Re: Pletcher Positive /Question for Barry Irwin (563 Views)
Posted by:
Caradoc (IP Logged)
Date: December 18, 2005 10:31AM
Jim: I agree with you that Barry's position now seems to be that he has zero tolerance for anyone in his employ who intentionally tries to circumvent the rules, and when someone does, he takes his business away from them for some period of time that he feels to be consistent with the violation. But if that is the position, then the statement he gave when he "fired" Ralph Nicks is, to be kind to Barry, misleading. This is the statement he gave:
"Team Valor has a zero-tolerance policy with regards to drugs. We had no choice other than to do what we did. This was the most difficult business decision I've ever had to make, because we like Ralph and we think he is an outstanding horseman."
You will have to forgive anyone who gets the impression from that statement that a) Team Valor would not tolerate drug violations by its trainers, and b) Ralph Nicks was fired, done, exiled, you name it from Team Valor, forever. But the truth was otherwise, wasn't it? Why was it "the most difficult business decision (Barry) ever had to make . . ." if he was going to turn around and re-hire Ralph Nicks?
Subsequent events suggest that the statement he should have given is this: "Team Valor has a zero-tolerance policy with regards to drug violations if we conclude a trainer intentionally attempted to circumvent the rules. We had no choice other than to take our horses from Ralph for an appropriate period of time. This is a very difficult business decision because Ralph is an outstanding horseman and we hate to suspend him for an appropriate period of time." Others can speculate as to why that more accurate but less admirable statement was not given.