The Blood-Horse is reporting that a deal “is in the works” for the breeding rights to Afleet Alex. Cash Is King spokesman J.J. Graci confirmed this afternoon that Castleton Lyons of Kentucky was one of the farms bidding and that the stable still plans to run Alex as a four-year-old. “The sale is for the breeding rights only,” Graci said. “Chuck [managing partner Chuck Zacney] was emphatic that Alex will race next year under Cash Is King Stable.”
9/25 Tangent: Afleet Alex is scheduled to breeze this Friday at Belmont (New York Daily News).
Posted by JC in Breeders/Breeding on 09/23/2005 @ 10:00 pm / Follow @railbird on Twitter
The US House of Representatives issued two subpoenas to Jockeys’ Guild president Wayne Gertmenian on Tuesday, demanding that management and financial documents from the Guild and Matrix Capital Associates, the consulting firm owned by Gertmenian that has managed the organization since 2001, be turned over to a congressional committee investigating the issue of jockeys’ insurance (Blood-Horse). The documents sought by the committee, headed by Kentucky representative Ed Whitfield, are the same records that Whitfield requested in letters to the Guild and Gertmenian in April and then again in August. “It was pretty clear to us that they were not really being responsive in providing us with documents that we had requested,” said Whitfield. “We think it’s essential we get a complete analysis of how the [Jockeys’ Guild] money’s coming, how it’s being spent” (Lexington Herald-Leader).
Neither Gertmenian nor any Guild representatives have commented on the subpoenas. In response to Whitfield’s August letter to the Guild, counsel Lloyd Ownbey wrote that the committee investigation was “misdirected” and stated that the Guild had provided “huge volumes of documents relevant to this investigation,” specifically, “in excess of one and a half business boxes of documents (covering the past six-plus years of Guild operations).”
Comment: Forget Weightgate. A far bigger scandal is brewing in the Jockeys’ Guild. The apparent unwillingness or inability of the Guild and Gertmenian to provide the documents Whitfield has requested is not only strange, but alarming. At the very least, it suggests that both the Guild and Matrix are afflicted with a case of poor record keeping. At the very worst, it suggests mismanagement. Either is a shame for jockeys, who deserve competent and trustworthy leaders representing their interests.
Posted by JC in Jockeys' Insurance on 09/22/2005 @ 2:00 pm / Follow @railbird on Twitter
“How many times during your gambling years have you been told ‘you’ll never beat the bookies’ or ‘win today, give them it all back tomorrow’? Thousands of times I’d wager. But who are these people who tell you this? I’ll tell you. They are exactly like some of those horses I’ve been on about — the one paced plodders of life. They have no success, courage, or sense of adventure themselves and get their kicks by telling you how wrong you have been and how the whole world is really a massive conspiracy against the ordinary little working man. Dump these people immediately or they will drag you down into mediocrity with them. You will end up chained beside them in some moronic factory all your life while the boss is living it up at Ascot with all the champagne and birds he can handle.” — From “Always Back Winners,” by Stewart Simpson
Posted by JC in Readings on 09/22/2005 @ 7:00 am / Follow @railbird on Twitter
