“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or thine own were: any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
Those words were written in 1624 by John Donne, at the time Dean of St. Pauls in London. Earlier Donne had been afflicted with spotted fever, and as he was lying in his bed at home could hear the tolling of the funeral bell from the neighboring church day after day. This led him to the profound revelation that we are all part of a greater whole, all in this life together. When one of us dies, we are all diminished by that death.
It is no different in the racing community. When a racetrack closes, we all suffer a part of that loss. When the sport is spoiled by jockeys who use “buzzers,” or trainers who resort to performance enhancing medication, we are all diminished. It is the strangest of conditions, where each of us often feels like an island, but we are all tied to each other through our devotion to the sport, and of course the parimutuel pool.
This is equally true when the state through its regulatory bodies does not act in the best interest of the sport. I’ve written extensively about the absolute insurers rule and how it has absolved the state from its investigatory responsibilities in some cases. The politics of racing commissions and the cronyism that often pervades regulatory issues angers many fans, but since so many see themselves not only as islands but as singularly impotent, we often restrict ourselves to complaining, mainly to each other.
Maggie Moss wrote a scathing piece about new regulations at Indiana Grand http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/88735/commentary-when-regulation-runs-amok
In it, she says
The 2014 meet began May 6 with an attempt to adopt new Association of Racing Commissioners International medication rules. However, uncertain withdrawal times for therapeutic medications—in the middle of the meet—created an ever-changing landscape for horsemen. It was, admittedly, a work in progress; even trainers strictly complying with new rules were called in with “positives.” The immeasurable amounts, by all scientific data, could not ever remotely affect the performance of the horse.
This is often the rub. A trainer gets a relatively severe penalty for a positive for oxazepam at a trace level, despite the fact that there seems to be no logical explanation for why any horse would be given what amounts to a sedative in an attempt to enhance performance, or even how the drug had made it into the horse’s system. Because racing commissions are paranoid about public perception the letter of the law becomes the alpha and omega of the law. How a horse winds up with a positive often becomes irrelevant in the world of racing commission violations.There is no innocent until proven guilty – it is quite the opposite. The idea of due process is perverted to the point where it only means the commission lets you talk before they found you guilty, or as in the words of Sheriff Cobb in the movie Silverado, “We’re gonna give you a fair trial, followed by a first class hanging.”
This is consistent with what happened in Indiana as Ms. Moss documents.
Trainers notified of overages were allegedly deprived of any due process or procedures outlined specifically in the Indiana rules of racing. Any rights to lawyers, timely split samples, or allowing Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association representation was ignored. Worse, individuals were threatened with excessive penalties if they did not take the “deals” offered. Most of this was done behind closed doors; the identities of those disciplined were never released to the media or the betting public.
This is the epitome of business as usual. Commissions hell-bent on getting guilty pleas cajole and intimidate the accused. I once served on a jury in an armed robbery case. The defendant, in this case the getaway driver, was offered the same deal as his partner who actually went into a jewelry store with a gun and robbed the place. For some reason this guy thought he could beat the rap, and to avoid trial the D.A. offered him the same 12 years as his partner. To make it tougher on the defendant, she threatened him with a three-strikes violation, a crime that carried a life sentence, if he wouldn’t plead guilty. His other two felony convictions were for things like jimmying the coin box at a laundromat, certainly not a violent or particularly heinous crime, but a felony nonetheless. It didn’t matter. His partner pled guilty and a few years later walked out of jail. The defendant was convicted, is still at the penitentiary, and will be for quite some time. The point wasn’t lost on me. If you don’t plead guilty, the penalty after conviction can be orders of magnitude worse.
Maggie Moss’ article is a horror show of a state commission run amok, and perhaps it is worse than what occurs in most jurisdictions, but I expect not.
It is the nature of the world that partisanship exists. We are loyal to those who have always supported us and we have little patience for those who are arrogant or aloof. It is no different in racing where certain trainers and jockeys always seem to warrant the enmity of the press, the public and racing commissions, while others have the appearance of being teflon coated.
It is not that the racing commissioners are not well-intentioned. On the contrary, they believe they have been ordained to protect racing by treating all transgressions as violent felonies. In the words of one backstretch worker who asked not to be identified, it seems rare that any medication violation is treated as a simple traffic ticket. It will always be that way as long as the sport is governed by unelected commissioners appointed by politicians who often are dispensing favors to the appointee or to those who are the equivalent of the Rockefellers or the the Morgans in the sport. It is far easier to focus on the O’Neill’s, the Dutrow’s, and the Asmussen’s of the sport, people for whom public opinion has already placed them in the category of chronic cheaters. Intent can rarely make up for competency.
Maggie Moss says,
“We must stop calling everyone cheaters when we discuss picograms of therapeutic overages versus cobalt, dermorphin, and other boutique drugs that kill our horses and jeopardize our jockeys. The media must do its job and stop calling everyone in racing cheaters, and also inquire into what a picogram is and how it affects a racing animal. The media also should ask what our labs are doing to test as they never have before and trying to measure amounts that are simply immeasurable.”
“Most of all the media must realize it is what makes the public think that racing is a cesspool of cheating when in reality it is not. A good starting point would be to see how inconsistent drug testing and inequality by our regulators is aiding a very unfair playing field. Indiana with its new regulations, switching of labs, and selective prosecution would be a good starting place.”
Each of us that loves racing has a responsibility to get involved with changing the administration of the sport so that governing bodies are filled with objective and qualified people. Where racing commissions are filled with lobbyists, attorneys who have represented the companies that own tracks and may understand administrative rules but were never inside the game, horse owners STILL connected to the trainers and racetracks they have to judge, B-level actresses, state veterinarians who still have certain trainers as clients, and so on, we cannot expect better than we are getting. The media, the commissions, and ardent racing fans are accomplishing what PETA could not. We are killing the sport from the inside out, by sensationalizing its faults and allowing amateur regulators to hold the reins of power.
When the next track closes; when the next honest trainer gets suspended; when the next horse dies inexplicably in its stall and nothing is done; when you hear the tolling of the funeral bell, ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.