Clueless and clues…

[JohnTChance]

Reference is made to a prior thread \"Clueless Clowns lurk over NY Racing.\" I\'m not sure this has been mentioned before here, but a certain red flag happened at Saratoga recently. I think it was the day after Travers Saturday. At the ceremony honoring retired jockey Ramon Dominguez, newly appointed NYRA head Chris Kay (a \"businessman\" without any knowledge of horse racing) referred to Ramon\'s past races as \"MATCHES!\" When he said that word, the raised eyebrows of everyone listening was instantly felt. Heads shook and eyes rolled quietly. A bad tell. Sigh.

Next… reference is made to the rather remarkable recent success of New York-based trainer David Jacobson. The ThoroGraph lines of his horses are often stunning. But why? Is Jacobson\'s just smarter than the average bear? Is he just a genius with a great touch? Maybe he is! Or maybe he\'s helped by a certain vet with aggressive ways and means. But who? In stories about the breakdown and death of trainer Jacobson\'s SAGINAW late in the Saratoga meet, the name of a notorious veterinarian was mentioned and quoted: Dr Michael Galvin. [You may remember that Galvin was the vet NYRA\'s Kenny Noe tried to run out of town years ago. And the vet behind the rise of the James Bond barn in the WILL\'S WAY era. I think Bond was winless at Saratoga this season.] I haven\'t a clue whether Galvin, in fact, treats Jacobson\'s horses these days. But the mention of his name tied to Jacobson is an eyebrow raise here. Just FWIW.

JTChance

[miff]

Clueless Clowns ruining the SPA?

SPA Quality, from computer stat geeks:


There were 3,417 starters at SAR 2013 and 1,110 of those starters raced for a claiming tag, which is approximately 33% of all starters

To put that in perspective,in 2004 at SAR there were 2955 starts and only 741 of those starts raced for a  claiming tag,25% total

Up to the mid 90\'s,few maiden claiming races were carded and claimers totaled less than 15%.

[richiebee]

JohnTChance Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
 
> Next… reference is made to the rather remarkable
> recent success of New York-based trainer David
> Jacobson. The ThoroGraph lines of his horses are
> often stunning. But why? Is Jacobson\'s just
> smarter than the average bear? Is he just a genius
> with a great touch? Maybe he is! Or maybe he\'s
> helped by a certain vet with aggressive ways and
> means. But who? In stories about the breakdown and
> death of trainer Jacobson\'s SAGINAW late in the
> Saratoga meet, the name of a notorious
> veterinarian was mentioned and quoted: Dr Michael
> Galvin.  I haven\'t a clue whether Galvin, in fact,
> treats Jacobson\'s horses these days. But the
> mention of his name tied to Jacobson is an eyebrow
> raise here. Just FWIW.
>
> JTChance


If you want to use the word \"notorious\" with regard to Team Jacobson, you
should mention the fact that one of Jacobson\'s assistants is former NYRA bad
boy Frank LaBocetta, Jr.

It is a great story if LaBocetta has cleaned up his personal life and is now
committed to playing the racing game by the rules, but...

[Boscar Obarra]

Yeah, I was gonna post that too, but figured everyone but me already knew it.

 Man, talk about been around forever.

[miff]

\"Frank LaBocetta, Jr\"(kasept advised and confirmed by old ex door neighbor, Trickys barn at Aqueduct)


... It is,I am told Labo Sr,in his 70\'s.Labo Sr had to be restrained from beating up Oscar at Belmont one day.Oscar claimed a lame cripple off Labo Sr,ran back a few days later and ran off the screen, won by a pole.Labo Sr swore only God could do that.