Mr Drape writes as though he is more comfortable publishing in the tabloids.
He leaves out facts, and when he does include them, his use of semantics purveys a fair dose of salt, as in “taking that with a grain of salt”. The quality of his writing does not impress me as up to the standards one would expect from The New York Times.
Has anyone checked him as a member of PETA
I’d love to know who is feeding him these tips. The Justify thing was a year ago. Is this a disgruntled significant other, a staffer, an activist with personal ties to one of the principals, a PETA mole volunteering as an aide?
The whole point of protection of sources is that editors are supposed to do background on them so the newspaper knows what their biases are, how forthright they are and why they are coming forward. Then they are supposed to get other corroborating sources to even out the personal bias so the journalist doesn’t just become a tool of someone with an ax to grind.
Based on how he wrote this with some glaring factual omissions which didn’t serve the narrative, I’m not sure any of that was done. The breathtaking thing is that this is coming from the New York Times.
[QUOTE=merrygoround;n10478416]
Winter Triangle-
-“I also want to know if the tests in the other TC races specifically included scopolamine.”[Unquote]
A question like that shows how utterly clueless you are about testing. :lol::lol::lol:
Don’t set your hair on fire with your torch.
I don’t think that is a clueless question. That is the problem without having a national governing body, who knows what they test for? It’s not like they test for every substance under the sun and see what shows up. It’s not like they even test for the same things week to week. That said, all 3 TC race participants were subject to the same out of competition testing as well as the same super test so whatever they tested for there was at least some uniformity between the three races.
Maybe it is someone who wants HRIA to go forward. Maybe it was someone who paid $150K for a mating. Does that really matter? This isn’t about winning a race. This is about fraud/a cover up.
Keep concentrating on Joe Drape and the NYTimes instead of the statements made by CHRB, Dr. Arthur, Baffert, etc.
That way, you can be like a bloodhound who has somehow lost the scent.
And my question if the tests in the actual TC races specifically included scopolamine isn’t clueless. Its one of the questions a good equine pharmacologist would ask, should this be properly investigated forensically.
Some of you are really missing the point by engaging in your Drape/NYTimes/PETA biases. All that article did was break the story. Pouring over that article is looking in the wrong place. It only served one purpose and that was to announce that a cover-up had occured.
I would be more concerned about examining statements made by Dr. Arthur, Baffert, and his attorneys, which were misleading.
I probably will not post about this again, I said what I had to say.
In the end it doesn’t matter if the substance is a PED (I don’t think it is); it doesn’t matter if it was administered or accidental;
it’s a banned substance over a certain threshold, horse tested 330ng/ml which is a very large amount (“excessive” as Dr. Sam’s said)… and the test result was covered up.
People’s willingness to explain this away is what I find amazing.
HRIA cannot happen soon enough.
And somewhat off topic, but wasn’t Ron Ellis banned from entering any horses into the 2017 BC races because one of his horses tested + for a trace amount of banned substance when he ran 2nd the year before?
Will baffert be allowed to have horses in the bc races?
BC is always bragging about integrity…seems like this would be an issue for them?
Being in a procedure driven environment at work, I asked myself what I ask my employees when a question arises, “What does the procedure say?” Or in this case, “What’s the law?”
http://chrb.ca.gov/query_rules_and_regulations_database.asp?form_query_action=display_rule&form_query_rule_number=1843.3&form_query_rule_title=Penalties+for+Medication+Violations&form_query_article=Penalties+for+Medication+Violations&form_query_article_index=17&form_query_argument=1843.3
Timing aside, the regulators do have the leeway to examine and consider the possibility of contamination when formulating a penalty. I don’t have a lot of time to search around for other supporting or contradicting information, this is just some food for thought when criticizing the regulators.
Do you know how to use Google to look things up? BC has it’s own set of rules. Why wouldn’t Baffert be allowed to have horses in BC races? Did he get suspended or something? Why would BC be concerned about this issue that did not result in any fines or suspensions?
But the timing and the cover up are the issues, not the drug or test result.
Google is such a useful tool for finding information…
https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/218955/breeders-cup-bans-ellis-masochistic-in-2017
Article dated January 10, 2017
Breeders’ Cup has notified trainer Ron Ellis and the owners of Masochistic, Jay Em Ess Stable and Los Pollos Hermanos Racing, of action taken pursuant to its prohibited substance rule and convicted trainer rule. As a result of the issuance of a ruling by the Santa Anita Park board of stewards disqualifying Masochistic from a second-place finish in the TwinSpires Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1), and redistributing the purse based upon a positive test finding for the anabolic steroid stanozolol, the following actions have been taken.
With a first violation of the prohibited substance rule in a Breeders’ Cup World Championships race, Ellis, and all horses directly or indirectly in his care will be ineligible to participate in the Breeders’ Cup World Championships in 2017. Breeders’ Cup rules prohibit the transfer of horses in Ellis’ barn to any other person associated with Ellis for the purpose of competing in the Breeders’ Cup.
Plenty of information available if one bothers to look for it :rolleyes:
This NY Times article is full of hogwash and half truths, and the newspaper has since issued a retraction of some of it.This wasn’t Baffert’s fault, or the fault of the colt himself- it was a case of a state agency that failed to act when it should have and then tried to cover that failure up. The media somehow managed to get hold of the cover up allegations and here we are. Please remember that racing isn’t GOING ANYWHERE any time soon. There is too much money involved, and there are far too many people who depend upon the racing industry for their livelihoods. We here on the performance horse side of the industry need racing too. Without it, our source of horses for sports like eventing and show jumping, not to mention polo, would disappear. Even worse, the US would become an international LAUGHING STOCK if we were to ban TB racing. Other countries don’t have the problems that we do, and they would all LAUGH at us because we are too greedy and callous to solve our own problems. And they should.
The US cannot ban racing because states have jurisdiction over racing.
If racing were to go away in the U.S. the biggest impact on the non-racing horse owner would be that money for the vast majority of equine research would disappear with it. Horseracing has funded just about every equine medical breakthrough in recent decades.
Nevertheless, despite the amount of money involved and the number of jobs that would be lost, horseracing definitely finds itself in the crosshairs. The number of TB foals bred each year is down 40%, tracks are closing and most of those that remain open have now limited meets. I am not as optimistic as you are that horseracing has a rosy future in the U.S. and whether or not we would become a “laughing stock” has nothing to do with it.
Ah, I see. The CHRB isn’t like the FEI or USEF, which disqualify the horse that has a positive test from the competition, no matter what.
It is only the fine, and the suspension of the parties concerned that depend upon how the substance entered the horse’s system.
And owners at least with FEI can spend literally $100,000’s to prove food contamination and get suspensions reversed. Case a couple years ago with two very high level dressage horses.
Oh yes , it’s happened more than once. :yes:
However the horse is disqualified from the competition because, intentionally introduced or not, the horse was competing with a banned substance in its system.
Can you share a link to the retraction you speak of? I am unable to find it. Thanks!
Yep. And this gets brushed under the rug.
Think other countries DO have the same problems we do in Racing like they do in the other disciplines.
Yes, even the Queen has had a positive test.
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