Pletcher Positive /Question for Barry Irwin

[TGJB]

John-- great post. As we have said before (like, in a letter to the editor of the DRF), a vet of record should be listed in the program, and responsible along with the trainer for any positives.

And on a related note, both to your post and a comment Barry made earlier, from the Monday DRF about Mister Fotis, winner of the Calder sprint stake yesterday:

\"He had throat surgery after he ran so poorly going two turns here in September, and it worked right away,\" said Wolfson.

It might have been a little easier to handicap that horse if we had that information.

[P.Eckhart]

The \"Japan Cup\" test is easy, Sarafan passed it without trouble (and ran) whilst positive for banned corticosteroids; course we only know this fact because the diligent Hong Kong laboratory discovered it two weeks later.

[JimP]

Caradoc, I know that you an inconsistency in the two statements:
1. \"he has zero tolerance for anyone in his employ who intentionally tries to circumvent the rules\",and
2. \"Team Valor has a zero-tolerance policy with regards to drugs.\"

But I don\'t. I can read those two statements as entirely consistent. Neither one is a statement of a complete policy on drugs. Both shed some light on the policy that Team Valor seems to be using. But they aren\'t inconsistent as stated.  

[Caradoc]

Jim: As I noted above, the real problem is not with any inconsistency between the two statements, but with the misleading nature of the statements BI has made about the Nicks matter, both at the time and since.  Leaving aside whether he has left the impression that Team Valor would not tolerate drug violations by its trainers, his statements were that Ralph Nicks was fired, either because TV had a zero tolerance policy or because BI determined he had an impure intent, that the decision to fire him was the most difficult business decision he had ever made, etc.  No, he never said in those statements that he would never re-hire Nicks, which is why I characterized those statements as misleading, rather than false.

So why is all this important?  If racing is to be cleaned up, one of the first steps must be to demand an open and honest dialogue among all of the affected parties, most importantly prominent owners.  No spinning, no positioning, no wrapping yourself in the flag, no trumpeting your own virtue.  It's a step backward to state or even leave the impression that we don't use vets whose activities concern us, that we don't hire trainers whose activities and practices raise questions in our minds, or that we simply won't tolerate drug violations or that we won't tolerate those who have what we subjectively determine is an impure intent.  As BI's actions indicate, the world of racing is more complicated than that, perhaps even necessarily so in the current environment of drugs and supertrainers.  But let's get real and take the first step which is to be honest about the realities.

[Silver Charm]

Well put Caradoc.

For Team Valium to put themselves as the White Knight in the War on Drugs is a palpable attempt to increase business. There are several other quality syndication groups out there ie right here at TG, Belmont Winner, Breeders Cup winner, etc. Also several others such as Dogwood, Peachtree, Solaris and West Point to name a few who all have high standards and highest stakes success.

Everyone knows Siegel is the brains behind the operation not Barry.

What\'s the old saying, \"Empty barrels always make the most noise\".