The last time I commented on the Green Monkey was several months ago.  At the time he was a $16MM two year old purchase that I suggested may never run a race. 

Now he is a $16MM purchase who has run once, and got his doors blown off by several widening lengths, finishing a flat third. 

The purchase price I get - kind of - because after all it was an auction.  Find the right two people and any object has infinite value.  It is the same rationale that explains why someone got $28,000 for a ten year old grilled cheese sandwich with the image of the Virgin Mary burnt into it.  Seems silly to me but more than one person really wanted that sandwich, and that horse.

What I don’t get is the fact that usually savvy bettors at Belmont Park plunked down enough stupid money on the monkey’s nose to send him to post at 2:5.  Hardly the same economic model as a horse auction.

I’m outraged, and I don’t know anyone who isn’t, by the ruling of the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority in the case concerning Patrick Biancone and his veterinarian Rodney Stewart. 

Even if you were to force me to disregard that Biancone has already been banned from racing in Hong Kong for a 10 month stint for similar offenses…  And force me to ignore the fact that he has been banned in Kentucky for 15 days for similar offenses… both in an attempt to get me to treat this situation as a stand-alone event - he deserves a much more severe punishment than the one year ban he got.

Ok - I can’t actually ignore the previous offenses.  I’m just not able.  The guy is dirty.

Not only that, but in his appeal, Biancone is not even disputing the findings.  He is just disputing the punishment. 

Cobra venom?  He really thinks Cobra venom is not that big of a deal to warrant a year’s suspension?  By definition cobra venom is a class A medication because it can affect the performance of a horse but has no medicinal benefit.  To put it bluntly, this guy embodies everything that is wrong with the sport.  He prospers not just the perception, but the truth that the sport has serious cheating issues.

By the way, the veterinarian in this case got banned for five years.  Again - it is still not enough.  It is not like the horse has ethics issues like a baseball player or cyclist doping up with a doctor involved.  In this case the athlete didn’t have a voice.  The athlete was injected with a toxin so that the athlete could not feel pain.  This is exploitation of the animal at the animal’s expense. 

Michael Vick is facing jail time for fighting and harming dogs - and he’s not even a vet!  Shouldn’t the punishments be much more severe for people who allege to be sworn to preserve life and health of animals?  Stewart is appealing the slap on the wrist also.  He is already serving a suspension in another matter. 

For the record, I’m not determining guilt in the absence of due process.  In this matter the accused are now officially guilty in the eyes of the KHRA.  I’m just aghast at the punishment they handed down after the determination of guilt.  It is shamefully soft - in a sport in bad need of a statement about ethics and cheating.

The one bright spot in this dark affair is that for the first time, Biancone’s will be prevented from earning any money from the horses in his care while serving a suspension for a Class A medication violation.  That means that for the first time, Biancone’s horses will have to transfer to other barns if they want to race.  That’s a good change - if not way way way overdue.