:
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> Vaders is barred but Edward Auwarter has all her
> former horses and has gone from about a 2% trainer
> the past few years to 28% this year (24/87). I
> think that\'s what Old Mr. Boston is referring
> to---don\'t know if Auwarter was her assistant but
> he\'s the new \"name\" on her former stable (I think
> it all allegedly goes back to McCaslin, allegedly,
> since he\'s the one Vaders replaced and he\'s still
> saddling Auwarter\'s horses---allegedly).
The DRF recently did a profile of Auwarter and said that he took over from Vaders and kept all her same employees including her assistant trainer. Wonder if the same \"assistant trainer\" is the McCaslin fellow? If yes, it would seem the DRF missed the real story when it ran the profile of Auwarter. Also, if this is true, what are the stewards/racing commission doing there in Pennsylvania?
JB,
At Philly the Vaders stable runs all of its horses under the name of other Trainer Ed Auwarter. Vaders assistant still runs the barn.
Well, the short answer is the racing commission doesn\'t care. I didn\'t even see that piece in DRF, but I just read it now and yes, they chose not to acknowledge who is running the show. I guess for DRF it\'s a possible libel issue if you imply something illegal is going on when there\'s no proof the new trainer is doing what the old trainer was barred for. Maybe the horses are all just really good, right? That\'s why I tried to be funny by saying \"allegedly\". As far as the personnel involved, if you know what the guy in question looks like, well, he\'s there in the paddock some days. Again, not \"illegal\" since I don\'t think he was barred for life himself, but interesting.
And while there\'s no proof of any wrongdoing in the new barn, we\'ve all seen Vaders\' horses\' figures, and her lifetime suspension. We\'ve also seen Auwarter go from literally winning only a handful of races over a period of YEARS to now be one of the top trainers on the grounds. So, he\'s obviously learned a lot late in life. :-)
This is why ALL of the horses in the trainers barn must be banned as well if the policy is to have any serious effect.
I had one owner once tell me he stopped using a \"juice\" trainer because he got scared...He didn\'t know what they were using but said he was making tons of money since the trainer was and still is winning with everything they put on the track. He dropped the trainer because his attorney scared him by telling him if a horse ever died on the track and caused an accident that left jockeys hurt or dead..It could cost him if it turned out the horse had an illegal substance in its blood. Made sense to me but it hasn\'t happened yet. Maybe that\'s what it\'ll take.