Teflon Todd

[Silver Charm]

Time to do your time Teflon Todd.

Forty Five days is a long time to be away when somebody gives you the car keys to around $40 Million in horse flesh.

Can\'t send in the signals from the dugout hall like they do in baseball.

Time to do your time Teflon Todd.

[bobphilo]

Unfortunately, as Dr. Rick Arthur, a member of the CHRB Medication Advisory Committee, said in the Bloodhorse Chat last week. "Suspended trainers do collect fees and purses and still essentially train the horses from afar. For trainers with multi-state stables, it really isn't much different than their usual operation."

Todd is essentially getting a paid vacation. Some penalty.

Happy Holidays all,

Bob

[Silver Charm]

Maybe so, but the next one is for around six months and the next one after that even longer.

With a very expensive and far flung operation running this would tend to make most peple a little more careful if not downright paranoid that someone else somewhere else is going to do something that will TOTALLY SCREW HIM.

Instead of towing the line of right and wrong I may back off a little.

[P-Dub]

I don\'t know about that.  He can\'t be in 2 places at the same time,  he already has capable people taking care of his various stables around the country.  He can sell that angle to his owners and won\'t skip a beat.

[miff]

Don\'t know what Dr. Arthur is referring to but in NY,when a trainer is suspended he does not get the purse income. The trainer of record gets it.There could be other arrangments but why would a trainer of record take a chance on getting positives/suspensions but not receive the income.


JB, is Asmussen getting the money now or is Blasi?


Mike

[TGJB]

Don\'t know, but it\'s a fair assumption Plaetcher will be as involved as always in every way. Assistant trainers get to be in the program and get their names out, that\'s what\'s in it for them.

[miff]

JB,

Agree on Pletchers involvement. I know that when Dutrow is on suspension, he still calls all the shots. It should be part of the suspension that the money cannot be given to the suspended trainer.One prominent trainer got suspended and became a paid consultant during the suspension, what a pair.

Thanks for the free data.


Mike

[richiebee]

This has been brought up before on this board and on various roundtables and
symposiums.

If Racing was serious about its drug problem (and Racing is not) owners and
horses would be penalized for positives.

Believe me, a lot of these instances of the wrong horse being treated by a vet
or a horse being treated mistakenly too close to race day would miraculously
disappear.

The fact that there is no effective deterrent to drug fueled racing is
evidenced by the fact that Asmussen, Dutrow, Lake, Norman and Pletcher are all
in the \"sin bin\" at the same time.

History will show that none of these five will be hurt by these suspensions.
They will lose no money, and no indignant owners will pull their animals from
these trainers.

[lcfjr3]

Any truth  to the rumor that Pletcher\'s horses will be running under Dave Monaci\'s name in the Northeast??

[Silver Charm]

Yes they are true.

He will also be honoring Oscar Barrera at Gulfstream.

If Teflon Todd is laying in a lounge chair and training from his Blackberry while soaking up the sun and occasionally hitting the first tee at The Green Monkey while the other Green Monkey rots away in his stall something will eventually start to give.

He is being paid big money by big money cliets to win races and enhance the value of their assets. If he isn\'t around to do it they can always find someone else who will. If the win percentage begins to drop while he is away people will get grumpy. (For these reasons I actually think it will not. His stock will probably be tee\'d up pretty good for the assistants.)

I am sure the assistants are good. His operation is too big for anything else to be the case. And I am even counting the ones Teflon Todd actually hired himself, if you get my drift.

But lets not think there isn\'t progress being made in the drug front. No these guys should not be getting paid, should not be allowed anywhere near the track and should be subject to other restrictions while sitting in the penalty box.

The names Pletcher, Dutrow, Norman, Lake, Asmussen, etc were always suspects and now have been proven guilty. The only ones who should be more embarrassed than these guys is the various State Racing Commissions and Tracks who resisted doing something about what everyone else already knew was happening in front of their eyes.

STOP THE RAMPANT CHEATING, AND STOP IT FOR GOOD.........

[shanahan]

excellent point, Silver Charm...until the racing authorities have some kahonies, it\'ll just be short suspensions...to be forgotten in the winners circle.  I am told that Oaklawn will uphold the LA ruling on Norman despite being under appeal?

[lcfjr3]

Illegal meds are race day/betting problems. On various levels they have been part of the game throughout the 20th/21st century.  Racing would be MUCH better without them but it will survive with them because betting egos will always think they know who is doing what--and most of the time it can be patterned
(thorograph charts).    

But steroids (not illegal) are killing the breed. Forget about how Lyle Alzado imploded.  Just look how Lenny Dykstra, Brady Anderson,lost power as quickly as they had gained it.

Lure, Cigar, War Emblem infertile. Grade 1 mares having trouble getting pregnant and delivering.

Decades of imbreeding, abusing top stallions, pushing 2-yr. olds to sales, roiding yearlings and 2-yr. olds for sales, overracing \"precocious 2-yr. olds\" has taken a relatively sturdy breed in the 1920-1950 era and rendered them sticks of dynamite. It\'s only a matter of time before they go off and break down.

Does anyone really think Ghostzapper was faster than Secretariat??

When you get a Grade 1 horse, owner\'s have no choice.  

The big money owner\'s (Godolphin, Shadwell, Coolmore) know what they have, if they race at 4 they are significantly reducing fertility prospects and of course increasing the possibility of break down. Discreet Cat will never be seen again after Dubai.

Smaller owner\'s (Smarty Jones, Afleet Alex) want the thrill of running at 4 but after fatigue and minor injury set in they would be fiscally irresponsible to take the risk of coming back to the races, which is why there is always a period of time when they come back on track and workout and a Servis and a Ritchey properly convince the owner to sell, even though they are profiting.

It\'s a miracle that Perfect Drift has been a competitive Grade 1 horse for 5 years.  Even as a gelding under an assumed  moderate steroid diet, 5 years in this day and age is incredible.  Yet Murray Johnson has not picked up one big money owner that I am aware of.

They all come to Frankel, Biancone, Dutrow; Pletcher and the other Lukas assistants.  WHY??

Illegal meds and roids, win a Grade 1 or 2 and poof.  

Steroid\'s is causing the 4 horse Grade 1 fields, in conjunction with illegal race day meds. Until BREEDERS, BREEDERS, BREEDERS who control the game want to do something about it we\'ll continue to watch Jockey Club Gold Cups with jockeys frantically looking for competition.

They don\'t understand who the consumer of their product is.  Walmart does. McDonalds does. Microsoft does.

NTRA does not.  Breeder\'s Cup does not. Originally thought Stronach did, but don\'t think he does.

Breeder\'s only think about the sale. That\'s not the consumer. The pinhooker is only a trader.  The program owner is vitally important but he is not the consumer.

BETTORS...GAMBLERS...BETTORS...GAMBLERS...BETTORS...GAMBLERS...BETTORS.

Without the bettors ands gamblers what do they have??

   





 

Lcfjr3

[sighthound]

Excellent post.

Few breed to race (look at the popular stallions, those are sale results horses).  Few buy to race. Few make money racing.  Meds are needed to max out profits over the short race career.  Breeders need \'roids to get the biggest bucks at young-stock sales, as that\'s where the money is made - before and after the race track.

Support the gambler and public = making horse racing a more financially viable industry.  Only then will racing medication controls be taken more seriously, I believe.

[shanahan]

last two posts are great, but we\'ve been through this before...does anyone have an action plan or idea that can get us where we want to be?  Without tracks really being unified, it\'s not possible.  Only if they do align, get as powerful as an owner\'s group as the NFL can they clean up the game.  Doubtful in my lifetime, but a good dream nonetheless.

Let me take up the torch, since horse racing bets pale in comparison to NFL betting...there are only two entities that can lead the way - Stronach and Churchill Downs.  They need to be the Lamar Hunts and Pete Rozelle\'s with the vision and the will to make it better.  I believe both can and would do it - together.  Who will take the first step?  Marketing of our sport is unquesitona bly in the dark ages...any track will endorse anything for $$ with or without the backing of the NTRA.  I know this for a fact due to personal involvement.  It\'s no secret Coors is roaring due to their sponsorship  - and full cooperation - of all NFL teams.  Horse racing can get big time $$ sponsors - why other than Santulli\'s peronal horse interest would NETJETS be a BC sponsor?  Simple - His target has the $$ to do it (fly and race privately).  John Deere?  Got me on that one other than every farm has to mowe, but what when every polytrack doesn\'t have to grade?  Budweiser?  If it\'s sporting, they are there...Grey Goose?  A sign at every track, yet few pour it...thanks, racing.  And the list goes on and on...In this economy, why in the hell should racing be suffering?  Oh, yeah, I forgot...it\'s fixed.  And endorsed by racing commisions who are afraid of 12 trainers...good grief.

[bobphilo]

Bingo. Your conclusion points out the ultimate truth. THE BETTORS ARE THE ULTIMATE CONSUMERS. They therefore have the ultimate power – should they bother to use it. The tracks fear inciting the ire of the trainers lest they boycott them. How much more devastating would a boycott of bettors be? Could Jeff Mullins, despicable specimen that he is, be right when he characterizes us as a bunch of "sick suckers". Are we such pathetic addicts can we cannot refrain from playing one track for one season when there are at least a dozen other venues where we can bet?
A national organization for protection of bettors could designate a particular track as a prime offender, in terms of its lax policy with juicers, and call for a boycott. If bettors join in, the resulting effect on the tracks handle would be a stick held over the head of other tracks. It's amazing how tracks respond to threats to their revenue. In fact, short of legal action, its the only thing they respond to.
Mullins showed he had mastered the boycott threat when he announced that he would quit the game should the stewards DARE to suspend him after his latest positive. Pletcher, Dutrow and Assmussan are more subtle but basically rely on the same tactic.
The only way in which we as bettors can utilize the power we have is by organized action. If not, we will remain the "sick suckers" that Mullins says we are and will deserve just what we get.

Bob