Saturday, March 10, 2012

Help Me Understand Please

Today in HRU Bill Finley (pdf alert) looked at the reinstatement in Pennsylvania of a trainer, calling it a "disgrace".
  • In 2001, he was caught injecting a horse with an illegal substance, which caused the horse’s death. In 2007, his license was revoked after he was charged by the Saratoga County District Attorney’s office with conspiracy over his involvement in the trafficking of EPO and snake venom. These are not trivial issues, they are serious matters involving the death of an animal and then involvement with notorious drugs that are a plague to the sport. In a sane and rational world, Mosher would never be allowed to have anything to do with harness racing again. 
I don't know much about this trainer, only having bet a few of Sarita's horses now and again. But it begs the question, how much is too much?

The Paulick Report did a story awhile back on a thoroughbred trainer who was also licensed.
  • ..... in 1998 he was banned by the Ohio Racing Commission for one year for an incident at Beulah Park when he was ruled to have “mistreated, abused or engaged in an act of cruelty to a horse” and used an “appliance other than whip for the purpose of stimulating speed.” The appliance was described in court documents as a “wooden stick with stripped electrical cords stuck to it.” A veterinarian and two assistants testified seeing a horse at Beulah Park “jump two or three feet in the air” and then witnessed Delahoussaye unplugging an electrical cord from the wall. Delahoussaye appealed the case but ultimately lost.
Both of these gentlemen were let back into racing to train.

I am not a hang-em-high type guy. I understand there are circumstances, I understand there are different degrees for and of wrongdoing, I understand that decent people will make some mistakes; many deserve second chances or third chances, in life, or in racing.

But I don't understand this.

EPO and Venom is evil. Venom masks pain that not only endangers horse's lives but jocks and drivers too. EPO turns a horse's blood to sludge.

What the thoroughbred trainer was convicted of above, well that just makes me sick.

Michael Vick did some bad things and can't own a dog. If a daycare operator abused a child, he or she would never be able to work with kids again. If a school bus driver is caught with a DUI, he can't drive our kids around, that's for sure.

Why oh why, for egregious penalties on this scale, is racing so happy to have these same type people back?

Help me understand please, because it's something I can't wrap my head around.

Notes:
Plenty of action today in thoroughbred racing. As usual, follow goatzapper.com. He has the previews and results as they happen.
Higher and Higher won the Overbid elim last night with a decent kick.
Big M outrider was taken to hospitial last night after that 8th race debacle.

3 comments:

That Blog Guy said...

A lot of the problems is due to the antiquated means of checking the records of those applying for licneses. It is possible that Mosher showed up for his license and they gave it to him based on his statements on his application. Once it gets back to Harrisburg is when they check the records and the red flags may go up.

If you look at the USTA fines and suspensions list, you always see people getting fined for not revealing their criminal record.

This one I don't blame on the tracks. I blame it on the racing commissions who have not upgraded their licensing systems so the field offices can do the criminal checks at the time of the licensing application is submitted.

Tinky said...

"Why oh why, for egregious penalties on this scale, is racing so happy to have these same type people back?"

Two fundamental reason, I'd suggest. The first is that virtually no once outside of racing cares about such transgressions, whereas abusing dogs and/or children provokes outage amongst the masses.

The second is that even though it definitely hurts the business to allow bad actors to remain in the game, the powers that be are so remarkably short-sighted that they'd rather have another trainer to enter horses so that field size is up .27% during the current (or next) season, than rid the game of insidious characters.

Anonymous said...

Why is this allowed to happen? So very simple. Just look at who is running the show. Just because these guys are well dressed they are not far removed from the criminals on the playing field. Where do you keep your money? The banks. You know they are criminals yet you keep doing the same thing. Only way to stop all of this is with your own wallet. Boycott this crap. I have!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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