Just to make it clear, the recent outbreak was instigated by Jake’s revisionist attempt to make me, my company, and lawyer (and friend) look sleazy. Plever tried the same thing a few months ago, and I’m not going to turn the other cheek.

The backstory, briefly: About three or four years ago, I informed Friedman, face to face, that his employees, and specifically Charlie Nebel (Jim’s mentor in Florida), were lying about us regularly. He said he certainly believed Charlie was lying about me, because Charlie hated me. When I asked if he was going to do something about it, he said no, he didn’t really care. Question to Phil Roland--what would your reaction be to that?

In any event, we went out and hired a private detective who taped Ragozin employees, catching them lying about us. Problem was, when I discussed the situation with Joe Friedberg (one of the top attorneys in the Midwest) he explained the facts of life: To win a lawsuit I would have to prove actual damages on a case by case basis (very difficult), and that Ragozin or Friedman had knowledge it was going on. So I just sat on it for a while, grinding my teeth.

Then, at Gulfstream, a little more than a year ago, the lying and assorted other crap increased, and we got calls about it from customers both there and in Maryland. Friedberg and I decided that at the very least we could call Ragozin on this stuff in public, so in the future he wouldn’t be able to claim he didn’t know, and so that the small percentage of sheet players who come online would know what’s going on. So we sent him a letter, along with a couple of the transcripts, and published the letter on this site.

To this day the Ragozin office has not responded, in this or any other forum.

So, as to the logorrhea of the last 24 hours:

1) On tape we caught both Nebel and Alex Katzoff (who works in Ragozin’s office) telling a potential client(our detective) that we don’t use observers--no ground loss, and no hand times. If you were a potential (or current) client, do you think that might affect your decision as to which data to use? Nebel also said this to a friend of mine who was producing the Triple Crown telecasts for ABC, who called me on the spot. There were also several other lies detailed in the letter: outselling us 10-1, etc.

2) I have stated since Day One on this site that one of my goals was to get the Raggies out from under the rocks and out into the open where I can deal with them, which is why I have encouraged Jim (Jerry Jr.—Jim humor) and Soup to post here. They have come with bad intentions from the jump, as anyone can see—their attitude and comments speak for themselves. Now imagine that going on at tracks in New York, Maryland, Chicago, Florida, California, and New Jersey on a daily basis, where I’m not there to refute it. Since only a tiny percentage of the market gets to hear the truth, do you think the no-trackmen stuff and other lies hurt my sales?

Phil Roland—I think you would have to agree that even knowing nothing else the Ragozin office’s failure to respond to my lawyer’s PUBLIC letter makes it extremely likely they are guilty, so let me see if I understand your position:

a) Intentionally lying about my business is acceptable.
b) My calling attention to it and attempting to stop it is unacceptable.

That about right?

3)Re: Knockoff, briefly. There is not a single thing I can think of that Ragozin invented—even the graph was his father’s idea. He assembles a lot of elements that others had already worked with and was the first to market ready to use figures in the U.S. Connie Merjos, who was Ragozin’s NY trackman for 25 years and goes back to Julie Fink and the Speed Boys, almost had a stroke when he read Ragozin’s book claiming credit for everything but the starting gate. I certainly agree that Ragozin’s figures were far better than any that preceded them, and that the graph made them much more useful.

When I was in Ragozin’s office he said repeatedly that anyone could take speed charts or anything else they wanted—“What are they going to do with them?” Meaning, it’s not about charts or formulas—it’s about skill, a tremendous amount of work, and a big overhead to gather data and do other work.

You also might have noticed that we stress the differences between us and Ragozin, not the similarities. Does anyone really think no-one should have competed with or improved on the Model T Ford? Knockoff shmockoff.

4) Quote from Soup’s post yesterday: “If you’ve got a legit point, you shouldn’t have to lie to people.” Couldn’t have said it better myself, and I’m sure he’s just outraged at the lies of the Ragozin employees.

5) If Jim and Soup want to pursue this further, I’ll be glad to re-post my lawyer’s letter, but I suggest you bounce it off Jake first.

Meanwhile, on more important stuff: We’ll be posting the Belmont Day card today, and invite comments. Any thoughts on why Friedman isn’t posting theirs? How about if I told you there was a big split in the variant? Can anyone see where it is?



TGJB