Barry Irwin - Part 3

[nicely nicely]

More from Barry Irwin via Thoroughbred Daily News - 2/25

[imallin]

Great stuff from Barry as usual.

One of the problems that people seldom talk about is a lack of national media to cover this sport. If a baseball player admits to using performance enhancing drugs, the media not only calls him out on it, but they try their hardest to ruin that person\'s life. The sentence is a life of harsh criticism without the possibility of being paroled. The poster boys for steroids in baseball could have never imagined how they are being treated by the public and media.

In horse racing, if a trainer dopes a horse, the national horse racing media just sweeps it under the rug. There is no national media website like CNN or MSNBC that\'s reporting that Joe Blow is a drug cheat who gave dangerous drugs to innocent animals. No one hears about this stuff outside of the small circle of racing fans who happen to find the information buried on some dot gov website.

Do we think trainers would take a chance at cheating if their names would be plastered on national news websites and their cases being talked about by Nancy Grace on national tv?

Do we think trainers would be concerned if PETA was standing in front of their childrens schools with signs that say little Billy\'s daddy is a horse racing drug cheat who gives illicit drugs to innocent animals? I think they might be a bit concerned, don\'t you?

But, the way it stands now is that any \'fine or suspension\' is handled \'in house\' by the racing commissions and racetracks.

Until trainers get arrested by the actual government for race fixing, tampering with sporting contests and possessing illegal drugs, they\'ll just keep on laughing to the bank while training their stables from the golf course or beach.

[TGJB]

Imalin-- yes. And that is why it is so important (just for starters) to get the tracks to publish the TCO2 test results, and all other results. And at a more basic level, to make sure testing-- proper testing, and retroactive testing of frozen samples-- takes place. When the information is out there, I know for a fact of specific outraged racing journalists (Privman comes to mind), and others with a soapbox (like yours truly) who will bring the shame factor into play, other penalties aside.

A comment on Barry\'s piece-- there is a term he did not use, but it applies.

CONSUMER PROTECTION. The tracks are very much like the wall street a--holes who are now being uncovered. Which is to say, left to their own devices, they have absolutely no interest in protecting consumers, only in advancing their own interests.

They will continue to act that way until they are forced to do otherwise, either by the feds, or by us. The second way is more direct, and much quicker. More to follow, in a matter of weeks.

[imallin]

Totally agree Jerry. They need to publish TCO2 and make a big deal out of it. For centuries, tracks have run under the banner that negative publicity is really bad for business and they\'ve worked very hard to keep negative news under the rug. That has to change.

[JimP]

But the Feds are also just interested in furthering their own interests. So it will have to be us. And that applies to Wall Street as well has horse racing.

[Silver Charm]

Barry good luck and keep fighting the cause.

I have nothing worthy enough to add other than what I just said.

Now let\'s see this Board start cranking out some winners this weekend.

[Flighted Iron]

The seedy little cliques
with their dirty lies
must be exposed
with their dirty despise


Respectfully,
 mjs

[HP]

There are some essential differences between what is going on with the tracks and what is going on elsewhere...

On Wall Street, when the tide is high, everybody is happy.  Four years ago you didn\'t hear anybody complaining about what was going on down there.  The \"consumers\" were happy, the people running the show were geniuses, and so were the stockholders.  The stocks were going up, everybody was making money and things were good.  In a way, the Wall Street failure is a blessing, because it\'s only when the tide rolls out that things start to stink and you can recognize what is wrong.  This is where we are at today.  Things stink and the smell is SO bad that everybody knows it.  Nobody can really hide anymore.  All the scammers are getting flushed out (because the high tide that covered them up has pulled out, leaving only stink behind).  

With the tracks, things stink for the consumer whether it\'s high or low tide for the people running the show.  The disconnect between accountability to the public and their job performance is far more complete than it is on Wall Street.  In a way, this probably makes it even harder to change things in racing.  

Good luck Jerry.

HP

[marcus]

I like the article . imo -The option of making reforms \"in-house \" is still the best one - for now ,  but before that can happen I suppose some must first imagine ( in a meaningful way ) how bad it could be without making all needed changes to the game . . .