http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/79301/jockey-tyler-baze-suspended-120-days
I hate seeing this, I really love watching Tyler ride. He is brilliant with the horses.
With the loss of Michael and the stresses of riding I can see why he is drinking. I hope he comes back, but the terms of his suspension are a little ridiculous. A sixty day in house program? Iâd tell them to kiss my a** and throw my license at them.
Oh horsefeathers⊠everyone has stress
Might be a reason, never an excuse. Heâs not a kid. He has talent. He needs to grow up, scratch it and get glad and take his punishment. If he doesnât he can turn into just another backside, drunk has been. He wouldnât be the first. I think if you screw up the first time and have a second chance, you shouldnât flip the powers that be the bird, and if you are stupid enough to do so, you get whatâs coming to you. They let you play in the sandbox, you have to play by their rules.
If riding is so stressful it makes a jock drink, he needs to rethink his career choice.
Iâm not suggesting it is right to ride drunk, it is dangerous. Everyone has, or thinks they have âstressâ. I meant stresses on the body. Everyone hurts after years of riding racehorses, but we all hurt different. We donât know what injuries and aches and pains he has. All I am saying is that this is a rider I sympathize with.
You break the rules, you get suspended. Thatâs fine. However, the racing board should NOT have a right to tell him what to do with himself during his suspension. Either he gets sober or he doesnât get a license, shouldnât matter how he does it. The California racing board is becoming far too pushy.
Everyone over 25 that rides has pain. Big deal
And one of the things you agree to when you play the game is that you will abide by both the rules and the racing boardâs decisions. Itâs their sandbox. Itâs just like Nascar, they own the show, they can make drivers do anything they want them to do, or theyâll fill the seat with someone who will. He has a choice, he can choose never to ride in races, or be licensed to gallop at a track again, or he can go to a 60 day, in house program, (that might actually have a chance of getting him clean) and get back in the saddle.
They told us we had to wear helmets, they told us we had to wear vests, if you want to be in the industry, especially on the horses and in front of the betting public, you have to play by whatever rules the racing board decides youâll play by, even if this is your second chance and they have a hard on for you.
Since nobody is going to let him back on a horse anyway, he might as well go get cleaned up, heal what he can and figure out whether or not itâs worth it to him to stay sober get his life back.
Itâs a shame that it had to come to this point. I never understand the inner workings of people with incredible talent and opportunities that some will never have no matter how hard they work, that just seem to throw it all away with both hands, then complain about how unfair it all is. (shaking head)
At what point does a governing body overstep its bounds? At what point do we get up and do something about it? I donât have to play in their sandbox. Neither does Baze, and eventually, believe it or not, they WILL run out of people to fill the seats. The more they keep trying to interfere with peopleâs lives, the sooner that day will come.
Does he need to get clean in order to ride? Yes. Does the CHRB have a right to dictate HOW he does that? No. If he CHOSE the sixty day program that would be one thing, but now if he does it, he will likely resent it and not take it seriously.
Their rule is that he cannot ride under the influence. If he does he does not ride for a set period of time. It should end there.
He could go to Louisiana like PVal. What second chance is he on now?
Alcoholism is a disease. Itâs not as simple as âgrow upâ, âget with the programâ, or any other flippant euphemism. I talked with someone close to him a little over a year ago. Right before he came out of rehab the last time. They were so excited and optimistic about his return. Well, anyone whoâs lived with an addict knows that there are more than likely many setbacks. I wish him all the best, but his recovery really has little to do with CHRB. Thatâs part of their job, but it wouldnât matter if it was an official, or his mother, who dictated his treatment. Heâll either succeed, or he wonât. Or he will the 3rd, or the 5th time around 
I wasnât being flippant
Addiction is bad. Doesnât make a difference whether itâs booze, pills, food, sex, whatever.
My only point was, that the officials at the race track CAN INDEED insist on not only compliance, but how that needs to be achieved if thatâs what they feel like doing. Because itâs their show, they have the ârightâ to do any thing they want, whether itâs fair, whether itâs punitive, whether heâll resent it and ânot take it seriouslyâ or not. He doesnât have to do it, but, essentially, whether anyone agrees with it or not, itâs pretty much their way or the highway. If he wants to race at that track, he has to do it their way.
As a health care professional, Iâm not sure alcoholism is a disease process or a behavior pattern, any more than drug abuse is. If that is true, then obesity is a disease too, though most believe itâs easier to push yourself away from the table and the twinkies than it is to beat booze or drugs. Many of the bodies chemical responses in the âfeel goodâ department are similar.
People in high risk careers and lifestyles, tend to do many things to excess, on the edge, that risk taking behavior is one of the things necessary for them to have, the fearlessness, that allows them to go where ânormalâ people wonât. Can I gallop a race horse at racing speed? BTDT at the track. Gate schooled the youngsters? Check. Ridden in a race? Oh, no. Just not that fearless, even at a young age, Iâd seen the result of too many race falls on horses and people, no thanks. While I refuse to parachute out of a perfectly good aircraft, whitewater rafting on class 5 rivers didnât bother me at all. Everyone has an edge where they cross out of their comfort level. Some people have a vary narrow comfort zone. Some people live so far over the edge, theyâve never been out of their comfort zone, no matter what.
Until they get slapped with 60 days, in house, no booze. That is probably out of Tylerâs comfort zone, because at that point, heâs relinquished control to someone else, and admitted he has a limit on his behavior. The same thing that makes him a wonderful rider, means that he lives his life so close to the edge every single moment, that itâs easy to step across the line without even seeing it.
If anyone can think of a famous jock, especially an American, born and bred here, that hasnât admitted to some form of problem with booze, drugs or purging, youâve got one on me, because I honestly canât.
Someone very dear to me was an alcoholic for over 30 years. He woke up one morning, decided being hung over sucked and called AA. Went to a meeting ,lots of meetings, for several years, and has been sober for the last 13 years, simply never touched another drop. Didnât have DTâs, didnât relapse, nothing, just decided he didnât like being drunk every night any more, and stopped. That said, most of us know someone from our 20âs, who, if 30 years later, we went to our local bar, that same person would still be there, well lit at the bar, just like it was 1983. Why? Whoever knows.
I think that if someone runs out of excuses, has no one or nothing left to blame and truly wants to give up addictive behavior that anyone, no matter how addicted or how long theyâve been addicted, can get clean and sober if they want it bad enough.
They have the right to dictate the conditions on which he returns. Either come back with proof heâs been in a program with a serious effort at sobering up or they donât feel itâs right to permit him to ride on tracks in their jurisdiction. Heâs free not to do it. He just wonât be permitted to ride in California if he doesnât.
(Aside: I would be very surprised if there are many jocks who havenât had issues with purging or disordered eating. Theyâre expected to make astounding low weights that almost no one could reach naturally. I donât think itâs entirely related to coping disorders the way it often is in the non-racing population.)
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