Tony

I assume the NJ state police act on behalf of the racing commission. They are both part of the same organization. If there's an issue the commission cannot resolve without the use of force, they get the guys with guns involved. This is how governments operate, as far as I can tell. I also assume there are a handful of horsemen currently operating in Jersey that are cheating, based on their abilities to consistently improve performance after barn changes. Maybe it's better hay, but I assume it's more illegal than that.

So I question why these guys are still allowed to operate, while Ledford was busted. The main thing that was different about Ledford was he burst on the scene from Chicago and was winning at a much higher pecentage than anyone else. I can only assume this pissed a lot of people off, including some of the established (ie. connected) locals, and the wheels were set in motion to set things right (by their standards). Now this gets more into speculation but maybe he was asked "politely" to leave or cut down on the shenanigans to "acceptable" levels and he did not comply so the attorney generals office and cops were called in and started putting a case together, culminating in the raid & arrests.

I'm far from being an insider so I can only make best guesses on why things happen the way they do, but I'm fairly certain there is stuff going on that is not public knowledge, for better or for worse. I've witnessed too much to believe otherwise.


PS. I know this is the wrong breed but it's the same "vigorous oversight" that is ensuring Monmouth operates in a "fair and responsible manner" and I'll take 1-9 that anyone who happens to read this will have action on least one race there this year.