Pull the Pocket said...

PS: A relevant piece by Jeremy Plonk at Espn loosely about this topic if anyone in interested. It's about drugs and suspensions in racing and how far we have to go.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/horse/triplecrown08/columns/story?columnist=plonk_jeremy&id=3384622

posted at 12:43 PM on May 7th 2008

Pull the Pocket said...

That's pretty darn sneaky Paul :)

Imo, in your own little way you have done a service to the business. We have a capital problem in racing, despite massive slots purses. And we have a credibility problem with bettors. All of us "cheat" y'know? Anything, no matter how small that we can do to help that is a good thing.

Everyone seems to now finally realize that guys who drop three seconds in a week are getting caught, and it is not because they "work harder" than the next guy. That is a good thing, imo. When people know they are being watched, and not given accolades or end of year awards from their peers the better off we will be.

Just my opinion.

posted at 10:07 AM on May 7th 2008

Paul Siegel said...

"Pull the Pocket", you have touched on one of my pet peeves. I can't tell you how many times I've complained about racetrack publicity departments running stories glorifying the accomplishments of proven cheats.

It's always fallen on deaf ears. Apparently too many of them are incapable of developing a story line and have to rely on regurgitating the same stories day after day about who won the feature race.

A few years ago I was freelancing for a national harness racing magazine that has since gone out of business. I was covering a major night of stakes racing at an east coast track...the facility's biggest night of the year...their "Night of Champions." One of the races was won by a horse trained by a known "bad guy." I was determined not to give him any publicity, so my piece on that race was the only one of the night in which I did not interview the trainer. Yes, I wrote about the race and the horse, but the trainer got no opportunity to have his moment in the sun. I'll bet no one noticed the (intentional) omission. I know the editor didn't...he never said a word.

posted at 11:20 PM on May 6th 2008

Pull the Pocket said...

I popped up my thoughts just now. Here they are if you are interested. Gosh I can't believe how this type news kicks me in the stomach, every time I read a story like this. We are our own worst enemy in this sport. All my opinion.
>>>>>>>
Well I was stoked to place up a post on Somebeachsomewhere today. I will get to it. But first, let's get this bad news nonsense out of the way.

As mentioned William Elliott and Evzen Pindur were nabbed with EPO. Evzen was mostly toiling on the smaller tracks, but Elliott had some wicked stock, including Tigerama and Michelle's Power. In this day and age, when everyone knows EPO/DPO is being looked at hard, I can not believe people would be doing it. It is just so damn stupid.

Then this week, boom. Here we go again. Super-trainer Ernest Adam is nabbed. Six of his horses, including a world record holder test positive. One of the horses, Art Maker is as tough as nails and works as hard as the day is long. He is one of my favourite raceway horses of all time. He did not deserve this.

About a year ago, Ernest was rolling. No one I knew had heard of him. He was winning with shippers like a house on fire. Handicappers commented how his horses never seemed to get tired. It appears handicappers are many things, dumb isn't one of them.

When racing wonders why handicappers, when the next 30% super-trainer comes out of the wood-work are skeptical, this is why. And fellow owners reactions? Well they should be vitriolic. If a guy comes into my home and steals my bank card, takes $5000 out, he is a thief and should be in jail. In racing if a trainer loads a horse up illegally and steals $5000 of purse money, it is the same thing. Be upset and ask for harsh punishments and even criminal charges. It is the only way to stop this nonsense.

All of the above trainers have positive tests. In racing a positive is considered guilt, unless proven otherwise. It is a club, not a court of law. If, at the end of the day and after the appeals process is exhausted they are proven guilty in legal terms, they should never be allowed to participate in this sport again.

I implore the Standardbred press to limit the press on these "out of the woodwork", miracle working trainers when they are winning at obscene clips. Every time I read a story on one of them I find it painful. It does a disservice to bettors everywhere. A rule of thumb? If a 22 year old trainer with no experience takes a horse off a 30 year horseman with a 0.250 average, and drops 5 seconds in two weeks, don't run the story. In a year or two you are probably going to run another story saying it was all a mirage. It is not worth the ink.

posted at 9:18 PM on May 6th 2008

John Buonomo said...

One other thought, Ernie was the second trainer when Joe Anderson came to Club Med the first time...now that Joe is bringning 19 head, wonder where the horses or Ernie surfaces soon...

posted at 5:49 PM on May 6th 2008

Paul Siegel said...

They should have pulled their licenses immediately.

Maybe someone should aquaint the NJRC with the 1979 United States Supreme Court decision Barry v. Barchi in which the court held that a pre-suspension hearing is not required as long as the individual charged is afforded due process through a prompt post-suspension hearing.

posted at 4:07 PM on May 6th 2008

Tim Konkle said...

10 years isn't enough...ban them for life. They knew the rules and they chose to ignore them.Hear their appeal in one week and be done with it.99% of harness racing folks want the cheaters gone for good.they're ruining our sport and the bad publicity is so hard to overcome.

posted at 3:58 PM on May 6th 2008