It keeps getting better.... and then there was Asmussen

[QHJockee]

[QUOTE=Chiniko;3341610]
Sigh… I suppose I would continue to support his sorry butt… he has no skills… Horse raceing family… He’s screwed if it ever came to that[/QUOTE]

Sadly I am in the same boat. My husband has only ever known horse racing and has been on the track since he was 3 years old. I suppose being in the brush country we are he would go cowboy on a ranch and work cattle but that doesn’t pay anywhere near what he is used to making on the track.

That thought has been at the back of my mind for months now.

[Chiniko]

Glad I am not the only dummy around…lol
I bust my butt to pay for our lives. to pay for his gambling, and I am angrey about it more and more every day. I lie about money. I hide money… It sucks

[DickHertz]

From Bloodhorse.com

“Also during the meeting, chief steward John Veitch reported that trainer Steve Asmussen was fined $250 by Churchill Downs stewards for using abusive language toward an official. Veitch said Asmussen used profanity when talking to an assistant starter in connection with the trainer’s successful effort to get a starter of his preference to load Pyro into the starting gate for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I).”

[Glimmerglass]

I was somewhat disappointed to see that Maggi Moss - a well known owner in her own right will be Steve’s co-council for the case. In doing so she will end her 1 ½-year sabbatical from practicing law to defend him. Her reasoning:

“I think this is much bigger than Steve,” Moss said June 27. “I am taking it on for the love of racing because I don’t like the way things are going. This is getting very big. I think there a lot of misunderstandings.”

Among the areas of concern to Moss are “the antiquation of (testing) labs, lack of uniformity in rules and testing, and that the media and general public thinks we are all bunch of dopers and cheaters. This is a welcome case to try and do something about it.”

While I agree with the need for uniformity in testing and rules nationally - I think Texas’ rules are rather clear. Short of there being a claim that someone intentionally tainted the sample it I’m having a hard time seeing this one. Why take on a case that is likely not clean in an attempt to make this a battle “for love of the sport”.

[DickHertz]

I agree with Glimmerglass. It’s up to the trainer to know the rules in the states in which they race - Asmussen has a large stable in Texas. It’s not like he shipped in for one race and had a positive. I hope he loses the case.

[Glimmerglass]

Not sure if anyone else saw this - and it almost seems like a joke:

‘The Race Is Not Always To The Swift’ Blog July 2, 2008: “The Chap Stick Conspiracy”

Excerpt

Maggi Moss may be a pretty good barrister but if I was Steve Asmussen, I’d be having second thoughts about the defense that Moss intends to use to fight his latest positive down in Texas.

In an e-mail reply to [John Clay of the] Lexington Herald Leader, Moss’ revealed one of her probable defense arguments; I call it the “Chap Stick Conspiracy Defense” and it makes the Twinkie defense look like a stroke of genius.

Moss will contend that the lidocaine in Timber Trick’s system was not of the injectable variety and could very well have come from something as innocuous as lip balm or hand cream.

[quote]What if a trainer or his assistant used lip balm, hand creme or any of the over 1000 substances in stores that has metobolites of lidocaine in them and then groomed a horse or gave it water and that metabolite got into the horses system.

[/quote]

Wow - did someone really suggest that as being the lame excuse?