I hate PETA as much as anyone, but I find this disturbing. Seems there’s a lot of damning evidence caught on tape. Of course the writer is Joe “Horseracing SUCKS” Drape, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there was some creative editing on the tape, but I don’t know how they could’ve faked the part about Nehro’s foot.
Yeah - but if they’re looking for a pulse, aren’t they ruling out founder?!? You DON’T want one! Did this “insider” really know what they were doing?!? I hear people discussing tenuous feet, and what’s been attempted to correct them, and that they ARE a concern. Not saying, “Hee, haw, let’s keep driving that sucker!”
He had very long layoffs of 6 months after the Belmont, and almost a year after June of his 4yo year. With only one race afterwards.
Investigative reporting. How about doing it with someone who knew horses, didn’t just clean stalls…
The people at PETA need to find real jobs. Tell them to go check the horses at certain retirement farms that seem to pass muster with failing horses. There is where they could be useful!
[QUOTE=CVPeg;7486801]
Yeah - but if they’re looking for a pulse, aren’t they ruling out founder?!? You DON’T want one![/QUOTE]
My brain processed that a bit late, but yes, quite true! Pulses in feet = bad juju. I wonder if the “investigator” also thinks all of the horses in Asmussen’s barn have cancer on their legs (chestnuts), like the NYC crazies.
In the article they mention the farrier saying “no pulse” - which sounds to the layman like a bad thing, though I imagine they were talking about digital pulse. But to someone who doesn’t know anything about horses, that will read like “OMG no circulation to the legs!”
Very easy to take things out of context on hidden video. It reminds me of one hidden video showing the “mistreatment” of a newborn calf that appeared to me to actually be an attempt to resuscitate (sp?) it (based on having actually seen this in person multiple times as a kid).
While I wouldn’t be totally shocked if there was bad stuff going on, I also think odds are much of the evidence from their video is stuff taken way out of context.
eta: I tried to comment on the article but can’t tell if it submitted, using an ancient version of IE. Did see one vet comment about the “pulse” and shoeing issues though.
Yeah, that pulse in the feet thing is wacky. There are a couple of comments on the article pointing that out, don’t know if people who read it will get that.
That said, the stories of what these horses are being injected with routinely by some major trainers is bone-chilling to me, and I’m thinking of an article that was in one of the racing mags and posted here last year. Horse racing can certainly be done cleanly and humanely. I’m not sure our current US rules and practices are creating that.
As someone who has been inside the Asmussen barn, whose fiancé worked there for two years, I can assure you all this is a load of crap. I can guarantee you that NO PETA member had the ability to work more than two days at an Asmussen barn. It is TOUGH, much tougher than any PETA softy could handle.
The biggest giveaway that the “spy” was made up? The wage he/she reportedly made. I know for a fact what Asmussen hot walkers make, they are paid every other week. Everyone starts out a hot walker. Everyone is paid the same. Only after a few weeks of hot walking and proving that you can keep up and that you are not a flake, can you be promoted to a groom. A trial run as a groom.
You are taught how to groom and given a pony horse to take care of for X amount of time. If you do well, then you are assigned racehorses to groom. If you do not perform well, you can either go back to hot walking or quit. Grooms are NOT allowed to administer meds, or even give feed and supplements, in the Asmussen barn. That is the foreman’s job. That is your second clue that this is made up, the article clearly accuses grooms of giving meds, and I can promise you, NO groom is giving Asmussen horses meds.
The A Team has HUNDREDS of horses spread between tracks and training centers, and home base in Laredo. They do NOT train crippled and sore horses. They don’t have time for that. If a horse isn’t going to make the cut and have a chance, they send it home to the owners, they have a waiting list of potential replacements.
To question Ricardo Santana and accuse him of packing a machine is wrong on so many levels. He is a hard working, upbeat kid. This is ridiculous and pathetic.
Sad that someone had the opportunity to be in a position to learn so much from great, dedicated people and obviously couldn’t handle it and made no attempt to learn.
Also I cannot imagine anyone being shocked to discover that trainers swear, often loudly and frequently, on the backside.
ETA: Thanks, Angelico. Maybe you could send that post on to the Times? It needs to be disseminated.
I’ve been waiting for this to show up here. I feel bad for the jock.
I’m guessing the falsification of documents will be looked at pretty hard…
Can’t stand PETA or Joe Drape but admit this is pretty damning. The thing about the pulse is stupid, I was the first to comment about that when Paulick report posted it on FB. I have no problem with the swearing, I swear like a drunken sailer after all my years at the race track but Blasi sounded like he hated horses. I often told the jocks to feel free to scratch the horse if they felt the slightest thing if I sent a horse over that I had doubts about. He was all pissed when his got scratched by the vet.
Although obviously there was heavy editing, its definitely damning. When you look up the record of the horse that Blasi was ecstatic to get rid of, it seemed a classic case of a horse with problems that they were trying to unload on someone instead of retiring and taking care of. He seemed to have talent… broke his maiden first time out, then did well in allowances for a bit, then ran poorly, was dropped to $35k, then claimed for $20k last summer and has not raced since. Things that make you go hmmmm. I wonder if the horse is still alive.
I’m all for swearing, lol, but Id never curse a horse out because it was too sore to win money or joke about how they can handle the pain of pin firing. Like the horses have any choice in any of this. Humans are supposed to protect them. Really gross and way over the line.
I don’t understand what you are saying, Angelico. Are you saying the tape is fake and people shown on the tape didn’t say what we can hear them saying? How does someone fake that? And are you saying the editors and lawyers for The New York Times allowed a fake tape to be published? The article says there are 7 hours of video, not just the 9 minutes published.
What’s most frustrating about this story is that nothing in PETA’s released video was technically untrue. But it was all edited and taken out of its original, appropriate context to fabricate the story that PETA wanted to portray. 
[QUOTE=TemJeito;7487470]
I don’t understand what you are saying, Angelico. Are you saying the tape is fake and people shown on the tape didn’t say what we can hear them saying? How does someone fake that? And are you saying the editors and lawyers for The New York Times allowed a fake tape to be published? The article says there are 7 hours of video, not just the 9 minutes published.[/QUOTE]
Texarkana said it. I am simply pointing out the blatant lies that jump out, as someone who has experience in the barn in question. Anything that has that many lies outright should not be trusted. PETA is trying to act “cool” and make themselves look smart. No Asmussen foreman would tolerate a radical in the barn, and I have my doubts that any of them would have been able to keep their mouth shut long enough to truly “spy”. They wouldn’t have the salt to make it a week in the A barn.
I’m especially disgusted at the remarks about Ricardo Santana. That is tasteless.
I realize you can edit anything to look differently but that doesn’t change the fact that the words were said. How do you explain them? I was especially disturbed by Gary saying he shocked himself after the wire.
My take on the Gary Stevens thing: it’s probable that he was telling a very old story from early on in his career. Especially since there was the Wayne Lukas quote about Ruidoso from seemingly the same dinner. Wayne Lukas hasn’t run out of Ruidoso in probably 40 years!
If the tapes are legit, they should hand over the full, unedited ones, with every boring moment on them. It is too easy to edit out context.
Reaction from the industry after receiving the tapes and documents:
[QUOTE=Angelico;7487563]
Texarkana said it. I am simply pointing out the blatant lies that jump out, as someone who has experience in the barn in question. Anything that has that many lies outright should not be trusted. PETA is trying to act “cool” and make themselves look smart. No Asmussen foreman would tolerate a radical in the barn, and I have my doubts that any of them would have been able to keep their mouth shut long enough to truly “spy”. They wouldn’t have the salt to make it a week in the A barn.
ess.[/QUOTE]
Well obviously somebody in his barn did, unless the tapes are fake and using actors and voice overs.
I have no idea about buzzer use and probly was reminiscing about the olden days at ruidoso or someplace, like you’d sit around and joke about the time you got high as a teenager, but still and all’ it is illegal. But the drug use and running and dumping lame horses has sickened me for many years, so I’m happy to see this and wonder how the whole thing will play out. Will be interesting.
Angelico,
then why does “every horse person” on the CD backside roll their eyes when the name Asmussen comes up?
[QUOTE=saratoga;7487697]
Well obviously somebody in his barn did, unless the tapes are fake and using actors and voice overs.
I have no idea about buzzer use and probly was reminiscing about the olden days at ruidoso or someplace, like you’d sit around and joke about the time you got high as a teenager, but still and all’ it is illegal. But the drug use and running and dumping lame horses has sickened me for many years, so I’m happy to see this and wonder how the whole thing will play out. Will be interesting.[/QUOTE]
Not necessarily, they may have been there when Blasi was good and POed but I still do not believe that they were legit Asmsussen employees for any length of time. I cannot speak for Scott Blasi but I do know his father. His father is that guy. That old guy that only has one horse at a time in training, that takes his time, does everything right, and pulls up in his two horse rig on race day and wins. Often with older (three and four year old) starters. I wouldn’t be shocked though if Scott isn’t burnt out, dealing with thousands of horses a year. This particular horse may have caused him grief in the barn for months for all we know.
I’m not going to defend Steve Asmussen himself, as a person, he is an arrogant jerk. Sad but true. However, he is a remarkable business man, a smart horseman, and he takes care of his employees. His employees are some of the BEST in the industry. If you stick with it, and work hard, you will be taken care of in that barn.
His horses receive the best of care. That is undeniable. They give them every chance to succeed but do not beat a dead horse, if one isn’t going to perform, they will not continue with it. I don’t deny that the sport needs cleaning up, but sending radicals to the barn where they receive the BEST of care? Give me a break. Those horses are not given anything illegal, every one of them is the picture of health, and I know for a fact that if you raise your voice, over-shank, or get aggressive with an Asmussen horse, you are GONE and hard pressed to find another backside job.
PETA, you want to clean up racing? I can give you a list of barns where you won’t have to make things up to write a story. If more people ran their barns like Steve Ass does, racing would be better off.
