"It's just a horse race"
The Horse Racing Industry is in disarray. A few weeks ago I was going write a kind of bucolic piece about my experiences being in a quarter horse partnership and spending some time on the back stretch at Hialeah Park.
Then twenty seven folks were indicted including Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro trainers of Maximum Security and X Y Jet respectively. Maximum Security won the Kentucky Derby but was disqualified, X Y Jet won the Golden Shaheen in Dubai in 2019.
From the Washington Post: As FBI agents raided barns in Florida, federal prosecutors in Manhattan unveiled charges that paint Navarro and others not as reverent caretakers but ruthless cheats who gamed the system to administer performance-enhancing drugs with names such as “monkey” and “red acid” to their horses. Those drugs and others, prosecutors said, were engineered to avoid detection by regulators and net the conspirators untold millions of dollars — all to the detriment of the animals, dozens of which died prematurely as a result. Navarro and others face multiple counts of conspiracy to manufacture, distribute and administer misbranded drugs, a felony that carries up to five years in prison per charge.
Jason Servis is alleged to have given performance-enhancing drugs to “virtually all the racehorses under his control.” He entered horses in races approximately 1,082 times from 2018 through February 2020, according to authorities.
Then the Novel Corona Virus sent spectators home from Gulfstream Park, Aqueduct and Santa Anita to watch the races on their computers. The business can limp along without food and beverage sales on track but almost all tracks need their signal on the internet and the slots where they are still open.
The Triple Crown was just around the corner, but the term social distancing has pushed the Kentucky Derby to Labor Day Weekend (hopefully), with the Preakness and Belmont following as in the Spring.
Keeneland's Spring Meet has been cancelled and the training of horses to point for the first Saturday in May is now in flux. The road to the Derby has hit a detour. Monmouth Park and Saratoga have races that could serve as prep races for the Derby but who knows how that will go, and what if there are other drug indictments.
All these plans are written in sand and could be overtaken by events.
Bob Baffert summed it all up: "But at the end of the day, it's just a horse race," Baffert said, adding: "I worry more about the people who have jobs that are losing jobs -- people in America. Hopefully this thing will pass."
Then twenty seven folks were indicted including Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro trainers of Maximum Security and X Y Jet respectively. Maximum Security won the Kentucky Derby but was disqualified, X Y Jet won the Golden Shaheen in Dubai in 2019.
From the Washington Post: As FBI agents raided barns in Florida, federal prosecutors in Manhattan unveiled charges that paint Navarro and others not as reverent caretakers but ruthless cheats who gamed the system to administer performance-enhancing drugs with names such as “monkey” and “red acid” to their horses. Those drugs and others, prosecutors said, were engineered to avoid detection by regulators and net the conspirators untold millions of dollars — all to the detriment of the animals, dozens of which died prematurely as a result. Navarro and others face multiple counts of conspiracy to manufacture, distribute and administer misbranded drugs, a felony that carries up to five years in prison per charge.
Jason Servis is alleged to have given performance-enhancing drugs to “virtually all the racehorses under his control.” He entered horses in races approximately 1,082 times from 2018 through February 2020, according to authorities.
Then the Novel Corona Virus sent spectators home from Gulfstream Park, Aqueduct and Santa Anita to watch the races on their computers. The business can limp along without food and beverage sales on track but almost all tracks need their signal on the internet and the slots where they are still open.
The Triple Crown was just around the corner, but the term social distancing has pushed the Kentucky Derby to Labor Day Weekend (hopefully), with the Preakness and Belmont following as in the Spring.
Keeneland's Spring Meet has been cancelled and the training of horses to point for the first Saturday in May is now in flux. The road to the Derby has hit a detour. Monmouth Park and Saratoga have races that could serve as prep races for the Derby but who knows how that will go, and what if there are other drug indictments.
All these plans are written in sand and could be overtaken by events.
Bob Baffert summed it all up: "But at the end of the day, it's just a horse race," Baffert said, adding: "I worry more about the people who have jobs that are losing jobs -- people in America. Hopefully this thing will pass."
HOUSTON, TX—MARCH 18, 2020—Sam Houston Race Park in Houston announced today that it will cancel the upcoming Quarter Horse meet, which was scheduled to begin on April 10, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.
ReplyDelete"We recognize the financial impact this decision has to our horsemen, and we will work diligently with the Texas Racing Commission, the Texas Horsemen’s Partnership and the Texas Quarter Horse Association to find the best alternative solution moving forward," said Dwight Berube, the vice president and general manager of Sam Houston Race Park.
The racetrack is currently finishing its Thoroughbred meet closed to the public.