Justify it ain't so!

[skitimber]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/11/sports/horse-racing/justify-drug-test-triple-crown-kentucky-derby.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

[KK4510]

The CHRB at it\'s finest.

[Mstrlucky74]

Something needs to be done. Can\'t stand for it.

[belmont3]

SHOCKING!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjbPi00k_ME

Read the story.
Hardly surprised.

be interesting to see if this story has legs

[bluechip21]

Lol. Hope Bobby’s barn isn’t a customer ...

Baffert is a fraud and this is just another item that proves it. Hope he at least pays his staff (lookin’ at you Mr Brown!). Excuse me while I send my Bernese Mountain Dog to Runhappy. Medication Free! ... this fucking game.

[TGJB]

Say what?

[kencbs]

Some thoughts:

1) I wonder if the owners of the Triple Crown runner-ups are considering lawsuits to get purse redistributions

2) The BC has a rule banning trainers from the BC who have some sort of major drug violation.  They used this on Ron Ellis a couple of years ago.  I wonder if they\'ll ban Baffert from this year\'s BC over this.

3) I find it interesting that I originally found this on ESPN website, but as I write this (10:30pm ET), it\'s not on either BloodHorse or DRF web sites.  Way to cover this sport, guys.

4) This might trigger the end of racing in CA - protest groups will be all over this.  CHRB is going to face major heat.

Who knows what else will come of this
Ken

[bluechip21]

Chad Brown. Not Jerry Brown! Sorry. I can see how that is misleading, apologies.  Don’t worry, Runhappy!

[Boscar Obarra]

Strange, I knew exactly who you meant.

[jbelfior]

So why now?

Good Luck,
Joe B

[JohnTChance]

\"Dr. Rick Sams, who ran the drug lab for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission from 2011 to 2018, said scopolamine can act as a bronchodilator to clear a horse’s airway and optimize a horse’s heart rate, making the horse more efficient. He said the amount of scopolamine found in Justify â€" 300 nanograms per milliliter â€" was excessive, and suggested the drug was intended to enhance performance.

“I think it has to come from intentional intervention,” he said.\"

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Will we ever hear a peep about this from Vin Baker, Baffert\'s private vet? Limiting (or downright eliminating) private vets is key to cleaning up racing. You\'d think someone would go right to the source here and ask him about it. Is that too much to ask? NY Times writer Joe Drape, who broke this story, wrote a book American Pharaoh - The Inside Story, without any mention of Baker. Hahaha! Inside Story! Right.

Bo Derek resigned from the California Racing Board in 2015, so this wasn\'t on her clock.

[Al Caught Up]

as opposed to when? serious question.

[BB]

It seems obvious that the story broke now because someone who either has access to the inner workings of the CHRB, or who was provided access, decided to drop a dime to Drape. That\'s why Drape has emails, overage amounts, etc that aren\'t being disputed. You know, the basic way that coverups become uncovered.

Of course, the $64,000 question is who would do such a thing and what are his or her motivations?

[BitPlayer]

My version of the $64,000 question would be:

I keep reading in stories about California racing that disclosure of relevant information is prohibited by law.  Why don\'t you get the law changed?

[Bet Twice]

You would think the bolded section would go without saying.  


“California statutes do not prohibit active horse owners from being appointed to the regulatory board overseeing the sport. Beyond the chairman’s owner-trainer relationship with Baffert, the board’s vice chairwoman, Madeline Auerbach, and another commissioner, Dennis Alfieri, employ trainers and jockeys in California.

Joe Gorajec, a former chairman of the Association of Racing Commissioners International, a trade group of industry commissioners, said the system was doomed to fail in California and other states in which the regulators are in business with the people they are there to police.

“Minimal prohibitions should preclude active horse owners, trainers, breeders and jockeys, or anyone else that derives income from the business, to serve on a commission,” said Gorajec, who was executive director of the Indiana Horse Racing Commission. “Commissioners should be prohibited from wagering in the state they serve.””