NY Times Hit Piece is out

[Boscar Obarra]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/us/death-and-disarray-at-americas-racetracks.html?_r=1

Illegal doping, racing officials say, often occurs on private farms before horses are shipped to the track. Few states can legally test horses there.

"They are pharmacist shops," said Dr. George Maylin, the longtime head of New York State's testing laboratory. "Nobody has any control over what they are doing."

[miff]

The actual day to day racing knowledge,including that of,ahem,award winning Joe Drape, and those reporters could fit on the head of a pin.Wonder how many 5- am wake up calls they had over their years, covering racing, to be on the backside  interacting with vets, trainers,jockeys, owners. Portrayal is kinda like Luck only showing the darkest side of the game.

Conveniently only quoted Rick Arthur and George Maylin as it suited their biased slant on the article.I\'ll get you 10 practicing vets from several different veunues to dispute some of bullshit misrepresentations.We know there\'s an element of cheating and mismanagement of the game. Whats new?

Ruidoso Downs? who gives a f--k, except of course for the horrible fate Jackey Martin. Great fodder for the loons and phony disingenuous politicians that may seek to gain political capital by stumping on this old news!

NYRA getting a little smarter, slashing purses for the low level claimers, raising the minimum claiming price AND \"reviewing\" certain entries.I recommended a \"7 and out rule\" whereby a maiden horse that does not finish at least 5th in one of 7 consecutive starts, be barred from entry at NYRA tracks.

Mike

[richiebee]

How about barring permanently a horse who has been vet scratched 3 times?

Agree that the impact of the article was weakened by the mixing of QHs and TBs.

Drape and The Times could have sprung this article in the week leading up to
the Derby for maximum effect.

I would have focused the article on NYRA. The cheapening of the quality of
Racing coupled with increased purses for the cheap runners and the not
surprising resulting unprecedented number of breakdowns.

No mention of the conviction of leading owner Ernie Paragallo in the article.

Dutrow and Biancobra: No matter what one thinks of the trainer responsibility
rule, or the culpability of these two individuals, Racing had a good chance to
fire a shot across the bow of the habitual offenders and the denizens of the
grey areas: \"We will deprive you of your livelihood if you cheat.\"

Once Dutrow\'s suspension was stayed, NYRA should have immediately pulled his
stalls.

Lots of changes need to be made. Start in New York.

[sekrah]

miff Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Portrayal is kinda like Luck only showing the
> darkest side of the game.
>


Luck didn\'t even remotely portray the darkest side of the game.

[sighthound]

Joe Drape is the personal mouthpiece of the poobahs in racing elite that want to eliminate Lasix and take us back a century in horse health.

[miff]

Sek,

So a drunk jockey, a few broken down seedy looking gamblers living in a racetrack motel,a scheming trainer, manuvering and betting, a \"wise guy\" with hidden ownership and horses breaking down or getting hurt.

Thats pretty dark imo.


Mike

[TGJB]

Look-- is it a hit piece? Yes. Does that mean it\'s completely wrong, or that racing is doing its job when it comes to protecting horses and customers? No. The best part of the aticle is that it mentions how little is being done about proper testing, that tracks don\'t care or don\'t want to spend the money. That is 100% correct.

As I said about three weeks ago (to two of the people mentioned in the article), in this business carrots don\'t work. This is a stick, and a relatively mild one that will again be ignored by lots of racetracks. They\'re not the ones riding or betting the horses.

[alm]

This was a very well crafted and cynical article with in depth coverage of problems mainly at quarterhorse tracks interspersed with occasional references to the thoroughbred scene.  Extraordinarily biased in that regard and written to make an exaggerated point.

That doesn\'t mean I disagree with you Jerry Brown.  I think you are a sane unbiased voice and hope you always stay positive in your stance.

One question, however: I mostly have raced in Florida and my trainer stopped using steroids when they were banned.  OK...that forced me to retire a cheap, but nice mare who needed the muscular support, who raced healthier when she got stronger.  We pulled her off the track immediately after the ban, knowing she would deteriorate and likely injure herself without the steroids.  She was never lame and is a nice riding horse for a woman in Indiana now.

So when has anyone there started using the stuff again?  The guys who used to be considered the steroid abusers seemed to have cooled off significantly these past couple of years.

[Boscar Obarra]

Noticing quite a few ease jobs the last few days. Told not to persist with tired horses?

 Of course, the racing at Finger Lakes south has been conducive to such performances.

[sekrah]

There was no race fixing.  No doping.   Those two are by far the worst and most nefarious things about horse racing.

The characters, such as a drug addict, are no different than you\'d see in any profession.   There are drug addicts everywhere.  There are gambling degenerates everywhere, whether horse racing, sports betting, poker tables, slot machines, or lottery tickets.

The main characters main story line had nothing to do with horse racing, and all the horse scenes with him were very endearing.    90% of the horse scenes (outside of the breakdown and other accidents) were very wholesome and positive of the ownership scene.

[JR]

Come to Pimlico my friend.

[JR]

Like Dutrow? BTW, wasn\'t he banned about 100 wins ago?

[richiebee]

Sight:

I agree that the total elimination of Lasix is not practical, but don\'t you
think we could turn the clock back 30 years or so and only administer Lasix to
runners which actually \"bleed\"?

[dlf]

Richie:
Part II of the series is going to focus on NYRA (about 2 weeks from now).

[TGJB]

Just letting bleeders use lasix is way too reasonable an idea to happen.