Trouble in the horse racing business
Trainer Scott Lake was the nation’s leading trainer with 528 wins in 2006.
Scott Lake is also serving a 30-day suspension by order of the New York State Racing and Wagering Board. Scott Lake is already serving a 30-day suspension in Delaware.
Scott Lake is a cheater.
I’m sorry - I don’t know another word for it. How many freakin states does he have to be suspended in before someone suggests that maybe a LOT of his 528 wins were ill-gotten and the training title becomes off limits?
Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher is the nation’s earnings leader. He is serving a suspension through January 31st for similar violations (illegal drugs found in his horses). He’s a cheater too.
Steve Assmussen is serving a six month suspension in Louisiana. Steve was the nation’s leading trainer in wins for 2004 and 2005.
Steve…. Cheater….
I admit I was slow to allow myself to accept it, but I’m over that now. Here’s what I make of all this - EVERYONE IS CHEATING.
The problem has obviously gotten so pervasive that if you don’t cheat, you can’t stay competitive. These trainers are the industry’s best. If they have to cheat to win, imagine how serious the problem must be.
Cheaters should not be eligible for Eclipse Awards, Trainer of the year awards, or other accolades. Those awards should be for people who won their races fairly. Not for cheaters. If the horse racing industry honor cheaters, where are our new horse racing enthusiasts going to come from? Who wants to play in a game where only those on the inside can make any money?
These guys should have an elevated sense of responsibility to look out for the long term health of the sport. They are letting us all down.
In the December 23rd edition of the Bloodhorse, Editor-in-Chief Ray Paulick offers some new year’s wishes for the industry he makes his living off of. One of them is for racetrack owners to have the courage to take a stand against trainers with multiple medications violations. Meanwhile, his publication fails to paint these cheaters in the light that they belong. The Bloodhorse does articles on these trainers on a weekly basis like there is nothing going on. Ray could show a little more courage too.
As someone who makes his living off the horse racing industry, Ray Paulick should be scared to death about what this pervasive cheating says about the health of the industry. He should be using his position to campaign for aggressive, sweeping, and immediate changes to the way these rules are administered. The existing process is not getting it done.
If 2006 is any yardstick, Major League Baseball took their substance abuse problem a lot more seriously than horse racing is so far.
And Rene Douglas is banned from Calder Race Course, apparently for involvement in a race fixing scam at Great Lakes Downs….
Where will the new generation of racing fans come from? Suckers?
January 5th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
rene douglas has never raced at greatlakes downs and has never been charged with anything. the jocks at tampa were the ones at greatlakes. lets make sure we get the fact straight before calling him a cheater too. this is the reason that more people are leaving racing and going to the poker rooms or casinos. someone is caught cheating and they are throw out or arrested. here we lose 10-25% of each dollar we wager and then find out the races are fixed by cheaters. too bad
January 6th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
For the record, I didn’t say that Rene Douglas broke the law, or did anything in a race at Great Lakes Downs. And also for the record, blogs are notoriously devoid of facts, but full of opinions.
However, he is banned. I am confident that when the facts are made public, it won’t be a good thing for racing.
January 7th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
I agree with what you said for the most part. I believe these people involved with any type of cheating should be banned for at least a year. The horses they are training should have to go to a different barn where there are no set up connections. How are these trainers being punished for cheating now? They have 30-60 day suspension’s where they have their wife, daughter or former groom take over. How is that punishment. They still reap the benefits of the horses winning. They can still give training advice to these people. The current system solves nothing for the future.
January 8th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
They need to limit the number of horses a trainer can stable at a meet, if the stewards do not follow the racing rules to the letter of the law they need to be replaced immeadiately. The problem is that the track pays the salary of the stewards. Stewards should be independant like referees hired for one meet then move on. Tracks should pay a set price for stewards
for the meet. Then move on. It’s the you scratch mine, I’ll scratch yours situation. That’s what is ruinning the sport.
January 10th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
Glad to see that the jockeys in North America are now getting caught cheating.The trainers have been doing it forever and they only get a slap on the wrist so the temptation for the jockeys must be great and with alot of them struggling to make a descent living its not hard to see them resort to this.The people who run racing in Canada and United States have to be concerned that racing will become extinct as we know it in 20 years if they dont fix the problems now.In Hong Kong and Australia there are governing bodies that oversee all of racing and would never allow anything to happen to negatively affect horseracing.They act quickly and harshly with cheaters as theres no room for them there.Its amazing that the nyra is up for sale and the goverment has rejected a company from Australia from taking over the operation .Guess theres a few goverment officials that are also involved in CHEATING
January 13th, 2007 at 8:32 am
betting has become almost impossible. trainers, jockeys and people that have information that handicappers dont have a huge aDVANTAGE .TAKEOUTS ARE TO HIGH ALONG WITH TAXES ON BIG TICKETS MAKE ALMOST IN POSSIBLE TO SHOW PROFITS. I STILL BELEIVE PEOPLE CAN BET WHILE THEY ARE COMING DOWN TO THE FINISH ,DUE TO COMPUTER CHEATING ,BUT EVERY TIME I BRING THIS UP IN A FORM,PEOPLE SAY IT IS LATE MONEY THIS COULD BE PREVENTED BY CUTTING OFF BETTING A LITTLE BEFORE THE RACE.A WINNING HORSE PRICE NEVER GOES UP.PEOPLE THAT BET HORSES DONT WANT TO BELIEVE THEY ARE BEING CHEATED BECAUSE THEY LOVE THE ACTION.DOES ANYBODY RECALL THE COMMENT OF JEFF MULLINS.HE BASICALLY SAID PEOPLE ARE STUPID TO BET ON RACING,I BELIEVE HE MAY HAVE TOLD THE TRUTH.
January 13th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
I couldn’t agree more with Liam. How long will it take for racing to get its act together. Maybe Boxing is worse.
There is no willingness to address fundamental levels of honesty and integrity.
Racing is slowly dying, and the people within the industry either don’t care or don’t get it.
Either way change has to come to save the game.
January 13th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
i wander if the horseracing industry tried to join together and formed a standard set of rules barring all that commit cheating or act of ill upon racing.it’s not helpful to this great sport and can’t draw back those that have moved on to other forms of gaming. it don’t seem right commiting a bad act in one state then moving on to another and not missing a beat,it don’t help one thinking or support for the sport. i think the states gaming board should step up to the plate and set a set of standards for the entire industry.
January 18th, 2007 at 10:15 am
I also agree with Liam. Our sport is being ruined and if it continues the way it is going we only have a few years left. I live 5 minutes away from Balmoral Race Track near Chicago so I’m a big harness racing fan. Harness racing in Illinois is going down because of cheating and no punishment. Appeal after appeal are made but no action is taking. It won’t be long.
February 24th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Horse racing is on a crash course for destruction. The jockeys either cheat or they are just so bad that you never know what to do. It is just sickening. Lets give the sport up and move on.
April 20th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Hey,
I love what you’e doing!
Don’t ever change and best of luck.
Raymon W.
May 25th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
Horseracing companies like MAGNA and CHURCHILL DOWNS are ruining the sport.They have take over the control of the exact running order of every race that they have.They tell the public that the betting system is safe and they control where the money goes after every race.With computers they can see what horses are bet by the racing public when betting closes on a race then the jockey colony is informed what play will be run for that race.As professionals the jockeys at the major tracks are told what to do by ownership of the track or they can find another place to work.Inside information has shown that 98 percent of tickets that pay larger than 100,000 never leaves the company,ie:churchill,hollywood etc.Tracks that average a million dollars or more a day handle loses only about 10 percent of the total bets on that day.What happened to the days of real competition in horse racing.Watching races today compared to 20 years ago or later is like watching paint dry.The powers that be think that the public will always go to a horse race but when the horse race is fabricated how long do they think they can rob people of there willingness to throw their money at them. SHAME ON THEM
March 26th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
The reason I and other people I know quit going is that the track take out is too high. It’s impossible to come out ahead anymore. It’s as simple as that.