Archives » Misdeeds & Wrongdoing
On Bellyaching
I've been accused of late, in emails and comments, of not being properly enthusiastic about Big Brown, so let me give the horse his due: Big Brown is a phenomenal talent, a freak, and he would be coming out of any barn. He's dominated every start, he's shown that he can rate or lead, that he can break from the inside or the outside. He accelerates effortlessly, and he displays qualities exhibited by past great racehorses -- he makes every race look like his own and every horse he beats look second-rate. I hope he wins the Triple Crown. It's...
Posted by JC, May 21, 2008 01:30 PM
Biancone Suspended
The Kentucky Horse Racing Authority has slapped trainer Patrick Biancone with a one year suspension for possession of three vials of cobra venom (DRF). Scheduled to start on October 15, the suspension won't impede Biancone's saddling of likely favorite Irish Smoke in today's Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland, where Biancone was leading trainer last spring. And according to attorney Frank Becker, Biancone plans to appeal the suspension, which means horses could be running under his name in the Breeders' Cup. Well, that'll look terrific on World Championship Day. Biancone was issued additional suspensions, which KHRA will allow him to serve concurrently,...
Posted by JC, Oct 5, 2007 11:35 AM
This Is Maddening
Reports the Herald-Leader: Although his veterinarian was suspended nearly two weeks ago, a resolution into the investigation of trainer Patrick Biancone has yet to come to pass, according to officials with the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority. Following yesterday's monthly KHRA meeting, executive director Lisa Underwood would not confirm if a hearing has been scheduled -- or already held -- for Biancone, saying only that the matter "remains under investigation." KHRA officials searched Biancone's Keeneland barns in June; DRF reported cobra venom was found during the search. The Form also reported on August 9 that a hearing into the matter had...
Posted by JC, Aug 28, 2007 10:00 PM
Biancone Hearing Set
For sometime, somewhere: "A hearing has been scheduled in regard to a search of the Keeneland barns of trainer Patrick Biancone, Kentucky state steward John Veitch said Thursday, although Veitch said he was not at liberty to name the time or location of the hearing" (DRF). Details are being withheld until after the hearing's conclusion, per KHRA director Lisa Underwood's reading of Kentucky regulations....
Posted by JC, Aug 11, 2007 12:40 PM
Breaking Through
"If the initial reports prove to be true," writes Andrew Beyer, "the cosmopolitan Biancone could be to horse racing what Floyd Landis, the disgraced Tour de France winner, is to professional cycling: the symbol of the sport's cancerous drug problem." Perhaps the one good thing that might come out of this is that with a scandal on that scale we'll get the vigorous debate about drugs and supplements that the sport sorely needs, as painful as that would be for all, and new regulations and penalties to seriously curb the problem....
Posted by JC, Jul 10, 2007 08:30 AM
Cobra Venom Found
A source close to the investigation told the Daily Racing Form that cobra venom was found in trainer Patrick Biancone's Keeneland barns during a search by KHRA investigators on June 22: The cobra venom, which is barred by state regulation from racetrack grounds, was in crystalline form and was found in a refrigerator in one of the tack rooms used for the storage of supplies, said the source, adding the substance was in a small container labeled "Toxin." Snake venom has been known to be injected to deaden or "block" a horse's joint or nerve, and in a case settled...
Posted by JC, Jul 4, 2007 03:00 PM
Trouble in Texas
Texas racing has a problem with milkshakes. Out of 266 blood samples taken from horses in randomly selected races at Lone Star Park during two weeks in May and the third weekend in June, five were positive for excess carbon dioxide. The random, blind survey was conducted by the state racing commission, which has directed its chief veterinarian to develop a plan to squelch the problem. (Star-Telegram) Gary West: "The commission must move quickly and decisively to shut down the soda fountain."...
Posted by JC, Jun 23, 2005 02:20 PM
Canani, Mullins Complaints Dropped
CHRB complaints against trainers Julio Canani and Jeff Mullins were dropped on Wednesday after the board was advised there was not enough evidence to support the cases against either. Both were charged with "conduct detrimental to horseracing" -- Canani for his pre- and post-Santa Anita Derby comments on Sweet Catomine's condition, and Mullins for telling LA Times sports columnist T.J. Simers that bettors were "idiots." Van driver Dean Kerkhoff remains "on the hook" for his part in the Sweet Catomine affair. (Blood-Horse)...
Posted by JC, Apr 27, 2005 11:05 PM
More on CHRB, Wygod
Bill Finley sees the case against Sweet Catomine's connections as unusual in only one respect -- the CHRB took action. That nothing was known about her condition before the race is an everyday occurence. A system for disclosure needs to be put into place: "Should a trainer have to report to the public every time a horse has a sniffle? No. But there has to be a better system in place than the one we have now, which is, basically, the public can be damned. At the very least, when a horse undergoes any kind of surgical procedure or is...
Posted by JC, Apr 26, 2005 10:40 AM
Complaint Against Wygod Dismissed
Sweet Catomine owner Marty Wygod was cleared of all charges on Saturday after a three-hour hearing before the Hollywood Park stewards, who determined that the CHRB failed to prove its allegations that Wygod violated racing rules by making false statements and committing "conduct detrimental to racing" in the week leading up to the filly's run in the Santa Anita Derby. After the ruling, Wygod said: "My name was dragged through the mud in 20-30 newspapers. Charges were brought against me that were totally unfounded ... This has had a terrible impact on my wife and my kids. "I spent 40...
Posted by JC, Apr 25, 2005 10:55 AM
Racing's Credibility Problem
Stan Bergstein warns: "If we don't do something about transparency, we're in deep media trouble." (Daily Racing Form -- sub. req.) And if the industry can't right itself, the courts may help it along: A man who bet on Sweet Catomine in the Santa Anita Derby has filed a lawsuit, alleging the filly's connections committed fraud. (USA Today)...
Posted by JC, Apr 20, 2005 10:40 AM
Investigating the Wrong Guy
DRF readers have their say on the Sweet Catomine affair. Charlie Garcia writes that the CHRB is wasting its time investigating owner Marty Wygod when there are more deserving targets: The California racing board will, however, allow racing a horse -- Pearls 'n' Satin in the ninth race at Santa Anita on April 10 -- whose trainer had not won in more than a year, whose jockey had won once out of 43 tries this year, and who had worked no faster than six-furlongs in 1:16 at Fairplex, with several three- to four-week gaps in the works. The board witnessed...
Posted by JC, Apr 16, 2005 10:15 AM
Canani Blameless
And the van driver really did change the paperwork. This'll be the last post on the Sweet Catomine debacle for a while, unless some huge news comes out. After all, we have the amazing Bellamy Road and two sure-to-be thrilling Saturday Derby preps to obsess over for the rest of the week. --- I was wondering yesterday why trainer Julio Canani wasn't included in the CHRB complaint. Turns out, the CHRB determined that, Canani did not violate any racing rules, nor was he party to the shipping of Sweet Catomine from Santa Anita to Alamo Pintado Equine Medical Clinic for...
Posted by JC, Apr 13, 2005 10:50 AM
CHRB Files Complaint Against Wygod
And Marty Wygod denies all allegations of wrongdoing. If only someone had asked him the magic question, he would have opened up: The board also alleges Wygod violated a CHRB rule dealing with statements he made prior to and after the race concerning the health of his filly, who finished fifth in the event as the even-money choice. Wygod, however, strongly denies that charge. "I hid nothing," he said. "Anybody that asked me questions, I responded. When they asked me how I felt, my worries were very clear. I said I was apprehensive and nervous. All they had to do...
Posted by JC, Apr 12, 2005 09:15 AM
CHRB Investigates
"The California Horse Racing Board announced late Sunday that it was reviewing events prior to Sweet Catomine's fifth-place finish in the $750,000 race at Santa Anita." Good. More transparency and accountability in this sport, please. (Blood-Horse) Is the story more complicated than initially reported? Bill Christine writes, "George Slender, a Santa Anita steward, said that there were reports that Sweet Catomine hadn't been moved at all, and that this was one of the issues state investigators were addressing." (LA Times) Continuing fallout: Sweet Catomine and other horses owned by Marty and Pam Wygod have been moved from trainer Julio Canani's...
Posted by JC, Apr 11, 2005 07:15 AM
Another Milkshaker Caught
Adam Kitchingman is now the fourth Santa Anita trainer to be cited for running a horse with excess carbon dioxide levels. His horses, along with those of Julio Canani, Vladimir Cerin, and Jeff Mullins -- who were cited earlier in the month for the offense -- are now subject to a 24-hour pre-race quarantine. Here's the twist in the story: Unlike Canani, Cerin, and Mullins, Kitchingman isn't denying the milkshake allegation. "I got caught playing with fire, and I'll have to reconsider what I was doing. I'm not going to deny it like everybody else who got caught. It's not...
Posted by JC, Feb 24, 2005 12:20 PM
Beware: Alkalizing Agents Are Everywhere
Last summer, I walked into a barn at Suffolk Downs and found a trainer dosing a horse (who was not scheduled to run that day) with Maalox. "Upset stomach," said the trainer when I asked why the horse was getting an antacid. I'm reminded of this incident after reading the Blood-Horse article about the positive blood test for excess bicarbonate of trainer Jeff Mullins' horse, Puppeteer, who ran second in a race at Santa Anita on January 22. Mullins denies any "milkshaking" is happening in his barn and claims the horse was accidentally contaminated by alkalizing agents in his feed...
Posted by JC, Feb 15, 2005 10:40 AM
Catching Cheats
Ed Fountaine has some ideas for stopping racetrack cheats: Increase surveillance and security, give trainers lie detector tests when they apply for licenses, hold vets accountable, reward whistleblowers, and call in the Feds. "Racing's current method of punishing cheaters -- fining and suspending them -- only works when the punishment is severe enough to outweigh the risks. Usually, it isn't. But suppose someone who juiced his horses faced federal prosecution for race-fixing. Then he'd be looking not at a six-month suspension, but rather six years in the slammer." I'm down with the Feds and rewarding whistleblowers, but lie detector tests...
Posted by JC, Feb 11, 2005 09:40 AM
Naming the Unnameable Scandal
Thanks to the readers who sent in possible names for the racing scandal that broke on January 13 in New York. Coming up was something snappy was tough, as quite a few of you pointed out -- the scandal is nothing if not multi-faceted, what with allegations of milkshaking and race-fixing, tax evasion and mob involvement. But I think most of the suggestions capture the whole pretty well. The possibilities: Uvarigate, Mob Rocket, $200 Million Fix, Cookies-and-Milkshake Scandal, Shake and Rebate. The winner: I've a weakness for puns, which makes Mob Rocket tempting, but I think I have to go...
Posted by JC, Jan 31, 2005 09:25 AM
Bookmaker Claims It's Whistle-Blower
The British bookmaker Euro Off-Track claims to have acted as a whistle-blower in the race-fixing/betting scandal that broke two weeks ago. Apparently, the betting shop, which was among the four named in the indictments of January 13 and which has been cut off by NYRA, reported the transaction specified in the charges as a "suspicious transaction." Intriguingly, Euro Off-Track's manager says that Magna, which hasn't cut it signal to any simulcasting sites in the indictments' wake, sent Euro Off-Track a notice calling for increased transparency and a new protocol in order to keep its signal, to which the betting shop...
Posted by JC, Jan 27, 2005 10:30 AM
Scandal = Increased Handle
At least by $2 on a recent Saturday. A racetrack newbie dazzled by news of the race-fixing indictments two weeks ago visits Aqueduct in search of a seedy good time. "Intrigue! Drugs! The mob! Now this was a reason to gamble." (New York Press) [Link found on the newly-begun and already excellent racing blog, Left at the Gate -- definitely worth repeat visits, if not a spot on your bookmark list.]...
Posted by JC, Jan 26, 2005 12:10 PM
Of Scams & Scandals
If, as seems possible, racing's latest scandal is mostly about offshore betting and tax evasion, it's unlikely that the investigation into race-fixing and rogue gamblers will ever make it into a book like the soon-to-be published in the US, "Flat Racing Scams and Scandals," by Rupert Mackeson (Metro Books), which covers 200 years of skulduggery and wrongdoing in racing. It's good to be reminded that the sport is resilient -- this scandal won't be the one to kill it off. (The book is listed for sale on Amazon and Barnes & Noble; be aware that the promotional copy is about...
Posted by JC, Jan 24, 2005 10:00 AM
More Testing, More Oversight
I'm not sure what to make of this latest bad news. The indictments last Thursday of 17 people for allegedly drugging horses and betting illegally are troubling, especially following the recent unrest over the matters of jockeys' insurance and the management of the Jockeys' Guild, as well as the investigation into jockey weights at NYRA, but there's still too much unknown for me to get as worked up as the commentator who called the arrests a "catastrophe," such as: police detectives and the FBI say the doping aspect of the investigation is limited to the New York area, but only...
Posted by JC, Jan 16, 2005 05:15 PM
The Iceberg's Tip
The 17 people, including trainer Greg Martin, indicted in New York Thursday on charges of fraud and conspiracy for allegedly fixing races and betting illegally may have been just the first caught up in a nationwide investigation, reports the New York Post. "Law-enforcement sources said the arrests were just the tip of the iceberg. Prominent thoroughbred tracks in Florida and California also are under investigation, as are gambling operations in Nevada, they said." More: "Suspension of licenses follows indictments" (New York Times); performance-enhancing drugs and rebate shops come under the spotlight (Daily Racing Form); Bill Finley writes that the "sport...
Posted by JC, Jan 15, 2005 11:45 AM
Trainer Indicted, Mob Ties Alleged
New York trainer Greg Martin, owner Gerald Uvari, and 15 others were indicted Thursday on charges of fraud and conspiracy as part of a $200 million gambling ring. Martin and two others allegedly fixed a December 18, 2003 race at Aqueduct by dosing a horse named A One Rocket with a performance-enhancing substance just before running. The horse won by 10 lengths. "Cops say the bet-on-a-sure-thing gang also doped horses and tried to fix races at Belmont and other tracks nationwide, with most of the horses finishing in the money.... The Big A scam was part of a much bigger...
Posted by JC, Jan 14, 2005 10:40 AM
