CHRB complaints against trainers Julio Canani and Jeff Mullins were dropped on Wednesday after the board was advised there was not enough evidence to support the cases against either. Both were charged with “conduct detrimental to horseracing” — Canani for his pre- and post-Santa Anita Derby comments on Sweet Catomine’s condition, and Mullins for telling LA Times sports columnist T.J. Simers that bettors were “idiots.” Van driver Dean Kerkhoff remains “on the hook” for his part in the Sweet Catomine affair. (Blood-Horse)
Posted by JC in Misdeeds & Wrongdoing on 04/27/2005 @ 11:05 pm / Follow @railbird on Twitter
I’m repeating myself, reposting this Bill Finley ESPN column, but I wanted to say a little more about the issue of disclosure. What Finley writes, in the wake of the Sweet Catomine affair and owner Marty Wygod’s CHRB hearing, is that when it comes to the public getting information on a horse’s condition,
there has to be a better system in place than the one we have now, which is, basically, the public can be damned. At the very least, when a horse undergoes any kind of surgical procedure or is shipped to a veterinary clinic for treatment, which is where Sweet Catomine spent about 40 hours the week of the Santa Anita Derby, that information should be disclosed. Has a horse missed any serious training time of late? Have there been any serious infirmities since its last race? The betting public has a right to know.
This seems like a very reasonable position to me. If a horse has a myectomy or is treated for a bleeding episode between starts, that should be made known. Really, how different is disclosing this information from the disclosure bettors get now that a horse is on Lasix for the first time? Or that it’s wearing different shoes than previously reported? Or carrying x number of excess pounds?
Hank Wesch take a contrary stance in the Union-Tribune:
A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, with much potential to mislead. And disclosure can be a double-edged sword with the capability of cutting anyone….
Two days before the 1990 Preakness, Kentucky Derby runner-up Summer Squall was observed bleeding from the nostrils while being grazed in the grassy area adjacent to the Pimlico stakes barn. Come race day, the little colt performed superbly and turned the tables on Kentucky Derby winner Unbridled.
In such instances, disclosure would have meant many bettors going to other horses and coming away with the feeling they’d fallen prey to a disinformation campaign designed to boost the odds on the winner they failed to have.
I don’t buy this argument — it ignores the fact that bettors already feel cheated by nondisclosure, and it’s patronizing. If anything, I’d expect bettors to feel less cheated if they were given such information and could incorporate it (or not, depending on their preference) into their handicapping, so long as clear guidelines for what should be disclosed were established and the information was reported consistently.
Posted by JC in The Sport on 04/27/2005 @ 10:30 pm / Follow @railbird on Twitter
Two articles are out today about Tim Ritchey’s unusual training regimen for Afleet Alex: The colt is sometimes sent out twice in the morning, once to jog and another time to gallop. “They [horses] are athletes and they have to be fit,” Ritchey said. “You cannot baby them.” (Blood-Horse)
Ritchey got the idea from his days in steeplechasing, where the horses are given more daily exercise than are typical racehorses. Another former steeplechaser, trainer Barclay Tagg, approves of what Ritchey’s doing: “If it suits the horse, he’s doing the right thing, and it obviously suits the horse,” said Tagg. “It’s a type of interval training. You get them a lot fitter that way, and these horses need the ultimate fitness for something like the Triple Crown races. They’re very grueling.” (Daily Racing Form)
This seems like another good reason to love Afleet Alex as a top Derby contender. And if he does win the Derby, I’d be willing to bet that a lot other trainers come up with a similar program for their hot prospects next year, replacing this year’s fashion for long layoffs and lots of rest.
Related: Afleet Alex officially worked five furlongs in :59 at Churchill this morning, but Steve Haskin clocked him in :58.6. That wasn’t all Haskin saw:
By the time Alex hit the five-eighths pole, he was rolling at a pretty good clip. The clockers got him in splits of :12 2/5, :24, :35 2/5, and :46 3/5. For whatever it’s worth, I caught him closer to :47, with a final eighth in :11 3/5. But what’s a few ticks here and there. What was to be taken from this work was the way Alex cut the corner turning for home. Horses running that fast often naturally drift three or four paths off the fence, but Alex hugged the rail and switched leads right on cue. You don’t often see that kind agility, and when you do, you certainly take note of it.
Down the stretch, Rose’s hands barely moved and couldn’t have been any farther down on the horse’s neck, which is another important thing you look for. Alex flew home under a nice loose rein, doing everything on his own, and had his ears back and his mind on business. (Blood-Horse)
Posted by JC in Racing on 04/26/2005 @ 1:00 pm / Tagged Kentucky Derby / Follow @railbird on Twitter
