This post is not intended to anger or incite.

TGJB, I know you have an interest in racing which goes beyond selling information which you have collected to handicappers. I acknowledge that you advise owners/ bloodstock entities on the purchase of racehorses. I also recognize that other posters on this board are racehorse owners and breeders; still others might make a living in the game as racing officials and journalists. All of you have a vested interest in the future of racing.

I retired from the racing game in 1987. Since then, I have taken "conventional" jobs which allowed me to pursue my favorite recreational activity, to go to the track here in NY or over in NJ 2 or 3 times a week, to visit with friends who enjoy watching and betting on the races. With the advent of computer wagering, I can sneak in a bet now or then on the fly without attending live.

I really do not care, as a handicapper/racing fan, if the game is "cleaned up". I believe, that as a Blood Horse subscriber, as a daily reader of the Racing Form, as an occasional purchaser of TG products and a follower of the TG board, as a person who has maintained contact with some of the people I know who are still working on the backside, that I have more knowledge and information than 80- 90% of the people I am wagering against.

I am cognizant of the fact that these 10- 20% of the people more informed than I may be wagering an inordinate percentage of all the monies wagered.

If you have read this far, and are waiting for me to make a point, here it is: I feel like I would lose a slight advantage if the playing field is somehow leveled. I have gotten used to playing the game with the knowledge that there are supertrainers and what I call "stuportrainers", who somehow remain in the game year after year with a high volume of starters and a low strike rate. One trainer in NY has probably saddled over a thousand runners in the last 4-5 years with a win percentage of less than 5%; to me, this man must either have an irresistible personality or he is laundering his owners' money.

Maybe I would be more apt to shout "CLEAN UP THE GAME" if I thought such a cleansing was an attainable objective. Chicanery has always been a part of the game, and the best practitioners of this chicanery have always been admired and villified at the same time. Just in the time I've been in the game, we've had Oscar Barrera, Pete Ferriola, Gasper Moschera and Rich Dutrow, Jr. plying their trade in NY, the jock who got lost in the fog down in Louisiana, Dale Romans dad beating the track identifier (and the public) at Churchill on Derby Day for a big score, Linda Rice's dad, Clyde, fooling the clocker up at Penn National and cashing a big bet on Titillating at Belmont, etc. My personal favorite is the trainer who caught a lifetime ban in England for running a 3YO in a race which was limited to 2YOs. He swears he would have never gotten caught if it weren't for the fact that the jock allowed the horse to win by 20 lengths... in a 5 furlong race.

So freeze the blood, give owners and trainers Sarbanes Oxley like liability, these are all good ideas, but a lot of the cheaters are making their biggest scores at the windows and not through the award of purse moneys. Purse monies can be redistributed, but pari- mutuel payouts can not.

I draw the line at the inhumane treatment of thoroughbreds. At this point, I would no longer be interested in wagering, and the game wouldn't be around for long anyway.




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/2005 09:28PM by richiebee.