The scourge of our industry

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dray33
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The scourge of our industry

Postby dray33 » Sun Jan 27, 2008 7:57 pm


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Jenny
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Postby Jenny » Sun Jan 27, 2008 8:19 pm

It is so true. It angers us, the little guy trying to make a living, and knowing they are cheaters and liars and thieves!!! If you are drugging horses, you are stealing from the rest of the people in the race. The trainers, the owners and the jockeys.!!! Shame on you!!! :evil:

There has to get stiffer regulations. stopping them from putting it on the assistant trainer or moving their horses to another trainer. I did see something about the horses actually getting 90 days!! as well as the trainer. If you have had so many bad test. They should be banned for life.

It is puzzling when some one, say, like Bob Baffert gets caught for EPO then has a couple of really bad years? Because he is being watched. Goes to show you. Now he is doing well, only tells me he had found something else. undetectable.

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Postby larrygene » Sun Jan 27, 2008 8:48 pm

The philosphy is, "its not cheating until you get caught"!!! I saw the bill from a friend of mine who had a horse with one of the winningst trainers today and his vet bill on one horse was $3K for the month. And there was nothing wrong with the horse other than needing a little bute and lasix. How can one horse sound enough to race require that kind of vet bill???

Needless to say he switched trainers.

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Postby bdw0617 » Sun Jan 27, 2008 8:57 pm

Jenny wrote:It is so true. It angers us, the little guy trying to make a living, and knowing they are cheaters and liars and thieves!!! If you are drugging horses, you are stealing from the rest of the people in the race. The trainers, the owners and the jockeys.!!! Shame on you!!! :evil:

There has to get stiffer regulations. stopping them from putting it on the assistant trainer or moving their horses to another trainer. I did see something about the horses actually getting 90 days!! as well as the trainer. If you have had so many bad test. They should be banned for life.

It is puzzling when some one, say, like Bob Baffert gets caught for EPO then has a couple of really bad years? Because he is being watched. Goes to show you. Now he is doing well, only tells me he had found something else. undetectable.



a trainer is only as good as his owners pockets are deep.
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Postby NorthStar » Sun Jan 27, 2008 9:31 pm

bdw0617 wrote:
a trainer is only as good as his owners pockets are deep.


That's a rather broad brush stroke that fails to take into consideration the little guy horseman who keeps horses going without the big vet bills or the big owners.

Make the Vets get the same suspension as the trainers and you'll see drugging stop post haste.

dray33
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Postby dray33 » Mon Jan 28, 2008 5:49 am

How about making ANY change? This lack of motion, stagnation, silence... is a loud and obvious embarrassment. I'm almost as mad at the bureaucrats as I am with the cheats. "Business as usual" will drag this industry down.

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Postby ageecee » Mon Jan 28, 2008 6:04 am

[quote="larrygene"]The philosphy is, "its not cheating until you get caught"!!! I saw the bill from a friend of mine who had a horse with one of the winningst trainers today and his vet bill on one horse was $3K for the month. And there was nothing wrong with the horse other than needing a little bute and lasix. How can one horse sound enough to race require that kind of vet bill???

Needless to say he switched trainers.[/quote]







Who was the trainer?

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Postby Archer » Mon Jan 28, 2008 6:32 am

Jenny wrote:It is puzzling when some one, say, like Bob Baffert gets caught for EPO then has a couple of really bad years?


This seems like big news. Baffert got caught for EPO?

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Postby LB » Mon Jan 28, 2008 7:40 am

dray33 wrote:How about making ANY change? This lack of motion, stagnation, silence... is a loud and obvious embarrassment. I'm almost as mad at the bureaucrats as I am with the cheats. "Business as usual" will drag this industry down.


Amen to that.

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Postby Jessi P » Mon Jan 28, 2008 7:47 am

The most recent "drug of choice" at Mountaineer has been Guanabenz....... have been some trainers here with super high win percentages that after getting caught with Guanabenz arent winning anything like they used to.
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Postby ratherrapid » Mon Jan 28, 2008 9:38 am

personally, I avoid thinking everybody is a cheat just because Jack Van Berg says so. administering steroids, until they're outlawed, is something other than cheating. i think Van Berg's statement merely adds to the hysteria and unfortunate, in my experience, untrue perception that everyone on the back stretch cheats. I've seen my share of medicine men masquerading as trainers in my time, and inevitably they get caught. the other thing about these sorts is that they rarely win. while I might agree that there's some questionable training going on here and there, I'd have to see more than Jack Van Berg's bare allegations before i'd jump into the ocean on this one.

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Postby wilf » Mon Jan 28, 2008 10:08 am

Hey Rapid, I don't think Jack is tarring everyone with the same brush, he is just sick of watching these "super achievers" show up and look like geniuses and as a trainer so am I . A few years back at Fort Erie my horses suddenly ran consistently and I was batting 40% wins and about 70% in the money. I had horses with conditions that stayed sound and the condition book was good for what stock I had plus when I entered the races filled. O f course there were whispers that I was using something but to be honest my routine never did well with veterinary help and I have had 5 horses that made 100 plus starts over the past 20 years. It never occurred to me for a long while that the new testing in Ontario was slowing down the big barns and lo and behold it was almost a level playing field again. The old milkshakers fell off the planet and some never could rebound while others became superstars with epogen but are now nowhere to be seen. I got into this sport to make a living following my passion and to develop a horse to it's fullest potential , I can't speak for these other guys but I have zero respect for them and it's such a shame as North America breeds some lovely horses that would be around long enough for the public to develop a following for them but for drug overkill. Another point that burns me is that Racetracks and their stewards are often inclined to go easy on the trainers that start the most runners as any drug positive penalties might impact business. Eventually they get over confident to a point where thay have to be dealt with but in the meantime it's nauseating.

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Postby ratherrapid » Mon Jan 28, 2008 10:25 am

nice story Wilf! of course my point is that the violators (Ontario) get caught. were I race the KBIA we call them (kansas bureau of investigation) is always snooping around at the most unexpected times. you'd have to be a total fool to risk your license to think you'd inject something into some $5000 claimer that you've failed to train on the off chance it might overcome the odds and win a race in late February. i'm unable to pin point it, and obvioiusly the criminals operate behind the wood work, but, I'd guess there's but a few of them, and they eventually get caught. steroids is another thing. i've worried about competing against steroids for a good long time. i worry less about that these days because (if you read the bodybuilding mags) there are completely legal dietary supplements mimic the effect of steroids.

as to the big barns--i was a defender of Asmussens till I read the details. there's always that mind set out there that will try to take advantage and ignore the rules. i'd just be surprised if it includes the likes of baffert, lukas, frankel, mcannally, mandella, the stutes. it would surprise me to find any of those intentionally violating the rules.

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Postby Foggytrip » Mon Jan 28, 2008 10:37 am

Im not certain the steroids really improve a horse.

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Postby vineyridge » Mon Jan 28, 2008 11:07 am

Other jurisdictions are a lot tougher than the ones in the US. Kieron Fallon was set down WORLDWIDE for 18 months by France Galop for failing a cocaine test.

Biaccone (sp) has been banned for drug use in two jurisdictions--Hong Kong and I forget the other one. So he comes to the US and still uses them on his horses. He got caught at Keeneland last fall, and they were even investigating cobra venom.
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