Knew it would only be a matter of days before Drape got his two cents in.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/28/sports/new-light-on-seamy-role-of-buzzers-in-horse-racing.html?_r=0
Surprising, Dope\'s MO is to attack racing much closer to Derby week, might be saving something until derby gets closer.
Gary cleary used a buzzer on Thunder Gulth! I\'ve watched the video mutiple times in slow motion.. TG ran terrible in the Blue Grass. How many horses flop in a prep the race before the drby? Not many..
Article seems pretty fair? Everyone named gets to speak for themselves and some did not want to comment. It\'s not a hatchet job.
Seems like some people are pretty casual talking about this like it\'s just a fact of life so what\'s the big deal if Joe Drape writes about it? Is he supposed to pretend not to hear it? If anyone thinks this isn\'t a big deal maybe they should get hit with the maquina a few times to have the experience for themselves. You can debate and dissect medications and dosages etc., but I would think everyone would agree that using a buzzer on a horse is not a good thing. But hey the burying our heads in the sand thing is going so well maybe knocking Joe Drape will make everything better.
So relentlessly bashing the sport; in order to pump up his readership, does exactly what?
It does nothing. In the grand scheme of things Joe Drape has no impact on anything. He has 7,000 followers on Twitter. COMPLETELY meaningless.
Have you ever met anyone at the track who was all wound up about anything Joe Drape said? Not me. The PETA thing is huge by comparison, and we\'ll see how long that uproar lasts and if anything comes of it. The decline of horse racing has everything to do with \"the sport\'s\" own ineptitude and nothing at all to do with Joe Drape. Horse racing is ruined by political patronage, period. Bunch of boobs appointed based on friendships and political contributions. Joe Drape couldn\'t do more damage if he tried. Andrew Cuomo does more to hurt horse racing in a day than Joe Drape could do in a lifetime.
You\'re giving him WAY too much credit. And there is nothing at all wrong with what he\'s saying and how he\'s saying it. You are free to disregard it and I assure you the vast majority of people do.
Tom Noonan:
Racing authorities crack down on abuse
That could have been the headline for Joe Drape's piece in today's New York Times, but the Times chose to go with "Seamy Side of a Sport: Prodding Horses With Shocks."
In today's article, Drape writes about the number of battery-related incidents throughout the country in which the authorities have taken disciplinary action: "since 1974 there have been nearly 300 instances" and "n the 2000s alone, there have been 53 buzzer cases." But the real attention-grabber is the allegation that Calvin Borel used a buzzer when working Super Saver before his win in the 2010 Kentucky Derby. There is no allegation that he used one during the race itself.
For those who may have forgotten, last week brought us a disturbing nine-minute video produced by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Drape's initial report, all based upon a PETA undercover investigator working in the barn of trainer Steve Asmussen. Drape recounted a litany of alleged abuses, including that Asmussen and his long-time assistant Scott Blasi employed a jockey, Ricardo Santana Jr., who used a "machine" to shock horses. A machine is a devise that emits electrical current and is also described as a "battery," "buzzer," or if you wish to be bilingual, a "máquina."
I was aware of the allegationo regarding Super Saver last week when I wrote this piece about the PETA claims. PETA had provided me with a number of documents I requested, and the Super Saver part was in a complaint PETA filed with Louisville Metro Animal Services. It was not included in the PETA video, unlike clips of Gary Stevens and Wayne Lukas laughing about battery use. (Stevens has since acknowledged having used one 35 years ago when he was 16.)
But I was not willing to drag another name into this sordid mix based upon what PETA wrote in their complaint, particularly since I had serious reservations about the details. The copies of the documents PETA provided to me had many names redacted, including that of the rider using the buzzer on Super Saver, although it would not have been much of a stretch to assume it was Borel.
The source of the evidence against Borel was provided by - according to Drape - two Asmussen employees. Now I realize that track employees will move from one barn to another, but useful context by Drape would have been to point out that Asmussen did not train Super Saver - Todd Pletcher did.
One of the Asmussen employees was quoted in the PETA complaint as saying that Borel (presumably) used a buzzer "more than anybody." It may come as a surprise to someone who has never been to a track or the backstretch that hyperbole - not to mention inaccurate information - is not exactly in short supply. Nonetheless, it was the evidence of their claim that caused my eyebrows to rise - and again, none of this is in the Drape piece but is from the PETA complaint.
Borel would supposedly use the buzzer coming off the final turn to get the horse to run closer to the rail - giving, of course, a whole new context to his nickname "Bo-rail." If he did this twice during workouts, according to PETA's complaint, then the horse would be apprehensive when it came to a race and Borel was trying to get the horse to drop down against the rail. I will leave for those considerably more knowledgeable whether having a scared horse heading for home is a good thing.
Then there is the detail that after the Derby, the witness saw Super Saver and that he had a "perfect strip of hide off his shoulder ... [at perfect] rail height - straight line down the [expletive] horse." Borel's agent was quoted in Drape's article denying the allegation, saying, "Why would a guy who's broken 43 bones in his body run a horse into a fence at 35 miles per hour?" That certainly seems pretty compelling, but it does not really disprove the allegation.
But when you parse the words of the Asmussen employees, there is no actual allegation that Borel used a battery on Super Saver. It is the two employees "knowledge" of the jockey's reputation that passes for evidence Borel used a battery. And one would think that a missing strip of the horse's hide would have resulted in an inquiry from Pletcher, Kentucky officials or Pimlico officials.
Drape has apparently had more access to PETA's materials than anyone else. One would think that as a journalist he has an obligation to provide an accounting of what that access has been, as well as what he has not been allowed to see. I am not one to reflexively blame the media for news I do not like, but Drape's past performances of dropping negative horse racing articles during Derby week does call into question his objectivity. Even in today's article he mentions two allegations of battery use that did not bear out upon examination. PETA, in the interest of full accountability, should be making all of their videos available. They may, however, be hoping to make a big splash themselves during Derby week which would explain why the Super Saver conversations have yet to be released.
Good stuff. I have no doubt he has his prejudices and gets things wrong, and I think most people don\'t take everything they read at face value. And this applies to news on any subject.
The fact remains that \"Drape\'s dropping negative horse racing articles during Derby week\" has never amounted to anything. Even when it was on the front page with the Aqueduct breakdown thing, what really happened? Lasting impact? Big changes? It came and it went. If I was running a business and Joe Drape was writing about me I\'d be happy and riding around in my limo without a care in the world, because it\'s been proven again and again...no real impact AT ALL.
Just for laughs I went to NYRA website and looked up leading trainers. Top two are David Jacobson and Rudy Rodriguez. Man that Joe Drape series changed EVERYTHING!
If this is what he does to \"pump up his readership\" it isn\'t working. The only reason anyone even knows who Joe Drape is is because there aren\'t that many newspaper writers left writing about racing. Except for a few big days a year it just doesn\'t get that much coverage. In GoodFellas Joe Pesci says to Spider \"what am I on the pay no mind list?\" Joe Drape is on that list too. I wouldn\'t give it a thought.