This is a really good point. Questions for the more experienced: if the horse continues to run (which it looks like they plan to do, at least right now) and he runs well under a new trainer, is there any saving what his value would have been before all of this or is that irreparably damaged? If it’s irreparable, is it worth it to risk an injury or something by racing him further or should he just retire now? Has a similar situation to this ever happened before?
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Coolmore is going to have a hefty lawyer bill, between the Max mess and Zayat fiasco. I bet they are furious… the horse’s reputation will always be suspect, even if he sets the world on fire with Baffert. And his pedigree isn’t quite enough to overcome the dark cloud that will linger. Too many nice horses at stud, and retiring every year…mare owners have plenty of other options without the “asterisk.”
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It seems like the potential downside of continuing to race Maximum Security outweighs the potential upside.
If he is anything less than the successful horse he was before this news came out… everyone will be convinced the success was a direct result of PEDs.
A horse is a horse. They all have good days and bad days. And they are all prone to injury. If I were in West’s shoes… I’d get ahead of the lawsuit I assume is inevitable, negotiate and settle privately with Coolmore, then retire the horse. Financially, my guess is that it will make the most sense at that point to sell him to an international buyer to stand stud in an entirely different country. Japan, or maybe Turkey?
The unfortunate fact of the matter is that even if he wins again racing in NA… he’s been moved to Baffert. The dark cloud hanging over him and asterix next to his name are not going to be removed because he wins now that he’s with Baffert. Fair or not… everyone who has followed these stories for awhile has suspicions about BB already.
Hopefully I’m wrong, and he lights the world on Fire this year, and is vindicated. But I think that’s unlikely… :sigh:
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I very much doubt that Japan would want him.
Slightly off topic here, but I’ve always had high regard for John Servis, who most know of as Smarty Jones’ and Round Pond’s trainer and…Jason’s brother.
I’ve never seen any story, in print or elsewhere, that mentioned the relationship between them. John has always impressed me as an honest horseman; has he had anything to say regarding his brother’s malfeasance?
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Stronach won’t allow the horses trained by the indicted trainers to race at their tracks for 60 days. They’ll be put on the Vet’s list. https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/239031/stronach-group-to-stand-down-indicted-trainers-horses
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This may have repercussions outside of racing. https://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/forum/discussion-forums/eventing/10595511-top-event-trainers-up-their-game-with-medivet-acs-what-is-this-stuff
Amazingly the Wests are continuing their quest to get Maximum Security’s Derby DQ overturned:
Given the recent revelations about their trainer, imho this makes them look tone deaf, and quite possibly learning impaired.
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Family members don’t always subscribe to the same set of values. And the best thing he can do is keep his name out of the mix, IMO. That’s usually how these things play out.
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The brief appears to have been filed on the 6th, three days before the doping news broke. Dropping it now will look bad but probably not as bad as continuing with it.
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Hmmm… My only experience with the other brother is that he had my horse at one point (before he was my horse…) I know several responsible owners who no longer use him. That’s all I can say.
Thanks. JJ made it out of South Florida in 2014 and has a fused ankle as a memento. He runs around and is fat and sassy. I try not to think about what was done to him because it makes my blood boil.
This indictment is a long time coming and like I said, I hope more heads roll before this is over. Racing needs to clean house.
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I am SO GLAD you brought this up. I had no idea he had a brother with the same first initial, so often see J Servis referred to in print and was really surprised at the indictment of somebody I thought was a decent horseman. Poor John he’s got the same problem as Tony Dutrow but a more similar first name.
Much as this has been referred to, no mention made that I have read or heard that it’s Jason, not John. Not everybody who follows racing knows everything about everybody.
So he can then be stripped of it a second time for doping…
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West has hired Dr. Larry Bramlage to examine Maximum Security (and is apparently asking the Saudis to do additional testing on their pre-race samples):
Arraignments by teleconference? Welcome to a Corona virus world!
Yep.
Since the news broke, I’ve had a chance to talk to a lot of hard core racetrackers and by that I mean people who grew up on the track or at least spent a good portion of their adult lives there. To a person, the response was “F those guys and their owners too.” Some of this is obviously economic --when Servis and their ilk are winning everything, other people aren’t. But a lot of it was anger about how the horses got treated especially X Y Jet. “Like family, my ass.” one of them said, referring to Navarro’s crocodile tears to the press.
Some people were amazed at how greedy they were. “Didn’t it occur to them to back off when they got into the national spotlight?”
Everyone agreed that this is a bad look for the sport and that changes have to be made because these are only the first dominoes. We must do better.
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This, yes. I keep thinking back to the, ultimately, astronomical blow out of pro bicycle racing when the new broke about Lance Armstrong and his doping scandal (and no, it wasn’t limited to just Lance).
IMO, the bicycle racing sport at the UCI World level is still impacted. Occasionally a positive OOCT test pops up. Some teams are still rumored to try PEDs (the same stuff as these guys used as well as blood doping).
IMO, easy to destroy a reputation (whether personal or at a sport or team level) and hard, hard to repair that reputation.
