On Bellyaching
I’ve been accused of late, in emails and comments, of not being properly enthusiastic about Big Brown, so let me give the horse his due: Big Brown is a phenomenal talent, a freak, and he would be coming out of any barn. He’s dominated every start, he’s shown that he can rate or lead, that he can break from the inside or the outside. He accelerates effortlessly, and he displays qualities exhibited by past great racehorses — he makes every race look like his own and every horse he beats look second-rate.
I hope he wins the Triple Crown. It’s been 30 years; racing fans deserve a superstar.
Apparently, that’s all I’m supposed to say. Anything else is “bellyaching.”
You know, over the past two weeks, we’ve heard endlessly that racing is in crisis, that racing must change, that the sport has to deal with its drug problem and breed more durable horses.
Last Saturday, both ESPN and NBC dedicated panels to discussing these and other issues and everyone involved earnestly agreed to the necessity of reform.
Not 10 minutes after the NBC segment wrapped, Bob Costas was announcing a stud deal for lightly-raced Big Brown.
A few minutes later, NTRA president Alex Waldrop appeared and, among other things, promised that racing would be steroids free by 2009, without even giving a nod to the fact that the Preakness favorite — and more than likely, half the field — was on steroids as a matter of course.
And yet all that, as well as trainer Rick Dutrow’s lengthy record and questionable character, should be put aside.
Well, I’m not interested in doing that. Big Brown, on the verge of a historic achievement, embodies racing’s rot. I watch his races and feel the transcendence that great horses offer — I really meant it when I said he’s phenomenal — but then the disenchantment comes on.
To stop talking now about Dutrow’s career and methods, or IEAH’s rush to stud and its business plan and what it all means, is to give the racing establishment a pass on the problems corroding our game.
Racing is compromised, its future success threatened, and to refuse to grapple with the contradictions and questions that surround Big Brown is to willingly put on blinkers.
But I guess desperately wanting to celebrate a Triple Crown winner nullifies any claims integrity or intellectual honesty make on our consciences. As David Brooks wrote of the unsavory Melmotte, “Dishonesty becomes acceptable so long as it contributes to success.”
Biancone Suspended
The Kentucky Horse Racing Authority has slapped trainer Patrick Biancone with a one year suspension for possession of three vials of cobra venom (DRF). Scheduled to start on October 15, the suspension won’t impede Biancone’s saddling of likely favorite Irish Smoke in today’s Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland, where Biancone was leading trainer last spring. And according to attorney Frank Becker, Biancone plans to appeal the suspension, which means horses could be running under his name in the Breeders’ Cup. Well, that’ll look terrific on World Championship Day.
Biancone was issued additional suspensions, which KHRA will allow him to serve concurrently, for possessing other illegal substances, not properly labeling medications, and not reporting that his veterinarian, Dr. Rod Stewart, possessed cobra venom. (Stewart was given a five year suspension for that violation in September.) Among the other illegal substances and improperly labeled medications mentioned in the full KHRA ruling (PDF) were sodium bicarbonate and one “injectable bottle of unknown brown honey-colored liquid marked ‘For Mythical Echo Only’ …”
When Biancone does start his suspension, he won’t be able to transfer horses to an assistant trainer or a relative for training or derive any income from his barn, as often happens in these cases, in accordance with Kentucky’s tough new medication rules (KHRA).
Update 10/11/07: Biancone has been granted a stay of suspension until his appeal can be heard (ESPN).
This Is Maddening
Although his veterinarian was suspended nearly two weeks ago, a resolution into the investigation of trainer Patrick Biancone has yet to come to pass, according to officials with the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority.
Following yesterday’s monthly KHRA meeting, executive director Lisa Underwood would not confirm if a hearing has been scheduled — or already held — for Biancone, saying only that the matter “remains under investigation.”
KHRA officials searched Biancone’s Keeneland barns in June; DRF reported cobra venom was found during the search. The Form also reported on August 9 that a hearing into the matter had been scheduled, although that no longer seems to be the case. Meanwhile, Biancone continues to run horses, the alleged allegations against him neither cleared nor confirmed. As Ray Paulick wrote of the situation a month ago: “Talk about a laughingstock.”
8/30 Addendum: KHRA hands Biancone a 15-day suspension after one of his horses tests positive for caffeine and theophylline; the investigation into the matter mentioned above is ongoing (Blood-Horse).
Biancone Hearing Set
For sometime, somewhere: “A hearing has been scheduled in regard to a search of the Keeneland barns of trainer Patrick Biancone, Kentucky state steward John Veitch said Thursday, although Veitch said he was not at liberty to name the time or location of the hearing” (DRF). Details are being withheld until after the hearing’s conclusion, per KHRA director Lisa Underwood’s reading of Kentucky regulations.
Breaking Through
“If the initial reports prove to be true,” writes Andrew Beyer, “the cosmopolitan Biancone could be to horse racing what Floyd Landis, the disgraced Tour de France winner, is to professional cycling: the symbol of the sport’s cancerous drug problem.” Perhaps the one good thing that might come out of this is that with a scandal on that scale we’ll get the vigorous debate about drugs and supplements that the sport sorely needs, as painful as that would be for all, and new regulations and penalties to seriously curb the problem.
Cobra Venom Found
A source close to the investigation told the Daily Racing Form that cobra venom was found in trainer Patrick Biancone’s Keeneland barns during a search by KHRA investigators on June 22:
The cobra venom, which is barred by state regulation from racetrack grounds, was in crystalline form and was found in a refrigerator in one of the tack rooms used for the storage of supplies, said the source, adding the substance was in a small container labeled “Toxin.” Snake venom has been known to be injected to deaden or “block” a horse’s joint or nerve, and in a case settled last week in Saratoga County, N.Y., two Standardbred horsemen pled guilty of doing just that before a race last October at Saratoga Raceway.
The article mentions that the venom was one of the substances confiscated from Biancone’s barns and that the trainer’s veterinarian, Dr. Rod Stewart, is also a subject of the investigation. A hearing is pending.
More from DRF: “Facts about cobra venom that many people in horse racing probably do not know: It’s easy for a veterinarian to obtain. It’s legal to possess. There is very little hope of devising a test to detect its administration any time soon.”
Trouble in Texas
Texas racing has a problem with milkshakes. Out of 266 blood samples taken from horses in randomly selected races at Lone Star Park during two weeks in May and the third weekend in June, five were positive for excess carbon dioxide. The random, blind survey was conducted by the state racing commission, which has directed its chief veterinarian to develop a plan to squelch the problem. (Star-Telegram)
Gary West: “The commission must move quickly and decisively to shut down the soda fountain.”
Canani, Mullins Complaints Dropped
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)
More on CHRB, Wygod
Bill Finley sees the case against Sweet Catomine’s connections as unusual in only one respect — the CHRB took action. That nothing was known about her condition before the race is an everyday occurence. A system for disclosure needs to be put into place: “Should a trainer have to report to the public every time a horse has a sniffle? No. But 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.” Hear, hear! (ESPN)
The CHRB’s case against Marty Wygod was beyond weak, writes Jay Hovdey, and the board “owes the sport an apology for turning Wygod’s public hearing into a desperate fishing expedition for facts their investigators were unable to provide.” (Daily Racing Form — sub. req.)
The CHRB announced on Monday that it plans to review its investigation procedures in the wake of the Sweet Catomine affair. “I intend to evaluate our investigative procedures from start to finish,” said board director Ingrid Fermin. “In that way, licensees and the public will be reassured that cases have been fully investigated and evaluated before any accusations are filed.” (Daily Racing Form)
Complaint Against Wygod Dismissed
Sweet Catomine owner Marty Wygod was cleared of all charges on Saturday after a three-hour hearing before the Hollywood Park stewards, who determined that the CHRB failed to prove its allegations that Wygod violated racing rules by making false statements and committing “conduct detrimental to racing” in the week leading up to the filly’s run in the Santa Anita Derby. After the ruling, Wygod said:
“My name was dragged through the mud in 20-30 newspapers. Charges were brought against me that were totally unfounded … This has had a terrible impact on my wife and my kids.
“I spent 40 years in this game; I tried to get my kids to want to care about it after me. They don’t want to have anything to do with it anymore because of the charges made against me. I have to make some hard decisions whether I want to continue.
“I think what was done here by the press and by (CHRB Executive Director) Ingrid Fermin was despicable and I’m not finished with this — whether I stay in the game or don’t stay in the game.” (Union-Tribune)
To which I say: Amazing. Are we supposed to think Wygod is the victim here?
About
Jessica Chapel writes and edits in Massachusetts. Railbird is a Thoroughbred horse racing blog published from June 2004 to July 2019. More / Contact
Elsewhere
Find Jessica on Pinboard and Instagram, Railbird on LibraryThing and Twitter.
Etc.
Links
Search
Boston Racing
Spreadsheets/Data
← Home
Copyright © 2000-2023 by Jessica Chapel. All rights reserved.