richiebee Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I read somewhere that Robert Cole, owner of Blue
> Moon Ace, who ran second in the DeFrancis Dash at
> Laurel, is not happy. He is not happy because the
> winner of the race, Chublicious, is a Navarro
> trained horse who "snuck in the back door" on a
> technicality after Maryland racing officials
> announced that Navarro trained runners would be
> barred.
>
> Don't be too upset Mr. Cole. You will likely be
> back to the winner's enclosure soon. Your trainer,
> one Kevin S. Patterson, showed a record of 30 wins
> from 59 starts going into yesterday's races.

Sad end to this story, which might be old news to some. Blue Moon Ace tested
positive for Cobalt in the DeFrancis Dash. BMA came back to win the Maryland
Millions Sprint. He then was shipped to Penn National for the Fabulous Strike
stake, was injured in the running, and, tragically, was euthanized.

As Molesap points out in this thread, trainer Patterson has had two stints as a
trainer, separated by a nearly 10-year hiatus. Throughout most of the 1990s
(again, check Molesap's post for exact statistics), Mr. Patterson was barely
winning at a 6% rate; as Molesap points out in his post, Patterson (post
hiatus) has maintained a 38% strike rate with a sample size of over 800
starters. And let's not forget, going into the DeFrancis, Patterson had saddled
30 winners from 59 starters in 2017.

In a [i]comment[/i] to the Paulick Report article which I read, it was
mentioned that during his "hiatus", a runner that Patterson [i]owned[/i] tested
positive for EPO in 2007. Another commentator mentions that Robert Cole, owner
of Blue Moon Ace, has maintained a 30% strike rate as an owner with a sample in
excess of 4000 runners. If I am not mistaken this is the same Robert Cole who
had a longstanding owner/trainer relationship with Scott Lake when Mr. Lake was
at the top of his game.

I do not mean to smear Messrs Patterson, Cole or Lake, especially on the basis
of statistics I have not had time to verify. I would rather discuss the penalty
which was meted out to Mr Patterson on the cobalt positive (and which,
according to the Paulick Report, is being appealed): $500 and a 15 day
suspension.

All I have to say about the monetary fine is that $500 is about what Frankie
Rainbow and Fairmount spend on Heineken on on average day/night at the Spa.

The whole notion of a suspension, where a trainer is denied access to the
grounds, has been made a total joke by modern gadgetry. A suspended trainer,
properly equipped, can train his horses remotely, watching them exercise and
breeze, watching them cool out, seeing how much feed they left overnight, can
speak with the exercise rider via some audio hook up, can watch a horse being
shod and speak with the farrier during the process. So, to me, in the modern
era, denial of access to the grounds is no longer penal.

My idea, which has been mentioned here before, is to penalize offending
trainers with the weight of lead. For minor offenses/first offenders, lets say
that the next 20 starters the offending trainer saddles will carry an
additional 5 pounds; for more serious offenses/offenders, the number of
starters can be expanded to 30, 40, 50.

Some research into cobalt yielded some interesting results, which I will
generalize:

1) Cobalt has been said to have similar effects to EPO.
2) Studies have not established that cobalt chloride enhances performance in
the equine; apparently horses metabolize cobalt differently.
3) Cobalt can only be detected by state of the art (read: expensive) technology
which most racing jurisdictions can not afford.
4) Cobalt has potentially harmful side effects.
5) In the early 1960s, large breweries utilized cobalt to decrease the amount
of foam on beer, until heavy drinkers started dropping dead from heart failure.

To me, 1) and 4) are enough to lead me to believe that any cobalt overage is
not a trifling matter.