And he should. It appears that more and more racing officials and horsemen leaders across this nation are being appointed or hired on the basis of their low IQ, lack of good common sense, and extreme narcissistic personalities.
http://www.paulickreport.com/news/people/parx-jockey-sues-pennsylvania-racing-commission-executive/
Reading the article, which as it states at the end only has one side of the story, I am left confused. Why would they take away rides from someone who was not seen with the device and who was not shown in the video as having the device?
Did someone assume it was someone else and it was during the time that they checked the evidence that they removed his rides?
[QUOTE=Shammy Davis;8659653]
And he should. It appears that more and more racing officials and horsemen leaders across this nation are being appointed or hired on the basis of their low IQ, lack of good common sense, and extreme narcissistic personalities.
http://www.paulickreport.com/news/people/parx-jockey-sues-pennsylvania-racing-commission-executive/[/QUOTE]
And all the trainers and jockeys and drivers are all on the up and up.
[QUOTE=Jim R;8659730]
And all the trainers and jockeys and drivers are all on the up and up.;)[/QUOTE]
Cynical are you? The UK sports pages historically are so replete with race fixing that one college has a lecture series in it.
The USA is truly the naive step child when it comes to this, but I get your point.
I am confused about you saying how the officials are low IQ, lack common sense, etc. I know a few that race that are on the up and up and could be upset about this as their competition is not getting caught. But most (IMHO) are not and this benefits them. Clueless Special Investigators, lousy lawyers prosecuting cases that don’t have a clue. And if a trainer is caught the penalties are a joke.
What can this jockey sue for? But I guess anybody can sue for anything.
Jim R: From the article: "’ . . . The (legal) complaint called Remmert’s actions a “calculated act of character assassination” that "should shock the conscience of any member of the public.
Remmert acted with reckless, willful or callous disregard for plaintiff’s rights and with malice or oppression toward plaintiff, thereby entitling plaintiff to an aware of punitive damages."’
Don’t think the jockey is making a frivolous complaint. I think it has to do with his constitutional rights which were clearly dismissed by this official.
As to my disparaging statement about officials and regulators. You be the judge. Racing officials and leaders across the nation, within horsemen organizations and state racing regulators, are destroying the sport by incompetency. You need look no further than PA, VA, ID, WV, NH, MA, IL, and IN. Even FL is beginning to fear the future of its game. I think there are 26 horse racing states currently. So that is 30% of the horse racing states that are in serious trouble. Aggressively seeking out and catching a few low life cheaters is important, but the fact is that if states continue to appoint and hire regulators and leaders like this PA official, horse racing by the end of the century will be extinct. JMHO.
Shammy, don’t forget NY. Officials are political appointees, they are hired by politicians who have little or no common sense, and are clueless. The few horsemen they accidentally hire get very frustrated.
Oh! and the word is cynical. 
[QUOTE=merrygoround;8660099]
Shammy, don’t forget NY. Officials are political appointees, they are hired by politicians who have little or no common sense, and are clueless. The few horsemen they accidentally hire get very frustrated.
Oh! and the word is cynical. :)[/QUOTE]
I have to say you are one of the tough crowd on COTH. Can’t get anything passed you. Darn “word checks.” It will death of me. lol.
Can’t forget NY. Having been born on Staten Island, I’d like to.
Don’t blame officials for the trouble with racing. Horse racing was done when they opened casinos, now it is just a form of welfare that the casinos pay to be allowed to have gambling. The casinos hate dealing with the racing and only do it because they have to do it.
“Can’t forget NY. Having been born on Staten Island, I’d like to.”-Shammy Davis
The home of the Richmond County Hunt. I’ll bet you never knew.
[QUOTE=merrygoround;8660337]
“Can’t forget NY. Having been born on Staten Island, I’d like to.”-Shammy Davis
The home of the Richmond County Hunt. I’ll bet you never knew.[/QUOTE]
Actually, the length of my residence in NY was only about 6 months. My father was in the Army and was shipping out to WWII when I popped out. My mother returned me to the safety of VA because she didn’t speak or understand the native island language . Lol. For quite sometime I was the only child in my extended family that was born north of the Mason-Dixon line. My childhood was stigmatized because of it.
I wasn’t aware that there was a hunt in Richmond County. I thought only mafia clubs resided there.
[QUOTE=Jim R;8660304]
Horse racing was done when they opened casinos[/QUOTE]In WA state, the casino AND the TB track are owned by the same tribe.
Well I think Castillo has a valid case. If the story as told is true, he was punished for something another jockey is guilty of.
[QUOTE=Jim R;8660304]
Don’t blame officials for the trouble with racing. Horse racing was done when they opened casinos, now it is just a form of welfare that the casinos pay to be allowed to have gambling. The casinos hate dealing with the racing and only do it because they have to do it.[/QUOTE]
It is just not that simple. Horse racing leadership has become the “let’s agree to disagree” about our sport and its future, as the following link points out.
http://www.newsweek.com/horse-racing-fading-revenue-popularity-457123
If you exam the current state of the sport, it is clear that incompetence, corruption, greed, and self serving politics, etc. on the part of both state horsemen leadership and appointed or hired regulatory officials have brought the game to this point. The gambling and casino interest just took advantage of them. IL is a perfect example. The leadership of IL HBPA are on the verge of being indicted. Finally, IL horsemen are crying foul. A former IL governor is in jail having fiddled with the game. IL horsemen and track owners are constantly in conflict and have been for decades. It goes back to Al Capone. In VA, it is evident that state racing commissioners were involved in horsemen and track owner negotiations with a bias against the track and with the VRC’s knowledge state funds in a VHBPA account are being misused at taxpayer expense. In IN, the governor has stepped in to change the legal structure of the racing commission while terminating a commission Executive Director who had a reputation for decades of honesty that favored the game. The book “Thirty tons a day,” by Bill Veeck was written in the 60’s about the slow demise of Suffolk Downs and it is a miracle that Suffolk Downs recently got a few days of racing for 2016. That is if the termites don’t beat the horses to the barn stalls. Trying to revive NH racing, Rockingham Park recently tried to get the state to approve a casino there. Sound thinking prevailed and it was turned down but the track will be sold for other uses. Hollywood Park, Deja vu.
The officials, you know or are familiar with may all be upstanding men and women, but for sure, for every good one in this industry there is a match for a bad one. Like this PA official.
CA and KY don’t see a problem with racing yet but like FL has, they will. As quoted in the link, Bob Baffert doesn’t see a problem. Why should he?
The fact is that it is the state officials and the horsemen leadership that have dropped horse racing’s butt down on the commode. In PA, the jockey’s suit against the commission official may appear frivolous, but the facts are that the PA industry is near failure and its restructuring is in its infancy and this commission official is just another example of the poor quality of leadership and lousy workmanship that regular everyday hardworking barely got a dime to pay the bills horsemen across this nation get.
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