In the Interest of Efficiency...

[richiebee]

... I will respond to multiple threads:

More(Big)Arrests Coming: With all due respect my opinion is that this will not
be happening soon. I think that after an initial March April hiccup, the
business of RACING has continued on in a much more normal fashion than Baseball
(I think any team that completes more than 50 games should be given a spot in
the playoffs no matter how bad their record)(the ultimate participation
award?). Racing has not had to retreat to a \"bubble\". I will not even mention
pro football, which with wiser leadership would probably have opted for a less
profitable schedule featuring fewer games spread over a longer period of time
(allowing the flexibility to play the inevitable COVID postponed games).

My opinion Racing and Golf are the spectator/action sports LEAST affected by
the pandemic. From what I have read handle is generally up or flat in many
venues. Fox and MSG which are seen nationally are covering more Racing (as
could be expected). Churchill announced recently that the Kentucky Derby would
be run without spectators, making many question whether it would have been
possible for CD to have made decisions last Spring which would have allowed
Triple Crown traditional order to be preserved. In any case there are two
honest 3YOs headed to Oaks/Derby in Tiz and Swiss, and I guess my new angle
will be hoping that Gamine gets engulfed and devoured in the Oaks and comes
back at a price in the BC Sprint.

Back to my opinion. No more high profile Indictments/Arrests in the near
future. Of course the pandemic is the center of all attention, but I do not
think Janney et al. want high profile arrests drawing any additional attention
to Racing. My opinion is that Navarro/Servis will be looked on to provide
information on others. They will not serve significant jail time. They will not
be rendered penniless by any sentence imposed.

Rationally and perhaps sadly, the way for racing to handle its miscreants in
this day and age is internally, by executive action. In the late 1990s a
trainer who will be unnamed at a track which will also be unnamed had five
horses in his barn die in a short period of time. The track\'s director of
racing demanded that unnamed trainer leave the grounds within 24 hours; he was
told not to bother to enter any horses at the remainder of the meet. Stewards
were never involved; no license was suspended. The trainer lost his stalls and
his right to enter, basically putting him out of business at that track. Most
importantly nothing was written about these equine deaths, something infinitely
more important now than it was then.

The story has been told many times here about NYRA\'s sit down with Oscar
Barrera, and OSB\'s subsequent (approx.) 2/140 run after ruling the roost
for a decade as NY\'s top trainer.

Bottom line and still my opinion: executive action by racetracks (aided by a
crack investigative team such as the one Janney mentions) is preferable to
criminal prosecution of these offenders. If a trainer (or maybe one day, one of
the owner/enablers) is denied access to the grounds and the entry box at all
racetracks, acting unilaterally, it is the equivalent career wise of a death
penalty.

Looks like I\'ll get to \"Spa Handle\" later...