I hope everybody turns on everyone else and they catch even more people. And I really hope that every racing jurisdiction bans these guys without waiting years for a trial.
(Dutrow was banned for 10 years for having syringes in his office. And in this case, illegal drugs were found which is far worse.)
Horse Racing is so vulnerable right now, it sure as hell didn’t need this, except that it does.
It needs complete transparency, and for every single one of these guys to be hung out to dry. The public needs to know that the horses welfare comes first, and foremost.
Horse racing needed this right now and I hope it will come back stronger after this. I wonder who will be caught next though.
I agree, the sport has a chance here to show that we do care about the horses and will not tolerate cheating. I just hope the sport takes advantage of it.
I’m surprised they pounced on Jorge while Servis was still apparently out of the country.
Sad for Max. He’s a nice horse. I just don’t care for any of his connections. Wonder what Coolmore thinks now that they are co-owners. Will Max suddenly be retired?
Does anyone think a certain Mr West Coast trainer may be on the radar soon with his insane win ratio
You read my mind. The butt-pucker factor could be pretty high right now.
Do I have any strong feels about the trainer I believe you are referring to but…
Is it because he uses PEDs or because he gets “better” horses in the first place?
I truly do hope the latter is the case with him.
Could be both.
But the two successive thoughts I had was that it’s highly unlikely that these cocktails were only used by this small group of trainers, so who else is using them or some variation … And second, it does make me rethink the string of break downs at Santa Anita…
I guess that depends on what you refer to as “better”. He didn’t just suddenly stumble on “Better” in the last 10 years Granted he was known for being a good trainer with the likes of SC, he had success that was steady for many years but it wasn’t until the past 10 years that he truly became an anomaly. Then he suddenly comes back on the scene winning anything and everything starting in 2009 and winning and shattering records we haven’t seen in decades… His horses appear virtually untouchable. They are magically primed on an overfull gas tank at every race. Is it the magic of his barn or something else? not so sure.
I’m not a conspiracy theorist. And I certainly hope that its just him being a fabulous trainer with fabulous horses. But it all seems oddly perfect. Almost too perfect.
About the year 2009 is when you start seeing him consistently hitting the 20%+ win percentage. The last five years he’s hitting the upper 20s and low 30s. 2009 was also the same time in which his % of hitting the board start holding steady in the 50%
His lifetime WPS% is 53%. His 2019 WPS% was a staggering 61%. You look at other top names in this business and their stats are no where near this level of success. Jason Servis’s win streak was between 60% and 66% between 2006 and 2019. Obviously the red flag went up on this. BU tif you compare Mr West Coast to Mr Servis’s records; there isn’t that much difference. I’d be hard pressed to say Mr West Coast is the result of blue blood bred horses in his barns. Pedigree only gets you so far and history has proven that far and wide.
One point that might possibly have impacted Baffert’s 2019 WPS was short fields at Santa Anita, due to their problems at the beginning of the year. There were some people who didn’t want to race there. And chances are better in the money in a 5-horse field than in a 10-horse field. I’m not saying that explains everything, but I could definitely see it explaining an all-time year in 2019. He never cut back there; some others did.
Would be great to see Baffert get busted but not sure anyone is brave enough to take that on
I doubt the FBI really care if he’s connected with this.
I happen to REALLY think highly of Graham Motion- and moreso now…
Could not agree more. Graham Motion tweeted the following today, which I think says it all:
“A sad day for racing but a long time coming. A good day for those who try to play by the rules, we will all be better for it.”
Well said indeed.
Also: I looked back at our charts to see where we were beat by these guys over the past three years, and I probably should not have done that because it made me mad. Example: Our horse was third in our first graded stakes ever up at Saratoga, and we were very excited. The winner? Jason Servis trained Firenze Fire. We only have a small stable. I know there are many, many people out there who also had good horses run their eyeballs out only to lose to horses trained by these two. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg - what about the other trainers, the jockeys on those horses, and the betting public? Really awful.
Why would the FBI/DEA/FDA care about Servis/Navarro but not about Baffert if Baffert was equally culpable in this PED investigation?
When speaking of owners responsibility, how many horses are owned by a single person or very small partnership of people who actually know one another and the trainer?
How would you feel if you bought into one of those 20-30 partner ownership groups as a small stakeholder with no say in management decisions? Were these guys training for these multi partner ownership groups depending on total uninvolvement of owners?
And if this stuff worked as well as it seems to have and these guys horses outperformed expectations? No way in hades are they the only ones, not with vets providing in and helping hide the evidence.
Where is Mr Servis? Still in the Middle East? Might find the welcome mat pulled out from under him. If nothing else it’s bad for racing and the breeding business and they are all business. Especially if he had some of theirs and they are looking at being embarrassed. Doubt he’d get any sympathy if he’s in Europe either.
Agree - was wondering if this takes them on over to the West Coast…and elsewhere.
Awful people, shame on them. :mad: I don’t understand how people who spend so much time with horses are able to abuse them so terribly. I’ve always felt that the more time you spend with horses the more you appreciate what magnificent creatures they are. What a depressing read. 
At least Motion’s statement gives one hope, and a reminder that not everyone is a bad apple.
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