More Bad News for Druggies

[Dana666]

I can\'t help but think some of these new initiatives are already affecting the game. I\'ve seen so many former \"super trainers\" come back to earth this year. It\'s amazing really how much they got away with and for how long. And how many of you can remember horses running and winning without lasix? I\'ve seen more than a few at Saratoga this summer. In the long run this is good stuff, in the short term you do need to adjust your handicapping! Now, if they could only sync-up post times at major tracks like they do. . .everywhere else in the world! I mean is it possible that a race at Saratoga and Del Mar don\'t need to go off at the same time on a Sunday???


The Jockey Club to pursue federal legislation to enhance safety, integrity and p
August 14, 2014 6:30 AM

While acknowledging that the Thoroughbred racing industry has made strides in the area of medication reform, Ogden Mills Phipps, the chairman of The Jockey Club, said Sunday that the organization will broaden its efforts by developing a strategy that will include the pursuit of federal legislation to restore integrity and improve the perception of the sport.

Phipps made the remarks before nearly 400 attendees at The Jockey Club\'s 62nd Annual Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing at the Gideon Putnam Resort & Spa in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and those who watched a live video stream of the event.

A video replay of the two-hour conference will be available onjockeyclub.com later Sunday afternoon; transcripts will be available on the same site late Monday.

\"Our horsemen and our customers all deserve a level playing field, with uniform rules and clean competition,\" Phipps added. \"We need the National Uniform Medication Program to be implemented in every racing state. We need uniformity of rules and greatly improved lab standards. We need a penalty structure that is strong enough to be a meaningful deterrent --Â  not one that would allow a trainer to amass literally dozens of violations over the course of his career and continue training. And, we need to eliminate the use of all drugs on race day.\"

Reprising the rationale and words he shared publicly in late March, Phipps said, \"With the safety of our horses, the integrity of competition and the general perception of the sport all at risk, we cannot afford to wait any longer.\"

Phipps said The Jockey Club will continue to advocate for reform in many statehouses across the country. He mentioned Florida, New York and Texas. Representatives of The Jockey Club will also continue to work closely with racing commissions throughout the country.

\"As is the case with any initiative created, embraced or supported by The Jockey Club, we will do what we think is in the best interest of this industry,\" he added. \"This is, and will continue to be, a serious, multi-pronged effort to achieve the reform we need.\"

Phipps made those remarks right after Stuart S. Janney III, the vice chairman of The Jockey Club and chairman of its Thoroughbred Safety Committee, delivered a progress report on medication reform.

Janney noted that:
Nine of 38 states have fully implemented a two-tier drug classification system (controlled therapeutic medications and prohibited substances)
Twelve of 38 states have implemented a system in which administration of furosemide is administered solely by veterinarians designated by the local regulatory authority.
Five drug-testing labs, covering racing in 21 states, have been fully accredited by RMTC.
Six of 38 states have adopted the new RCI Penalty Guidelines for Multiple Medication Violations.
Five states (Delaware, Indiana, Massachusetts, North Dakota and Virginia) have adopted all four phases of the National Uniform Medication Program.

\"There are those who look at these numbers and believe that, given time, this industry will achieve uniformity, that uniformity is just around the corner,\" Janney said. \"I wish I did. We are better than before but it would be a stretch to call it uniformity.\"

The first half of the conference included segments devoted to drug testing and enforcement as well as programs dedicated to the enhancement of jockey safety and welfare. Dennis Egan, the chief executive of the Irish Turf Club, delivered the report on jockey safety, and Matt Iuliano, the executive vice president and executive director of The Jockey Club, unveiled two new recommendations, which pertain to continuing education for horsemen and enhanced promotion of an integrity hotline, from the Thoroughbred Safety Committee. The recommendations are available through the Thoroughbred Safety Committee section of jockeyclub.com.

The second half of the program featured reports on foal crops and horse inventory as well as marketing initiatives utilized by both The Jockey Club and the National Football League. Brian Rolapp, the executive vice president of NFL Media and the president and CEO of the NFL Network, shared insights into the NFL\'s media strategies.

The Jockey Club Round Table Conference was first held on July 1, 1953, in The Jockey Club office in New York City. The following year, it was moved to Saratoga Springs, N.Y., where it has been held every August since.

[TGJB]

Don\'t get me started.

Saratoga and Dmr have been pretty clean. There\'s only one obvious guy at Sar, and one possible at Dmr. Both had good weekends.

[richiebee]

JB any thoughts on Ky\'s plan to run separate 2YO races for non Lasix users?

An open admission that Lasix users \"start with an advantage\" as the ad used to say?

[TGJB]

If there is real movement towards banning Lasix in races I actually bet I will get involved in stopping it. And all you guys will help, once I explain how it will hurt you.

[Ollie]

Now, it is imperative they get rid of their antiquated steward system, that represents them, that particular racetrack, and that particular state. The current stewards, at least at NYRA are political appointee do-nothings, that ONLY represent the aforementioned interests, where there is extremely little transparency, and absolutely no consistency. The public and the bettor, who support the sport is never represented. It is ONLY a rumor.


It is time to end the charade. Time for a revolution --- no support for a sport that doesn\'t want to represent the public and the bettor responsibly with better transparency and total consistency, and meted out by those who have a thorough understanding of the sport, not the political do-nothing slugs.

[Beau]

AMEN....


I\'ve been saying the BAN of LASIX will not only hurt us the PLAYERS but also you TGJB by the volume you will lose from players leaving the game due to the uncertainty of horses bleeding.

I stand with you!

Beau

[richiebee]

Ollie Sherman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Now, it is imperative they get rid of their
> antiquated steward system, that represents them,
> that particular racetrack, and that particular
> state. The current stewards, at least at NYRA are
> political appointee do-nothings, that ONLY
> represent the aforementioned interests, where
> there is extremely little transparency, and
> absolutely no consistency. The public and the
> bettor, who support the sport is never
> represented. It is ONLY a rumor.

Ms. Richiebee this summer contributed to the decor of Living Room Downs by adding
a placard which says: \"If I agree with you, both of us will be wrong.\"

Any commentary you make regarding the stewards must be taken with a boulder sized
grain of salt, because we all know that your ill will towards stewards anywhere
in the US is driven by your own personal experience with a NY steward who
dismissed without sympathy or consideration your complaint that you had been
separated from some of your cash by a certain partnership.

How do we know about your personal experience? Let us say that we didn\'t read
about it over by Paulick or in The Blood Horse. Many of us read it over on
the Vitozin Board under your repetitive and almost never amusing \"We need
stewards for the stewards\" rants. We heard it at the NYRA open house meeting in
May 2013, where you were one of the many with a personal agenda who co-opted what
could have been a valuable forum. Now we are hearing it on the TG board.

Personally, and excuse my French, I find it tres tedious. The thread you
imposed your rant upon really has nothing to do with the stewards, who enforce
the laws made by others. The only way you can make this story interesting (to me
at least) is to name the partnership in question and the amount they fleeced you
for. I mean if it was Karokorum, NYRA\'s version of the Baltimore Colts, and the
amount was de minimis, who cares?

[Speaking of Karakorum, Bad Luck Benny the Exercise Rider informs that former
Karakorum trainer (and Moschera assistant) Jeff Odintz currently is operating a
freight elevator in a Manhattan high rise, bringing to mind the famous
\"Honeymooners\" line about being nice to the people you meet on the way up...].

The stewards come under the most scrutiny on this board when they make a
questionable decision or non decision on a foul by a rider or whether a tardy
gate horse is to be declared a non starter. No handicapper can analyze a race in
advance knowing whether or not the stewards will eventually be involved in the
outcome of a race. In most cases horseplayers would find, if they have been
at it long enough and keep records of this sort of thing, that the DQs and put-
ups probably even out at the end of the day; the exception of course is where a
DQ (or non- DQ) has deprived a horseplayer of a life altering score.

I would not be surprised that the powers that be over at Ragozin have limited
either the frequency or the content of your posts; I know that certain posters
over there were exasperated by your compulsive linking. Now you have found a
venue where the host believes in free speech; I have often said that when you
embrace free speech, you must be prepared for the value of that speech to be
about what you paid for it.

 
> It is time to end the charade. Time for a
> revolution --- no support for a sport that doesn\'t
> want to represent the public and the bettor
> responsibly with better transparency and total
> consistency, and meted out by those who have a
> thorough understanding of the sport, not the
> political do-nothing slugs.

Ken, I mean Ollie, if we all stop supporting the sport for any reason, JB\'s
bottom line will suffer, though I doubt he would hold you personally responsible.
At one point or another you were a licensee and you must realize that the
stewards, rightfully or wrongfully, exercise almost unfettered power over their
kingdom. They can throw you or me or the people selling Ragozin in the grandstand
off the grounds without much of what we have come to know as due process of law.

Give the steward thing a break. If you are going to be a one trick pony, the
trick better be pretty specf--kingtacular.

[Ollie]

There were many errors noted in note. I could respond, and correct, and clarify, but I choose not to, other than to respond with Robert Kennedy quote \"There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why ... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?\"

The amazing thing is people have choices, and the ability to voice/publish their dis-satisfaction with something, if something is not working as good as it should be --- even if it has continued to exist and go on for a long time beforehand. If an Allemeuse occurrence can happen, if a corrupt racing outfit can be allowed to continue to bilk an unsuspecting public, aided and abetted by a regulatory group that chooses to look the other way, despite being given evidence to that fact, if a betting pool gets shut down 2 minutes earlier than it should have by the regulatory group involved, and that doesn\'t include the weekly/monthly/yearly changes in judgement concerning what the regulatory group saw, or didn\'t see, which profoundly calls into question the ability of the regulatory group to properly oversee anything.

[richiebee]

Look Ken I understand with the Kennedy quote and know things could be much better in the
World and certainly in Racing but I am not certain that repetitive and repeated rantings originating from www.theskyisfuckingfalling.com is the way to bring about change.


Before your next rant please double check your quote.Was it not uttered by JFK, who wasquoting George Bernard Shaw?

[TGJB]

I would add that we used to have another guy here who thought that every string should be turned into a discussion of the one thing he wanted to talk about. He\'s gone now, not voluntarily.

[Ollie]

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/robertkenn121273.html Maybe you should question your source, before challenging mine, huh?


It always surprises me by what people allow themselves to settle for, rather than trying to best, and most, to correct an obviously flawed system of operation. I don\'t have all the answers. I love the sport, and valued greatly the time in which I directly partook in it, and the various people I met along the way (and yes, even the corrupt ones), because I learned so much along the way. There was never a question that I wouldn\'t get the money, that my horse had earned (more than a few thousand), which I had requested, but had been denied. But, along the way, it wasn\'t just about the money, and the way I, and several of the other investors (who would become friends, and partners) were being treated, it was also about the sport. It still is, is my belief. No one should be above the sport, should they? And I believed regulatory entities should have been there to protect everyone involved in the sport, including the public and the bettor. Obviously, regulatory entities don\'t value everyone the same. Ah, and people wonder why the sport is declining, and is in such a dis-array.  

The irony exists, and I\'ll leave you with a Groucho quote to the above. No need to respond. I got the hint TG. I choose to withdraw voluntarily out of respect for what you do.

\"A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.\"

[TMW]

Without trying to be snide and with no attempt to appropriately quote a long deceased famous person -- I will not be reading any \"Ollie\" posts until they creep into the positive realm. I enjoy the sport for what it is \"warts and all\" (sorry Oliver Cromwell), I couldn\'t help myself.

I have experienced outrageous joy in this sport and also some disappointment caused by circumstances including unethical partners, lawyers and vets. I choose to focus on the positive like trying to find a good horse to own or selecting the winner of the 6th race at Del Mar.

[Edgorman]

Go away.

[richiebee]

Ollie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/robertkenn121273
> .html Maybe you should question your source,
> before challenging mine, huh?

\"Huh\" me no \"huh\"s and spare me your impudence. If you at least would have
followed my suggestion you might have done the least bit of research into George
Bernard Shaw. In 1921, 4 years before RFK was born, GBS wrote a play entitled
\"Back to Methuselah\". From said play, the following \"You see things and you say
\'why?\' But I dream of things that never were and say \'why not\'\".

Kind of close to the RFK quote no? At least when JFK used similar words in a 1963
speech at a Civil Rights gathering, he correctly attributed the idea, if not the
quote, to Shaw. In my brief research, apparently a little more thorough than
yours, I learned that Ted Kennedy used the quote in his eulogy of RFK.

Also during said brief research I learned that the author of the 1982 novel
\"Shoeless Joe\" (which begat the movie \"Field of Dreams\") mistakenly attributed
the quote to RFK, just as you have.

We all have Marx Brothers quotes. One of my favorites might be \"You haven\'t shut
up all day. You must have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle.\"

Maybe you will be welcome back on the other side now. I mean you got a mild
rebuke from JB, I\'ve been \"bullying\" you, and now some of the rank and file are
apparently turning thumbs down. You might be a real martyr over there, no?

As you say, no response necessary.